Strategies for Stress Management during Midterms and Finals

If your child is anything like I was during high school, midterms and finals result in stress, lack of sleep, anxiety, and overall discomfort. As a senior in college, I am currently a week away from the start of finals, and even thinking about the amount of work I have left to do before winter break makes me nervous. A lot of students, myself included, tend to procrastinate. Making room for all of the projects and papers (that should have been started weeks ago) cuts into valuable study time, which only increases the amount of stress, and decreases the amount of sleep I get during this tense period.

The feelings I experience during finals week in college are no different than those I experienced while in high school. However, I did learn a lot of time-management skills and study strategies during my college years. As a senior, I look back and wish I could have given my younger self some of these tips to help ease the stress associated with midterms. The following article, written by a current college student, lists many of the same skills and strategies that I’ve adopted throughout the years, which have helped to make finals week a little easier. All of these can be applied to your child’s high school midterm experience, because if they learn these skills early on, it will benefit them enormously once they enter college.

It’s the Final Countdown — College Students Give Tips on How to Manage Stress During Finals, by Kayla Hedman

Renee Scalfani, Boston Tutoring Services