Study Music: The Swinging Bridge Guide to Surviving Finals

Whether we're studying for a quiz or finals, we like to do it in style, jamming out to our favorite tunes. But sometimes, listening to music while you're studying is not as beneficial as you'd think it would be.

But we have come up with some solutions that may be helpful. For those of who want to listen to music but also maximize focus, we have two suggestions:

• Rick a movie with a really rocking soundtrack. No lyrics, just instrumentals. That way, your mind is not simultaneously trying to conjure up the next line to the song. You also get a good mix of calm and energizing music, great for allowing really intense study moments and then encouragement to go on. We'd suggest the:
  • How To Train Your Dragon soundtrack
  • Star Wars (all six episodes) soundtracks AND
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End soundtrack.
• Our second suggestion is to simply make a playlist with some of your favorite songs that you have listened to A BILLION times. That way, your brain does not have to exert much energy to remember the lyrics. You won't be learning anything new. It can just kind of fade to the background as you go about your work.

After you've studied hard for a while, give yourself a break and sing all the lyrics you know to a goofy song. It will put you in a good mood while you can get some of that built-up energy out. A good suggestion would be the Flight of the Concords song, Hiphopopotamus.

Finally the last tip I would give is to join Pandora music. It's a free online music streaming website that has thousands of  songs and creates playlists based on your favorite artists and songs.

Good luck with finals everyone! Just because it's a stressful time doesn't mean you can't jam out to good music.