As the semester comes to an end, students are scrambling, trying to keep their due dates straight, their grades up and their sanity in check. For many, the task of completing all the final projects and studying for their myriad of exams becomes overwhelming — something nearly everyone can empathize with.

While we want you to complete all of your assignments and succeed in your classes, we want you to do so in a healthy way — without the use of study drugs like Adderall and without day-long cramming sessions held right before the exam.

Instead of using unsafe methods, try using these strategies researched and published by Kent State psychology professor John Dunlosky and psychology associate professor Katherine Rawson:

•Practice testing: Actually complete the study guides and practice tests your professor gives you.

•Distributed practice: Don’t cram. Spread your studying out over several days, and take Netflix breaks in between to maintain your sanity.

•Self-explanation: Be able to explain how you got an answer. Understanding the process is half the battle.

•Elaborative interrogation: Explain why an answer is true. If you know every aspect of a fact or concept, you can’t get tripped up when it comes time to take the test.

Dunlosky and Rawson worked together in researching the best study practices for students, and their work was published in the Psychological Science of the Public Interest. To learn more about their research, visit https://kentstater.com/psychology-professors-research-the-best-study-strategies.

As for the rest of the dwindling semester, study hard and good luck. Four weeks of never leaving bed are almost in reach.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.