With final exams, papers and projects weighing heavily on students’ minds this month, the University has set up a counseling series to help ease the burden.

In the first installment of its four-part exam preparation series, the University Counseling Center hosted an exam preparation and study skills workshop at the Student Health Center Monday.

The remaining workshops –  stress management, test anxiety and procrastination workshops – will run through Thursday each one beginning at 4 p.m. Mary Whitehouse, workshop host and Counseling Center intern, said the Counseling Center usually does some sort of exam preparation workshop series every semester.

 ”We try to help students with the kinds of things that help them prepare for exam time,” Whitehouse, a graduate teaching assistant, said.

Whitehouse called the workshops “psycho-educational.” She said the center has hosted other psycho-educational workshops this semester such as safer, smarter drinking and breakups.

All workshops, including the exam preparation series, are half educational and half mental health, according to Whitehouse.

Peter Adams, a staff psychologist at the University Counseling Center, sat in on the event. Since Whitehouse is an intern, he took notes so that he could give Whitehouse suggestions for improvement if he felt she needed any.

“Students don’t tend to spend a lot of time breaking down their study behaviors, so this is a chance for them to take a step back and think about that,” Adams said.

Adams said students tend to put a “disproportionate” amount stress on themselves, especially around the end of the semester. He highlighted one psychological issue students may experience called “catastrophizing.”

“A student will take an idea like ‘I’m going to fail an exam,’ and then chain that into ‘Then I’ll fail out class, then I’ll fail out of N.C. State,’ etc., until they’re a homeless person on the street,” Adams said.

He said the catastrophic thinking comes from the tendency of students to create a high level of anxiety. Some students take a smaller challenge, such as an exam, and then catastrophize it into a lifelong problem.

Adams said he has been seeing “more and more” of that sort of thinking recently.

The exam preparation workshops are an example of a service the Counseling Center offers outside of basic depression counseling. Adams said he hoped to promote services such as this week’s workshops further.

Katlin Allsbrook, a sophomore in biology, said she enjoyed the alternative study strategies offered in the 33-minute workshop.

“I just wanted to see what strategies they thought were the best. I have been in college for almost two years; I know how to study, but I just wanted to see if there were any other methods out there that were helpful,” Allsbrook said.

Allsbrook said that due to the cumulative nature of her exams, she has already begun to study.

Whitehouse stressed the importance of using several “modalities” while studying. Students should read the material, write a brief note, draw a picture or diagram, explain to oneself out loud, discuss with someone else, and use interactive study guides, according to a handout passed around during the workshop by Whitehouse.

The handout also outlined strategies to keep from getting bored while studying. In order to stay interested, the center recommends students make the material personal, relevant, smaller, cooperative and competitive. Also, it can help to examine the factors that interfere with concentration, according to the handout.

Four words of wisdom concluded the handout, called “Study Skills 101.”

“Go to class; Take frequent breaks; Exercise daily; Get regular sleep.”