Make no mistake! Finals are closer than they appear – seriously, they’re just around the corner. Six weeks may seem like all the time in the world, but the end of the school year has a nasty habit of sneaking up on all of us. Although your professors may only be a little more than halfway through the semester’s syllabus, now is the perfect opportunity to start preparing for those pesky exams. The task may seem a little premature, but a few easy steps can help you formulate an action plan to reduce the stress of acing your finals – starting today.
1.) Ask the professor for help
It isn’t uncommon for professors to put off writing their exams (they procrastinate like students, too), but they still have a good idea of what material will end up on the final early in the semester. Just asking them about what you’ll be tested on can go a long way in your exam prep. It also shows your professors that you’re responsible – or at least trying to be.
2.) Focus on the core concepts
By paying close attention to the main ideas and theories of a class, the rest of the material that you learn throughout the semester will come to you easier. The key to acing finals is comprehension, not just memorizing the facts. By understanding the “how” and “why” of a class, the test problems your professor gives you will make more sense and will be easier to solve. Comprehension is especially important when it comes to math and science classes, so don’t put off reviewing the course concepts – they may come in handy long before your final exam.
3.) Make your own study guide
Instead of rereading the course material and reviewing your notes (which can be tedious and boring), try making your own study guide. Limit yourself to one sheet of paper per class because then you’ll be forced to focus on your classes’ key concepts. Make this a challenge to summarize the main ideas into only a few words while revisiting all of the semester’s material.
The study guide could be used as a kind of mind map, chunking related topics together and forming new connections in your head so that the course content flows a little more smoothly through your mind. This will help clarify and organize your thought process so that any new material between now and your final exam will come to you more easily. You may have to rewrite this guide a couple times, but that’s just more studying that you can get in.
4.) Make studying fun
Studying for finals this early in the semester obviously doesn’t sound fun, especially for the procrastinators out there. This is a great opportunity to get your friends (maybe some new ones?) on board! Consider hosting a group study night once a week, or maybe turning exam review into a game. For example, whoever gets the most practice problems right gets a free latte, courtesy of the rest of the group. Not to mention, studying with friends provides you with an opportunity to clarify any questions as well as provides motivation to help you prepare for your finals in a timely manner.
5.) Start early – be consistent
The key to preparing for any exam is studying early and often. It’s been proven that studying with many starts and stops is more productive than a study binge, such as the cram session that inevitably comes before every exam. So, it makes sense to study for a short period of time, every day. Not only will this give you a consistent method of preparing, but revisiting course material every day will help keep it fresh in your mind. Seriously, you should never underestimate the potential of a small, but daily effort. Studying one class for just 15 minutes every weekday adds up to seven and a half hours of review in six weeks (math is crazy like that). That’s seven and a half hours of productive studying, not cringe-worthy binge studying.
Those are some ideas on how to get started with studying early. How do you study for finals?
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