Now that Thanksgiving has ended, it is time to get ready for the last stretch of the semester: finals week. Finals can be exhausting and overwhelming, but with the right methods, students can feel more prepared and confident before they head home for the holidays.
Here are 5 tips to rock finals week:
Tip #1: Make a study guide & quiz questions
If your professor does not provide a study guide, you can always go to office hours and send an email asking about concepts they think are important to review.
Plus, a good use of your study time is to scan through your notes and write out important key points on a new sheet of paper. In other words, make your own study guide.
Or divide and conquer with a group of friends from you class. Each person could be in charge of creating a study guide for a specific unit and you can do this together on a Google Doc to share.
Also, make up quizzes to test yourself and your friends on the material. Creating questions and coming up with answers is a great way to start looking over concepts. Looking at possible questions and formulating an answer simulates a testing scenario, which can help you feel less nervous on testing day.
Challenge friends in your class to each come up with 10 quiz questions and compile them into one document and share.
Tip #2: Write concepts down by hand
It has been scientifically proven that writing by hand improves memory of concepts. By writing down concepts by hand, you are practicing how you will use them on the test day, which can also help you improve your memory of a concept. I always write something down by hand at least twice, and I feel it improves my memory of concepts.
Tip #3: Repetition is key
If there is a concept you are unfamiliar with, or a concept you struggle with, focus on repetition of that concept. A good tool is to read the concept out loud multiple times and then come back to it later and do it again. The more you repeat a concept, the better chance you have at understanding that concept.
Tip #4: Form a study group
It is always a good idea to have multiple eyes reviewing the material, because others can notice ideas or concepts that you may have missed. Also, it makes studying more enjoyable when you do it with a friend or multiple classmates.
You can quiz each other, give each other possible test questions, and help each other improve overall understanding of the material. When you teach a concept to another person, it helps you learn it better.
Tip #5: Color code your notes
If there is a topic that has multiple sections, it may be a good idea to color code each section so you can have a visual of correlating concepts. This idea not only makes your notes much more fun to create, but also makes the concepts more clear when studying.
Try out these 5 study tips during this semester finals season and wow yourself with how much more confident you feel going into your exams this year.