With the last week of school coming up, many people are ready for summer and all the fun that comes with it. Final exams are the last thing separating students from their amazing summer adventures. However, it is imperative that students focus on these exams as they can be the differentiating factor between their grades in their classes.
Here are some great tips and tricks to help you study for your final exams!
1. Figure Out What Your Final Covers And When You Take It
Every single class at Crown Point High School is different. While most classes offer finals over just concepts learned in this semester, other classes will offer exams over everything learned through the entire school year.
Additionally, every single class is taking finals on different days. Finding out what day your final is allows you to better prepare for it as you know exactly how far away it is. If you are unsure when the final for your class is, make sure to contact your teacher.
Asking your teacher to clarify what units and concepts will be on the final is also a very important first step to take as it will lay out the groundwork for how much you should study a day until your final.
2. Use all the best resources
The first go-to strategy for many students when it comes to studying for finals is to simply look back through all of their notes. While this is helpful, there are better ways to study. For example, looking through your notes while also looking at previous quizzes/tests is a great way to study. You are able to see the answers you previously got wrong and struggled with and hopefully be able to find out the right answer.
Do not think studying for these big finals is something you should do by yourself. Utilize your friends, classmates, and teachers. These people might be able to explain concepts that might be very difficult for you to understand and vice-versa.
One amazing tool that is now available to students that was not in the past is video notes. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many courses have uploaded video notes that include a teacher lecturing over course material. If there is a certain lesson you feel like you need to brush up on, try finding the video notes for that lecture if they are available for your class.
3. Create a study schedule
Make sure you create an organized and realistic schedule to study for your exams. Actually setting aside a specific time of your day to study and even setting a reminder in your phone to go off just 15 minutes before your specified time will exponentially raise the chance of you studying.
Also, do not just set aside multiple hours of straight up study time in a single day with no breaks. Utilizing breaks is a great way to keep yourself motivated and enhances your ability to learn and retain information better.
If you do not know where to start, the pomodoro method is a great place! Simply start a timer for 25 minutes and study. Then, when the timer goes off, take a nice 5 minute break and look away from your work. Try not to do something too distracting like going on your phone during this break. Instead, try having a short conversation with someone nearby, play with a pet, or go admire the beautiful weather outside. After the break time is up, go back to work feeling refreshed.
For some, 30 or 35 minutes of work with a 7-10 minute works better. Every single person is different so try experimenting with this amazing technique.
