5 Finals Tips For The Underdogs

I wanted to get this post out quickly before it becomes May 4th and my blog gets even more behind! With studying for finals, I haven’t had much time to brainstorm and really plan out all of my posts for this month just yet. So I’ve had to come up with this on the fly so just stay with me here. I decided that the most appropriate post was one about the main thing on my mind at the moment…finals! So here are 5 quick suggestions and tips that you probably already know but I hope you find them at least a little bit relevant and helpful anyway.

1. Get some sleep!

I know this is like impossible for any college kid to the point where most of us have just gone ahead and embraced the whole no sleep thing. But, I still believe that you can get at least a little bit of sleep. It’s important to do everything you can not to be up all night cramming at the last second. If you want to cram at all, make sure it’s right before you actually take your exam. Sleep is really important, red bull isn’t your friend. Chances are, if you take it, you might end up crashing right when you’re taking your exam and no one wants that. The best way to be fully focuses is with plenty of sleep.

2. Minimize your distractions

Setting aside some time where you just sit down and study all your materials for each exam is the best way to just center yourself on what you’re doing. I realize this is pretty much impossible but try to just stay inside your own little bubble. Don’t bring in any electronics or anything of that nature because you’re bound to get seriously sidetracked.

3. Use some white noise or instrumental/classical music

Music with words can be dangerous while studying because you start to simply focus on that and not what you’re studying. However, there are other types of music that work quietly in the background as you get to work. White noise is a great tool for when you want to buckle down and study. You can also never go wrong with some classical music to get you in the study zone. Modern classical music is good too but some (like the ones that are the instrumental versions of your favorite songs) may be a bit distracting, so watch out for that!

4. Work with others

There are both pros and cons to spending all your time studying for finals for other people, but sometimes it can be a very helpful thing to do. I recommend this one when you share a class with a friend. You both can share your notes and you can get some feedback if they caught something that you didn’t or vice versa. They might also give you some cool study ideas that you’ve never heard of before!

5. Find an organization strategy

Everyone has a different method to studying that works for them. Most students never had any need for them in high school so some of us may still be developing this as we go along in college. That being said, you know what works for you. I just think it’s crucial to at least have something set in place that is your own personal method that you know has worked for you in the past.

Steve Job Quotes

Flickr via segaman

Steve Jobs was a insanely creative and innovative guy. He was also a guy who faced a lot of failure in his life. He was a college drop out who was at rock bottom but who found a way to get back to the top and take classes that he was genuinely interested in. Then once he had that company, he ended up getting fired from the company that he helped create. Then his work began with Pixar and he found his way back to Apple. He had a complicated journey to the top and even though he died of pancreatic cancer in 2011, he still was a success story. Years before his death, he gave a commencement speech to the graduates of Stanford University. I’m going to list several important Steve Jobs quotes and most of them come from that speech.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

“If you live each day as it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.”

“If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.”

“Stay hungry, stay foolish.”

“Sometimes life’s going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did.”  

“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

“I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

“You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out.”

May Theme

Wow, I can’t believe that May is already here. Finals are just around the corner (Monday and Tuesday for me) and that’s just crazy to me that I’m already nearly finished with my first year of college. So I’m off to a late start for the month of May and I contemplated not doing a theme at all. But then I realized that sticking to one theme for the whole theme has helped me become a lot more organized and consistent with my blog posts so I might as well continue doing them. So this month I’m going to talk about underdogs: the washed up, those that have all the odds against them, and just those that you can’t help but root for and be inspired by. Some of these underdogs don’t ALWAYS win, but you always want them to due to the fact that they never give up. Some other words to describe them and just general words to think about this month are: outcasts, misfits, freaks, geeks, weirdos, round pegs in square holes, rebels, and dreamers. Basically the best way to sum up this month is this quote from Apple,

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

So this is the quote that helped me come up with this theme because it’s a quote that I come back to fairly often. Underdogs seem to have the whole world against theme but somehow they manage to find something or someone to believe in and they find a way to reach some level of success. Some of the things I’ll be talking about this month include: Broadway musicals, Disney movies, books about the world being against you, movies about finding a way to overcome, and also a few rad playlists, one of which will definitely be for those of you studying for finals. Plus there will be many more things that are going to be a surprise so stay with me this month!

Sidenote: Since I’m a day late getting started, I’ll also put my first post that should have been today sometime later on in the day so I don’t get too behind with my posts.