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Final Exams Test Year's Time-Management Skills

By Rebecca Francis
Black College Wire

Photo credit: Blue & White Flash Studying for a test in Calculus II is more important than checking a Facebook account.

Finals have arrived or are about to take place on many campuses, and students are in a push to finish the year strong.

Many complain that the semester passed too quickly and their grades are not as they should be. Some may fault poor time management for their failures.

Time management might seem a fundamental skill, but it has proved a bitter chore for some Jackson State University students.

Kim Crump, a sophomore theater major, said, "With all the distractions this school year, I have not performed as well as I wanted to in my classes. In fact, I have noticed myself rushing to classes and barely finding time for meals."

She added, "I try to manage my time wisely. I am constantly making to-do lists and personal deadlines."

Others have similar stories of how bogged down they are, what with school, work, extracurricular activities, sports teams and the like.

"When I was at home, I hardly watched TV or just spent hours at a time online, but since coming to college, seems like that is all I do and my schoolwork has suffered a little," said Kevin Lawrence, a freshman accounting major.

Hannah Francis, a junior history major, has a less stressful approach to handling finals.

"I have found that when I have a particularly busy day, it helps me to plan it out beforehand. I am a big fan of my daily planner; it is my life on paper," she said. "Some days, I would not be able to survive without it."

Experts say when making plans ahead of time, make sure to keep them; spending time to make plans that are not followed is a colossal waste of time.

Remember it is important to know what is important. Studying for a test on a particularly hard chapter in Calculus II is more important than checking a Facebook account.

Carter D. Womack, president of Leadership at Its Best, a national organization offering leadership training, coaching and development programs, said it is beneficial to break up larger projects with distant deadlines into small, doable chunks. Then set personal deadlines for each chunk along the way. A common mistake many college students make when trying to meet deadlines is to set unrealistic goals, Womack said.

"Pulling an all-nighter to study for an exam that needs to be aced in order to pass a class is not efficient; studying an hour or two every night is a more reasonable decision," he said.

The most important thing to remember when managing time is that reward is crucial; accomplishment deserves a reward, no matter how small, he said. Furthermore, the reward should be proportional to the achievement. After studying for an hour, take a five-minute break to listen to a favorite song.

Womack called good time-management skills essential for success throughout life. "You can succeed without them, but they make things a lot easier. There are 60 seconds in one minute, 60 minutes in one hour, 24 hours in one day, 168 hours in one week, and 525,600 minutes in one year. That is more than enough time to get things done."

Rebecca Francis, a student at Jackson State University, writes for the Blue & White Flash.

Posted May 1, 2006