Final Exams Week

Well, we are now in the midst of final exam week.  At most schools your schedule is now different - classes are not meeting and the finals are probably at slightly different times.  Here are a few survival tips:

• Write down the days, times and locations of your exams.  Because the schedule is different, it is easy to get mixed up.
• Look ahead.  When is your most difficult exam?  Start to study early and often for that. 
• When you are going to bed, quickly review the information for your first exam the next day and then immediately go to sleep.  This will help that information stay in your long-term memory.
• Maintain healthy eating, sleeping and exercising patterns.  This is not a good time to feel ill!
• Do NOT stay up all night to study.  You will not remember anything you study and you will not recover your sleep for several days.  This will negatively impact exams on the following days!

After exams, enjoy a well-deserved rest.  Take a few minutes to reflect on your semester.  What went well?  What could you change?  We'll come back to this at the beginning of the next semester.

For now - enjoy a job well-done!

Preparing for Finals I

Final exams are rapidly approaching.  Here at Indiana University of PA our exams are December 14 - 17.  Leading up to exams, here are some things to consider:

1.         When are your exams scheduled?  (Usually they are on a different time schedule than the semester classes.)  Will they be held in the same room as the class or somewhere else?

2.         What will they cover?  Is the exam on the final unit or is it cumulative - covering the entire semester?

3.         Are you all caught up with your work?  Have you missed any exams, quizzes or assignments?  Can you make them up?

4.         Do you have a complete set of notes for each class?  Were you absent for any classes?  Did you get those notes from someone else?  (And do you understand them since you were not in class to take them yourself?!?)

5.         How did you do on previous exams from each professor?  If you did well - then do the same time.  If not - increase your study strategies as well as your study time.

Your next step is to plan your studying schedule. 

1.         Start a week or more before the exam to organize all of the material.  

2.         Next, break the material down into logical topics.  Study one topic a day leading up to the exam and review the previous ones you studied.   The day before the exam you should be reviewing the entire body of information for the exam.

3.         With information that is really difficult for you, review that material the very last thing before you go to sleep.

4.         You can also:

• Make a study guide
• Make a practice exam
• Form a study group and either teach each other the material or ask each other questions
• Analyze previous exams from that professor and predict the format of the final

Next week we will look at test-taking strategies.

Until then...happy studying!