Finals are drawing near, and I’m sure that we’re all feeling the pressure of the approaching conclusion to our fall semester. But, given this pressure, how can we expect to be well prepared for our exams? How do we ensure that our final grades are up to our standards for ourselves? What in the world do we need to fully prepare for the challenge that lies before us?

Coffee or energy drinks

I’m a huge coffee person and don’t understand the hype surrounding Monster or Red Bull, but either option is an enormous dose of caffeine that is absolutely imperative for those long, miserable nights spent in the library poring over pounds of books for that final you’re really worried about. The less sugar the better, though. After the sugar high you’re going to crash; don’t subject yourself to that.

Water, also, please

Please drink water. Please. Drink. Water. As wonderful as coffee, tea, and energy drinks are, they all share another, less exciting trait. They are all diuretics, which means that they are inherently dehydrating due to their caffeine content. Water replenishes this. Or Gatorade, whatever works. Some claim that water is better than caffeine at keeping one awake, alert, and focused, but as a proud coffee addict I beg to differ.

Food!!!

Why yes, it is tempting to sit down for a twenty hour stretch to finish all your final papers without any breaks to move, eat, or bathe. I have done just this—naturally, it went just terribly, and I passed out after (not during, luckily). Don’t deprive yourself of essential nutrients, don’t forget to eat. Skipping a meal might seem to equate to more time, but it simultaneously makes that time less productive—how much are you focusing on your studies when your stomach is speaking to you in strange and foreign tongues? I’d much rather listen to my stomach, honestly.

Actual study supplies–all of them

Before you sit down to work, it might be a good idea to make sure you have all the necessary study materials. So, books, documents, Wikipedia articles. The works. This isn’t only you being organized, it’s you preventing unnecessary hardship later on—imagine, hypothetically, the realization that you don’t have a book you need an hour and a half into this research paper. You’re in your room, at your desk, tea steaming hot and here for you. And this book? Well, it’s at the library. What an enormous hindrance. How annoying. What a way to just absolutely shatter your productive mindset and positive headspace. Get yourself in order before getting comfortable.

Maybe a cozy space

Speaking of getting comfortable, what is comfortable? And what is the difference between comfort and study comfort? Figure that out about yourself—a lot of people would like to lay in bed while studying, but the mind associates bed with sleep and relaxation, so really, studying in bed is a proven way to decrease productivity. On the other side of this problematic coin is somewhere totally uncomfortable, which is subjective. I can’t work in the library, for example, because I get cold really easily and find the atmosphere there distracting. I like to be alone, to have food, and to be warm while I study. Maybe at my desk wrapped in a blanket. It’s different for everyone. Find your happy place. Studying is rough, don’t make it harder for yourself.

Laptop

Ah yes, the essential. Need I say more? Everything lives on my laptop. I might be more devastated about its loss than about the loss of my phone, which is saying something. My calendar is there, my essays, Microsoft Word, BuzzFeed, Domino’s delivery service. Anyway. A laptop is most people’s main tool for everything work and study related. Make sure it’s on you, and even more importantly, make sure it’s charged and that you have brought your charger. PSA: It doesn’t work if it’s dead.

So it’s important to have all of that stuff. But there is something else, something you absolutely need for any of your supplies to be beneficial to you. Perhaps the most important thing to make sure you have is a good attitude. How can you take anything in or get anything done when you’re too busy brooding over how you really don’t want to do any of it at all? Finals are rough, but you can get through them. Promise. A huge good luck to you from all of us here at Hatter Network, as we take on the last month of the semester and the whole hullabaloo that is finals together.