Finals are just around the corner, which means it’s time to start polishing up on everything you’ve learned thus far and make sure you’re on the right track to get the best grade you can. The new year should be a fresh start where the worries of the past can be left behind, but for LOHS students, it begins a stressful month with the chaos of wrapping up all the units and classes with the semester’s end. It’s common for students to get overwhelmed and not know where to begin with preparing, especially for freshmen who have never experienced finals. To make the process a little easier, I have some tips that I’ve seen be helpful in my own experience with finals.
The main thing to focus on is time management. There have been countless times where students have left all their studying for the night before, thinking that they had enough time to study, but the reality is, this is the absolute worst thing you could do because you’ll be forced to rush or pull an all-nighter. This is not ideal, as a huge component to succeeding on test day is getting proper sleep and feeling energized. Setting goals for yourself and designating specific times to study a few weeks out before the test allows for less anxiety because you’ll have a lot more time to prepare and not need to cram any studying. You’ll be able to take more breaks throughout studying sessions, have an appropriate amount of sleep and retain more of the information so you’re confident on test day. Also, prioritizing classes in which you have a low or border grade, or have content and material that you don’t understand as much in comparison to other classes is crucial. This way, you’re able to set aside more time for those classes and gain the necessary knowledge while not wasting time studying for classes that you don’t particularly need to, or at least as much.
Some other key methods of studying include going over notes, rewriting them and engaging in review activities so you’re able to get the most out of review days. It’s known that writing information down by hand helps you to better memorize and retain knowledge than doing it digitally. Also, since some teachers allow note sheets on tests, it only better prepares you with also being able to use those notes on the test; it’s like a free cheat sheet, except it’s fully permitted. The simple yet commonly unappreciated review tactic of participating in lectures and activities designed for finals studying is beneficial. Most students just overlook the importance behind those review days and don’t fully pay attention, but in doing so, they don’t realize that the teachers have specifically planned activities that go over topics that are covered on the test. When students choose to do their own thing and not follow along with the activities, they are left feeling confused and aren’t as productive or efficient, as they don’t know what to specifically study since they didn’t focus on the teacher’s insight.
These are just a few tips, and there is no one right way to study; specific tactics work better for some people than they do for others because it depends on the person and how they best prepare. Following these tips won’t guarantee that you’ll feel more relaxed because finals are always going to be stressful, but the extent to which can be significantly reduced if you take appropriate steps ahead of time. Finals can be as easy as you make them for yourself as long as you make sure you feel confident and energized on test day by preparing properly in advance.
