The week before finals is genuinely its own psychological experience
It's not even really about the workload. I've had busier weeks during the semester. It's something about knowing that these specific assignments carry more weight than everything else combined that makes your brain operate completely differently.
I start doing things I never do normally. Colour coding notes I won't read again. Reorganising my desk at 11pm. Making very detailed plans for how I'll use the next six hours and then spending forty minutes making the plan. Classic displacement activity but in the moment it feels like preparation.
The other thing that happens is everything outside of studying starts feeling urgent. Dishes that have been sitting there for four days suddenly need to be done right now. That email I've been ignoring for two weeks, now is the time. My brain will do genuinely anything to avoid sitting with the discomfort of not feeling prepared enough.
What I've learned after a few of these is that the feeling of not being ready doesn't really go away no matter how much you study. At some point you just have to accept that you're about as ready as you're going to be and sit the exam. The anxiety is not actually giving you useful information about your level of preparation.
Does not make it easier but at least I've stopped fighting the feeling and started just working alongside it. Curious if other people have found anything that actually helps during this specific week or if it's just something you survive.