With finals well on their way and winter break right around the corner, students are looking for ways to take care of themselves and destress as they power through exams, final papers and group presentations. Here’s how a few Texas A&M University-San Antonio students plan to do just that.
Kinesiology freshman Sophianna Leatherwood said she plans to destress before finals by having a day to go to a park to relax and draw.
“To forget about school for a little bit,” Leatherwood said Nov. 27 while she sat at a table on the third floor of the Central Academic Bullding with a classmate studying her classwork. They were trying to concentrate and prepare for finals week.
Favorite rituals are “cram before and sleep a few hours,” she said.
Finals can be so stressful because students have to “remember all the information and try not to mix it all up,” she said.
Business junior Jonathon Finney said before he starts taking his finals he likes to space out all of his studying so that it gives himself time to study for each subject.
“A little bit of hope and a little bit of faith sprinkled,” Finney said as he hung out in the private rooms in the CAB Nov. 27. “I just go over literally everything in all of my notes right before the final. I just try to put as much into my brain, so I know it’s fresh.”
Finney said, finals stress him out so much knowing that a final is worth 30% of his final grade.
“It’s more of a, it’s over feeling! I don’t have to worry about studying for it any more even if I got a bad grade.” Finney said.
When Finney is done with a final he enjoys walking to destress the feeling of his nerves.
Psychology senior Jennifer Balleza said she tries to avoid procrastinating on studying for finals so that her assignments don’t pile up. She also takes time to relax before finals.
“Putting a couple hours to myself, just to do like a skincare routine and all that and maybe watch a movie or shows,” said Balleza as she worked on her homework in the campus activity board study area. “My life around finals isn’t about school-school-school.”
Balleza feels finals are stressful because, “there’s no helping yourself after the exam.”
“Once you’re done, there’s no extra assignments you can do to help you bring that grade up,” she said. “No matter what grade I get, I’m just like, there’s nothing else you can do. You did what you could, don’t stress about it anymore.”
Once finals are over, Balleza plans to clean, sleep, snack, watch movies, delete school apps and forget about school… until the next semester.
