Workshops on test taking skills and stress management will be held by the Career and Academic Success Center during the last week of classes.
The free, 50-minute workshops, will be held every day in the Wilkinson Center, room 2590. The test preparation workshop will focus on basic study skills and testing-taking strategies, while the stress management workshop will teach techniques to help students cope with the pressures of finals week.
Hunter Schwarz, communications director for the Career and Academic Success Center, said he believes the workshops will do a service to students preparing for their exams.
“The week before finals is stressful,” he said. “These workshops will help students prepare effectively for their tests and we hope everyone who is interested will be able to make it to at least one.”
Schwarz said he thinks the stress management workshop could help students a lot more then they initially think.
“I think stress management is a workshop people might think is a little hokie at first,” he said. “But then they realize there are small things they can that can help them a lot.”
While many students stay up to all hours of the night cramming, Schwarz said they are unknowingly exposing themselves to stress level that are counterproductive.
“Being too stressed often affects test taking skills,” he said.
Keith Jensen, a senior public relations major from Atlanta, said the workshop he attended taught him strategies he believes will assist him during finals.
“I wish I would have gone to one of those classes four years ago when I was a freshman,” he said. “The breathing techniques were really strange at first, but stress management techniques were really helpful.”
Despite Jensen’s busy schedule, he said the course was worth his time.
“I’m a busy dude,” he said. “But the workshop was worth the time. If anything, what I learned will help me be more effective with my time for the next couple weeks.”
William Locklear, a freshman political science major from Knoxville, Tenn., will be having his first finals week experience next week and doesn’t know what to expect.
“I know it’s going to be hard,” Locklear said. “Everything at BYU is hard. But if they are really going to teach me things that are worthwhile, I’ll go for an hour. Why not?”
