With finals season quickly approaching, students begin to take studying more seriously. It is no longer the time for studying by hanging out with friends and a blank laptop sitting in front of them. It is the time where students resort to the places on campus in which they can study the best.
For all students on campus, favorite study spots on campus vary.
The private, glass study rooms in Eugene P. Watson Memorial Library are a favorite study spot among friends Mya Dunn, a freshman with a major in early childhood education, and Christina Brown, a freshman with a major in psychology.
“It’s our favorite study spot because you can study in big groups or by yourself, you don’t have to worry about anybody bothering you and there’s a big TV screen in case you need to project something,” Brown said.
Dunn agreed with Brown, explaining that a busier place like Iberville Dining Hall would not be a good study area for her.
”It could never cut it for me cause there’s a lot of yapping going on,” Dunn said. “I feel like the quiet study rooms are much better because I can focus in and it’s peaceful.”
Some students are most productive with studying and homework assignments when they are in a low volume environment. Because of this, students may prefer the library or even soundproof headphones. However, even the library can be distracting for some.
“I can’t really focus when people are talking because I want to pay attention to everything,” Tyla Stewart, a freshman with a major in both vocal performance and musical theater, said.
Stewart also prefers quieter environments, but her main issue is seeing or hearing people talking. It is difficult for one to ignore their outside surroundings and focus solely on their schoolwork when there are so many other things going on.
“I mainly study in my room or a practice room in CAPA (the Dear School of Creative and Performing Arts) because it’s quiet,” Stewart said.
Stewart finds these locations to be her preferred study space, as she can control the amount of distractions surrounding her.
Emily McHugh, a freshman with a major in biology with a concentration in wildlife biology and conservation, prefers a busier environment when it comes to her studies.
“I like studying outside because there’s a lot of noise and it actually does help me focus a lot; I like hearing the cars,” McHugh said. “When I study inside for a long period of time, it fries my brain, I get mental fatigue and brain fog and with my ADHD I can’t focus.”
For midterms, McHugh had exams for plant taxonomy lecture, plant taxonomy lab, botany lecture, botany lab, biology lecture and biology lab. Having to prepare for six midterms which would all be within the same week of one another, McHugh was sure to study in the place she feels the most focused: one of the green tables outside Watson Library and Café Demon.
With finals coming up, McHugh plans to be studying outside in the same spot, especially because she finds it less stressful.
“At the library with the very harsh fluorescent lighting, it’s so intense that it feels like I’m being forced to study; it makes me depressed, so when I’m thinking about finals it’s just not a good combination at all,” McHugh said. “When I’m outside, I get to see all the trees and the sky and the wind feels nice, so I feel like I’m studying because I want to.”
In addition to the calming study space, McHugh enjoys being in an environment that reminds her of what she studies.
“I study a lot of leaf shapes and flower shapes, so it’s nice to be outside and look at it while I’m doing it,” McHugh said .
With distractions all around, students choose a place to study that can keep their brains in the zone. Although students’ reasons for their favorite study spots are different, they each have something in common: they are going to nail these finals.
