I took my last final Tuesday.

That sentence should be an added definition under the word "freedom," don't you think?

So with summer facing me (and I hope most of you) in the face, I've been learning more about my friend's plans for the next few months.

For the most part, you can divide those plans into two categories: Internships and trips. As a business major, I wish I could consider the latter category, but typically that is saved for those pre-med folk and other students who have many more years of school ahead of them.

As for the internships, I've heard many-a-cool destination: New York Knicks front office, NBC Nightly News, Bain consulting, Barclay's in London.

As for the trips, well, they are all cool. You can Euro trip, road trip or ego trip.

Yeah, the last one isn't so cool. Snoop Dogg's PR firm made me do it.

I've had some great summer experiences throughout the years – I highly recommend Malta in June, beach soccer in Sicily and a gig at Cramster.com, of course.

But I'm sure all of you can come up with better stuff than I can about summer plans you've made or other plans you've heard about through your friends and family.

Let the good times roll.

What are the coolest plans you've heard about for this summer? Are they yours or someone else's?

Some students go to great – and often curious – lengths to maximize their studying time before finals.

As I approach the end of my third year in college and thus my sixth round of finals, I'm confident I've seen it all when it comes to crazy, odd or just plain absurd study methods.

Well, almost all.

I'm sure some of you fellow Cramster members out there have some interesting stories.

There was the kid across the hall freshman year who Aderol'ed himself into a 36-hour sleepless stupor. Don't take Aderol… just don't.

Then there's the classic (and much more popular) I'm-going-to-go-to-sleep-at-4-and-wake-up-at-5 method that is meant to secure some semblance of sanity.

There are the library residents, the library frequenters, the casual library users and the kids who enjoy studying outside right next to the library.

And of course you can't forget the kids who never venture near the library in favor of blasting rock music and pacing around the room as some hypnotic memorization strategy.

I told you I'd seen a lot of weird things.

But this post is about what you've seen – I'm sure there are some crazy stories out there, so please share them with us so we can get a good laugh in while taking a break from our studies.

What off-the-wall study methods have you seen or taken part in? Have you ever tried any crazy methods with surprising results?

Gotta love stop days.

Including the preceding or ensuing weekend, stop days give every college student a chance to catch his or her breath and relax for at least a few days before final exams begin.

But just like normal school days, in which you are often scrambling to complete 10 different activities while still finding time to study, there is an art to maximizing your stop days.

So without further ado, here are five suggestions to keep in mind as you near those glorious few open dates on the calendar.

1. Don't study for at least two days. This one is self explanatory. You miss out on the whole idea of stop days if you plow through them buried in a textbook. Don't worry – you'll still have time to get your required amount of studying in before your first test. Cramming four days before the test is the first indication of Laymen's Acute Memory Evaporation, or LAME for short.

2. Sleep in. I know what you're thinking. If you get up at 9 a.m. and study for five hours, you then have the entire afternoon and evening free. Don't do it. Trust me, if you set your alarm for 9 a.m., one of two things will happen: You wake up in a terrible mood or you reset your alarm for noon. Sleep in now so you can pull late nighters in the future without suffering during the following day's test.

3. Go on a mini adventure. Face it: In the not-so-distant future, you will be spending ten hours a day studying, four hours a day wasting time while trying to get your mind off studying, and at least another two hours doing what you think is studying but is really nothing more than skillful daydreaming. Take advantage of stop days and go do something adventurous to escape the campus bubble. You'll be more productive as a result once you hit the books.

4. Exercise. I don't know exactly how you'll feel after your finals are over, but I do know how you won't feel – fit. Work out during stop days so that once you become the academic version of a couch potato you don't start to resemble an actual one.

5. Utilize Cramster. Eventually you will have to hit the books. Just make sure it's near the end of stop days. Running through practice problems here allows you to see the logic behind the complicated language and equations. But you knew that already.

Any tips I left out? How do you best utilize your stop days?

Why one university thinks Facebook study groups are grounds for expulsion.

College students' transition into the Web 2.0 world has been seamless. Professors' and school administrators' transition has been anything but.

Chris Avenir, a freshman at Ryerson University in Toronto has been a hot topic of conversation recently after school officials determined that his Facebook study group was in violation of the school's academic policies.

Avenir is now facing 147 cases of academic misconduct - the number of students in the online study group.

The worst-case scenario is expulsion. The best case is an F in his chemistry class.

Doesn't seem fair to a kid who simply found a way to recreate live study sessions – an activity as frequent as attending class – over the Internet.

It raises questions over how well professors and school administrations actually understand the new face of the Web. Facebook is now home to over 100 legitimate educational applications that function as anything from schedule builders to study group facilitators.

What was so wrong about Avenir's actions?

It's not like his classmates and he had access to test answers. Just as students do every day on Cramster, Avenir was fostering a collaborative environment designed to better grasp the concepts at hand.

Perhaps professors fear change. Perhaps the Web 2.0 world is just too new to accept as a valid classroom resource.

Whatever the case, Avenir's unfortunate situation should serve as a wake-up call to universities around the world that the Web is here to stay, and it's better to embrace it lest an entire student body view the policies of those above them as antiquated and non-progressive.

At Cramster, it is our goal to weave professors into our web, to prove that the Internet is a resource, not a danger.

Here's to hoping you and your classmates can find a way to ease your professors' fears.

What's your take on Avenir's predicament? Was the punishment warranted? What would you do if you were in his shoes?

Why relying too heavily on practice tests can have an adverse effect on your actual test performance.

As I wrote in my last entry, taking practice tests is the best way to study. However, there is one major pitfall that all avid practice test takers must avoid; we'll call it the "one trick pony syndrome." The point of practice tests is to ensure that you can apply what you learned in class to paper, to ensure that you aren't the guy with a 50-inch vertical who can't make a shot to save his life.

The point is not to bond yourself to the practice test to the point where switching numbers will result in temporary brain paralysis.

Many students will run through the teacher-provided practice test five, ten or even twenty times as their only form of studying. Doing this can easily result in an inability to solve questions with slight modifications. Sure, knowing the steps to solve problems may be more important when taking a test than knowing the theory behind the steps, but don't put all your eggs in one basket.

"Man, you sure can ace that practice test… but can you do anything else?"

Don't be that guy. Know the methods to solve test questions but also understand why step A leads to step B. Two-story houses need a staircase. Trust me.

Ever fallen into the practice test trap? Any thoughts on strategies to avoid the trap?

Why practice tests should be the first and last step in the studying process.

I'm sure you've all seen the bumper stickers or posters that read, "I'd rather be fishing." If I were to stick one of these on my car I'd supplant fishing with golfing. You might choose "singing," "eating" or "grooming my chia pet." Regardless of what activity you'd rather be doing, it's pretty safe to say that activity isn't studying.

Whether or not you consciously ask yourself before hitting the books, the paramount question when studying is "How can I maximize the time I spend doing this?" Or, in other words, it's all about efficiency, baby.

In my humble opinion it all starts and ends with the practice test. When you sit down to study, you have a good idea of where your strengths and weaknesses lie, but that doesn't mean you should head straight to your notes to solidify what's lacking. Start by taking a practice test (usually provided by your professor, textbook publisher or frat brothers).

You may realize that while you find the material on circuits to be hazy, the test questions on circuits all progress similarly. Spending a short amount of time with the method employed to solve these questions will get you to where you need to be. Think of it as inductive versus deductive studying.

So start with the practice test, understand what you need to focus on, do what's necessary to grasp that material, then take a second practice test (or even re-take the first one). If you can complete all of the problems without assistance or peeking at the solution page, you are good to go. If a certain problem still trips you up, repeat steps 2-4. Consider yourself enrolled in the Brian McKnight school of studying.

Just make sure you don't fall victim to the practice test trap.

Are practice tests your go-to guy for studying? On the contrary, think they are overrated? Share your thoughts!

Before the test you can study alone or in a group – which option is the way to go?

Everybody has their preferred method of studying. Some are a.m. studiers, some are more nocturnal. Some power through with no nourishment, others make their desk look like the dinner table at a Bavarian holiday party. But no matter when, where or how, studying can always be broken down into a dichotomy: studying in a group or studying alone.

Study groups pool the brainpower of several classmates. Granted, this pool might only amount to slightly more knowledge than you possess yourself, but at other times the pool can be akin to the Mensa JV team. That's why you should always hedge your bets with a decent amount of self-studying. Knowing a bit about the material beforehand will ensure that the group functions as a study group and not an extra class session that your syllabus didn't warn you about.

On the bright side, study groups can normally be relied on to alert you about a section you missed or to steer you away from the incorrect method you were using to solve a certain problem. You may not get the most bang for your buck, but you should walk away with tidbits you wouldn't have discovered alone.

Studying alone is usually the best option if you are in power mode. If you have a load of material to cover and/or multiple hours ahead of you, self-study is probably the best option. In my experience, studying alone helps me learn and comprehend the material while studying in a group helps reinforce and solidify the material.

My favorite strategy has always been to study alone for the majority of the time and then join a study group the night before the test to make sure I haven't missed anything.

And even if that study group turns out to be pointless… hey, at least I walk away more confident about my chances against the curve.

Studying in a group or studying alone: Which method is better? What are the benefits of each method that the other can't achieve?

The length that some students go to make up for lost class time is befuddling.

It's often said that when creating a business plan, if you understand the people you'll be catering to and are really in tune with their tendencies and preferences, marketing your service or product will be a piece of cake.

In my opinion, there's no better example of this than "Review Session Gurus," as I like to call them. There are guys that previously attended my university who make an inordinate amount of money by helping under-prepared college students cram for exams.

Their service isn't anything special; in essence, they teach the testable material in a condensed form, provide their own notes and practice test and shoo students out the door to prepare for their next session. These "reviews" last anywhere from two to four hours, cost $60 a pop and are attended by up to 100 students.

$6,000 in one night for what? Using your old lecture notes to teach notorious class-skippers what happened over the past month? Man… I should really consider a career refocusing.

The point of this entry is to tell you to avoid these sessions. You'll constantly hear rave reviews about how a said review session "saved someone's life." Keep in mind that, without a crash course in everything that was covered in class, these people would have likely failed the test. So if they walk away with a C that has to be considered an accomplishment.

Secondly, last time I checked, studying for tests is a way to get a leg up on classmates. Most math-based courses are graded on a curve and thus the goal is to be more prepared than girl A and guy B. Sure, the students who attend these review sessions might be learning material and gaining insight on test-taking strategies, but they are learning the same material and same strategies as everyone else in the room. Maybe it's just me, but I don't want to pay $60 to be placed on the same level as 99 other students taking the same test.

Lastly, skip out on these sessions as a testament to your rationality and pride. Going to class really isn't a formidable task. You win out on all fronts by attending class in lieu of going to these paid review sessions as a last ditch attempt to make the cut.

Besides, $60 is a lot of money! Take it and go see a game, or use it to treat your significant other to a nice dinner. Heck, utilize the aerodynamic force of U.S. currency and enter a paper airplane throwing contest.

Now THAT is money well-spent.

Thought and/or comments about these types of review sessions? Sound off!

With all due respect to essay questions, math, science and engineering students can't tip-toe their way around answers. Test questions are most often multiple choice or free response… and don't let the "free" fool you – there is only one correct answer.

Besides "That test sucked," the most common complaint I've heard exiting the myriad math-based tests I've taken over the years is, "You know that long problem at the end? I didn't even know where to start. SO unfair."

I think what's really unfair is that person's right to use the same language as the rest of us… but I digress.

Truth be told, it's safe to say we've all had our trying times with lengthy, intricate word problems where it's as much of a challenge to figure out what the professor wants as it is to solve the problem.

Here are some tips on common mistakes to avoid:

Mistake 1: Reading through the whole problem first to see what you're faced with.

Correction 1: Make a note of each important piece of information and write down each number given to you as you go. That way you'll have a short-hand visual representation of what you just read once you're finished.

Mistake 2: After reading the problem, you sit back and decide where to start.

Correction 2: Start at the END. The last sentence of these problems is always the prompt – it tells you what is desired in the end.

Mistake 3: Assuming it is logical to tackle the problem in the order it's written.

Correction 3: It is often easier to work backwards. Once you've figured out what the problem is asking for, think about what step is required to get you there. Once you've written this out, no matter how many unanswered variables are on your paper, decide what step is required to get you to that point. Now that you have the final three steps written out, you have a solid roadmap for handling the problem.

Mistake 4: Staring at the problem and assuming there's no way you can answer it.

Correction 4: Answering word problems isn't some magical skill where either you have it or you don't. If you start writing down whatever information you can gather, there's a better chance your mind will be triggered by something it sees. All of those lectures and all of that studying is locked somewhere in the back of your brain, so do your best to unleash the caged beast inside.

How do you tackle lengthy word problems? Any tips for success?

How to "fight the fade" during terribly boring lectures.

One minute your eyes are locked-in on your professor and you are taking notes. The next minute, your hand is slowing as your eyelids are being forced down involuntarily. The next minute, your head is making its way backward, ready to bottom out on the notebook of the kid behind you. Suddenly your slumberous motion startles you awake and you are primed to repeat the process.

Easy to describe because we've all done it before… and seen it done by the kid next to us countless times more.

Some start to snore, some appear severely hypnotized, some seem to be doing subconscious calisthenics and some look like Pauly Shore when… well, whenever.

So how to avoid this most common of classroom fates?

The key is to keep yourself involved somehow in the lecture. Taking notes doesn't qualify because you are simply regurgitating information instead of actively processing thoughts.

The best advice I can offer is to ask a question. It doesn't matter what the question pertains to, as long as it can be linked to the topic at hand and doesn't make you look like a kid who has zoned out for the past 10 minutes (or past 10 lectures).

Anytime you have to present yourself to the professor, you'll need to stay awake. It'll keep you alert and give you the stimulation needed to make it through another energy-sapping lecture.

If that still doesn't work, you can always fall back on electroshock therapy…

What helps you stay awake in the most boring lectures? Strategies or tips to share?