Finals are less than two weeks away and just thinking about it can be very stressful. During finals season, the campus is a whole different place. Everyone is stressed, no one is sleeping or eating and treps leave sacrifices for Testudo in hopes for good grades. While finals season will be stressful no matter what, I thought it would be beneficial to share some tips and do some research to find the ways for students to be the most successful during finals season.
Ready to be studious
Start Early
During the course of a semester, we learn so much information and it is impossible to try to review or learn all of that information in a short amount of time. Therefore it’s really important to get started early.
How do you start? This is the part I found difficult. How do I start studying for finals while still doing final presentations and projects, learning new materials, and still taking exams! It’s a challenging thing so I found that the best way to start was by writing out your study plans.
Making a study plan is a great way to start reviewing. For each subject I went through my notes and textbooks and wrote out the main chapters and key points that we learned and were tested on. By doing this you can get a good look at what you need to study. Another additional step is to then look at the lists and see wat material you didn’t do well on, you would try to seek help on this material as soon as possible so studying for that final will be easier.
Along with this document, a next step is to start setting out time to start studying. I like to use my calendar on my laptop/phone. A way that I set aside time to study is by booking huddle rooms in ESJ, by doing this I put aside 3 hours in which I will only be studying and I find this to be very helpful.
Review Old Exams
A great way to study is to look back at pasts exam. At UMD there is a test bank that hold exams from past years going back 10+ years. This can be very helpful to find new practice problems.
Also is it a good idea to review the midterms that you took throughout the course, especially to go over material that you missed on the test. Again this is a good opportunity to go to office hours or receive other help so you won’t miss that question on the exam!
Take Breaks
During this stressful time, its very important to take breaks. The campus has had a lot of lit events lately from Art Attack to day parties and Jouvert!
Once studying starts, it's important to take small breaks, take some time and watch a 10 minute Youtube video, go on a quick walk, go get a cup of coffee. Just take some time to allow the information to process.
Form Study Groups
I love study groups! With the right people, you can get efficient studying done and still have a good time. Study groups are great because you can help each other understand material and test each other. It's important to know yourself and know when you're ready to study in a group and it's more productive to study in a group.
Study for the Style of the Exam
Here's something that I learned in Psychology 100, is that practicing is the exam will help you retain the information more. The state that you study in should also mimic the state that you will take the exam in. For these reasons I like to make mock tests that resemble the actual test.
If the test would have a lot of essay questions, practice writing out your answers for that. If you have a multiple choice test, practice answering those tricky multiple choice questions. For math, practice those long word problems that would most likely show up on the exam. Once you get more comfortable with the material, try taking the exam in the time constraint of the exam.
Eat, Take Care of Yourself & Sleep
With all the studying that will be happening it's important to still take care of yourself. Be sure to still eat and take care of yourself. And get sleep before the your exam! Staying up all night will not help you.
Here are the tips I thought would be beneficial, if you know any that more tips that I didn't mention please share them below! I'm wishing good luck to everyone and nothing but blessings and amazing grades.
xoxo,
Kye