Me: 1 Finals: 0

Me: 1 Finals: 0

Oh boy, its that time of year where you encounter moody, agitated, insomniacs preparing for finals week!  After going through my first semester, I realized that it’s better to mentally prepare yourself for what may seem so dreadful. What I did to prepare for finals week is just kept it in the back of my head throughout the semester so that it doesn’t come by surprise. Don’t let this stress you out, but motivate you. I always thought of it in a way to prove to myself that I actually learned useful information and that I will be stress free afterwards, so might as well do well if you’re going to do it. This may be a bit late for finals this semester, but use it as a guide for next semester and reflect to see what you did differently this semester.

Here are some things you can do to prepare:

  1. Find out which days you have which finals, and at what time. This helps you clearly see if you have two finals the same day and how you can equally study for them.
  2. Find out if your final is cumulative or not!!
  3. Whenever you’re in class, make sure to take beneficial notes that can help prepare for finals week. This will help you not only for the next midterm you may have, but it will also help you prepare information for the final.
  4. When you find out if it is cumulative or not, this will give you an idea of how much to study. You might want to add in more study days if it is cumulative. Don’t let that scare you though.
    1. If its cumulative, it’s most likely 1-2 questions per unit — so make sure to get the key point out of each topic.
    2. If its cumulative, its going to be shorter and more spread out, so don’t focus too much on one topic!
    3. More than likely, it will cover 2/3 of the more recent stuff, and 1/3 of the previous stuff! **this may depend on the professor, however.
  5. DO NOT study a couple days before the finals week, or only the week before. That is why I make this post. I know a lot of people that waited until the last minute and did not do so well; staying up until 4 am just a few days before is not going to be beneficial for many people.
  6. Start calculating your grade based on the syllabus, and see what you minimally need to get the grade you want for the class. STRIVE FOR THAT GRADE.
  7. Start AT LEAST 2-3 weeks before and make a schedule. Dedicate a certain amount of hours to each class. Type out/rewrite notes so you can make sense of it again. Form study groups and go over a topic a day.

NOTE: A CUP OF COFFEE/TEA/SOME SORT OF CAFFEINE IS REQUIRED FOR THIS – NO EXCEPTIONS!

These are just some things you can do in preparation for finals. Don’t let it scare you, conquer it! Think about it, if you get a head start on it now, you will kill those exams and then have an awesome Summer break back at home (or else where) until next semester, I don’t know about you, but that sounds awesome to me… 🙂

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