Dec
09
Final Prep
Posted in Academics
Hey Hawkeyes!
How’s everyone feeling for finals? Feeling ready to ace them? Or just to be done and go home for break? Finals week always brings on a mix of feelings; you know you want to do really well on them, but it can be hard to focus after working hard all semester and having a month long break at the end of the week. Recently, I was asked for my finals advice to underclassman preparing for finals, or trying to figure out how to even start preparing for finals so here’s my advice for acing your finals and staying healthy and happy.
Sarah’s Final Advice:
– don’t tell yourself you’re going to study all day for a final: you’ll be less focused and burn yourself out.
– but also make sure not to short yourself on study time. Start studying early so you’re not waiting until the day before the final to do all of your studying.
– make sure to take breaks, but make sure they’re short and you get back on task when you said you would.
– make sure to get plenty of sleep: cramming doesn’t work and will make you think slower for the actual test.
– if you’re worried about an early final, talk to a friend in the class and agree to call each other at a certain time. Even if you’ve never over-slept before, there’s a first time for everything- double check your alarms.
– make sure to treat yourself after each final: get ice cream, eat some chocolate, watch an hour or two of Netflix, and then start a study routine for your next final- it will make you feel more productive and motivated.
– do the best you can. It might not go exactly like you want it, you might have missed studying a certain chapter or forgotten to review vocab, that’s ok. As long as you’ve been working hard all semester, a couple wrong answers won’t hurt your grade. Move on, and don’t let one bad final drag you down for your next one. That class is done, be glad to be done, and work hard for the next final.
– while you’re studying, make a notecard of things you commonly forget. Forget a certain step in a math problem? Put it on the note card. Never remember that one chemistry definition? Put it on the notecard. Instead of trying to review all your notes right before the final, just review the notecard so you have your most commonly forgotten stuff fresh in your mind.
– if you have to memorize equations, write them on your test right when they hand it to you so you won’t panic when you only have 5 minutes left and can’t remember if it was plus or minus.
Good luck with studying and enjoy your time with friends before break!
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