Procrastinator's Guide to Survive the End of the Academic Semester

As the fall 2009 semester at California State University Sacramento draws to a close, students across the various academic courses scramble to turn in their final papers and prepare for the dreaded (mostly comprehensive) final exams. I, too, am one of those students.

With deadlines looming for research and analytical papers, I've learned my lesson from previous years to not make the procrastination mistake again. This year, I'm practicing a new approach to keep on track with the research paper deadlines. Here are some tips I have picked up over the years:

• Start Research Early. Most professors give the research assignment quite early. Even if you're not writing it right away, begin the research. Use the time you have between your classes to your advantage.

• Talk to Classmates. See what others are doing. Where they're getting their information. Just try not to let other's procrastination rub off on you.
  

• Make an Outline for Your Paper. At the very top in bold letters write: DUE DATE: and put a date that is a week to two weeks prior to the actual due date. This will trick your mind into getting started sooner rather than later.

• Put Some Time Between Papers. Sometimes all the papers are due during the same week - the week before finals. If this is the case, put at least a week between the papers as your personal due date. This way, your thoughts won't get all muddled among the various topics.

• Write the Paper! This is it! You've done the research, organized your thoughts, now sit down and write it out. After you proof read it for errors, it’s ready for turn-in. You can either leave it saved on your computer (with a backup copy on a flash drive somewhere) or turn it into the professor for extra brownie points.

This year I will be leaving on vacation out of the country a week prior to the end of the semester. Because of this, I've had to ask professors to allow me to take the exam early. Knowing I have less time to study than other students has given me the motivation to get away from my usual cramming sessions to distribute my learning and studying process over the semester. Here are some tips on pre-finals preparation:

• Take Good Notes! Most professors base tests on a combination of their lectures and chapters from the textbook. If you take notes not only on the lectures, but also on your readings, it will decrease your time in trying to read the entire book to refresh your memory for the final exam.

• Meet the Professor. Get the study guide early so you can have more time to review your information.

• Professor's Advice. Ask the professor what they think you should know for the test. Generally they will tell you to review your exercises, previous tests or quizzes, or chapter review questions. Knowing which one you need, will give you a head start in your studying.

These are the techniques I'll be using this semester to help me survive the end-of-semester crunch. So far I've completed two of the three research papers due and one lab project - all of which weren't due until next month. I hope you will find these tips useful. Until next semester's panic session - toodles.