As finals week approaches, many students are battling senioritis and procrastination, just to name a couple issues.

EWU Health, Wellness and Prevention Services director Tricia Hughes said in an email interview she understands how difficult it can be to continue to study and stay on task when the sun is shining and students are feeling burnt out.

“It is just keeping your goal in mind. You still have three or four weeks of class left right now. You are paying for your education so get the most out of it that you can while you are still here, still be open to learning,” said Hughes.

Senior Leighann Poole said she has experienced the difficulty of maintaining the motivation and discipline to continue to study. However, she also warns students of the negative effects it could have if they decide to slack off.

“Take school seriously, still have fun, but you are paying all this money for school so why get bad grades when you could be bettering your future,” said Poole.

Hughes said the number 1 problem students fall prey to during the end of the quarter is procrastination.

“I think one problem might be waiting until finals week to study. … Really think about finals week as two weeks and do some time management,” said Hughes.

Counseling trainee Leah Parker said in an email interview, there are many ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of studying so students spend less time rereading the material. Things like taking breaks, studying with friends and creating incentives can really help to keep students engaged.

“Try to take practice tests or study in the same area, building, room that you will be taking the test. Place cells in the brain recognize where you are and what you typically do in that environment, utilize that evolutionarily feature to your advantage,” said Parker.

EWU senior David Smith said when he prepares for an exam, he looks over all the materials given to him and builds a study guide off it.

“I just look at the power points and main handout materials. Then I try to make a study guide like one page, like I can take it to the test, and then if I can’t then I just study off of that mainly,” said Smith.

Poole said she prefers to use flashcards, even though they can be time consuming.

“Whenever I have a big test coming up, I like to use flash cards. It sucks to make the flashcards because it takes so much time, but it is definitely worth it and actually going through them a bunch of times really helps,” said Poole.

Hughes said because each student is different, studying comes down to finding a method that works best for them. After developing good study habits, Hughes said students should work on their time management and try to have a good overall balance on life and studying.

According to Parker, the worst things a student can do before a test is cram the night before, stop taking care of their body and let their stress get out of control. She said stress can be good and beneficial because it is a self motivator, but it can also be very damaging.

“Give yourself permission to do something for yourself. Stress will always be there to go back to, contentment is much more elusive. Hang on to it when you find it,” said Parker.