The essential foods to survive finals season (and keep your GPA alive)

By Dana ELRufaei, December 11 2024—

With finals approaching, it’s time to set aside meal prep dreams and embrace the ultimate power foods of academia: the sodium-loaded, caffeine-laden and occasionally expired staples that keep students going. Forget the traditional Food Pyramid—this is the Finals Survival Food Pyramid, held together by excessive sugar, trans fats and pure desperation. Here are the five essential food groups every student needs to conquer finals season:

1. Instant Ramen Noodles

Perhaps the most superior food on the list, this culinary masterpiece turns boiling water and MSG into the lifeblood of academic endurance. Cheap, quick and salty enough to preserve your dignity, ramen is your finals season staple. With so many flavours, you can almost convince yourself you’re eating a balanced diet—beef for protein, shrimp for seafood and chicken for… well, chicken.

2. Iced Coffee

Forget about hydration—iced coffee embodies liquid determination. Whether it’s an $8 latte from a campus cafe or homemade cold brew in an old pasta jar, this caffeinated beverage will propel you through all-nighters and poorly formatted citations. Warning: consuming iced coffee after 11 p.m. may lead to auditory hallucinations.

3. Glazed Mini Donuts

Sure, donuts are traditionally unhealthy, but mini donuts? Practically diet food. By shrinking the donut, science has significantly reduced its caloric impact, making eating six at a time more justifiable. Finals are about efficiency, and these bite-sized wonders maximize your sugar-to-effort ratio.

4. Energy Drinks

Energy drinks are the beverage of choice for those who laugh in the face of reasonable heart rates. They don’t just give you wings—they give you jittery, slightly regretful wings. Just don’t read the ingredients list; it’s better not to know what taurine is when you’re on your third can. Pro tip: pair with cold pizza for a breakfast that screams, ‘I’m doing my best.’

5. Gummy Candy

Don’t underestimate the mental boost of a colourful sugar rush. Gummy bears, worms, or unidentifiable shapes are essential for quick dopamine hits between textbook pages. Plus, arranging them into study charts technically counts as revision. And if anyone asks, yes, the green ones are vegetables—your finals logic is airtight.

In the high-stakes game of finals season survival, these culinary champions aren’t just snacks—they’re lifelines. They might not win any awards from dieticians, but when you’re running on two hours of sleep and sheer willpower, nutritional balance is a luxury, not a priority. So embrace the chaos, stock up on your survival food essentials and remember: grades are temporary, but the memory of eating ramen at 3 a.m. in your pyjamas will last forever.

This article is part of our humour section.