Published: Thu, 13 Feb 2025 15:12:10 -0800
Having a major part of your grade resting on a series of unknown questions, picked from subject matter that has taken weeks to cover, is a recipe for stress. Over the course of my academic career I have developed a method that has all but guaranteed a score in the 85%-100% range, with the majority being on the higher end of that scale. The best feature of this method is that it minimizes the amount of time that you spend actively studying, leaving you with plenty of time to waste doing something less productive! The method has four guiding rules:
Ok this is sort of a cop-out rule, the equivalent to the chastity method to preventing pregnancy, but it is a lot easier to do well on a test when you actually know the material. I know how easy it is to "multitask" in class, especially when you have a screen in front of you, but avoid it. Take notes when it makes sense, ask and answer questions, and participate, you'll thank yourself later.
That being said, if your teacher/professor sucks at teaching and you can't engage for the life of you, just make sure to know what subjects you have talked about so you are able to go back and somewhat learn them before the test.
Staying up late into the morning the night before the big test, reading and rereading sections of your textbook, while contemplating switching to being a business major is a sure-fire way to do poorly on the test. Studies have shown how much worse you will perform when you are tired, something which I'm sure has been beaten over your head enough to be trite at this point. The thing is, cramming is not in and of itself a bad method, it's just practiced wrong. You need to invert it.
Don't stay up late the night before, go to bed a little early. I know this is easier said than done with the stress of the exam keeping you awake, but you're gonna want to be well rested, so just do your best. When you wake up, try to get moving as soon as possible, have your coffee and start studying. You're wanting to have everything fresh in your mind before your test.
This works because our brains do some housecleaning while we are asleep. More important things go into long term memory, where unimportant things get forgotten. You can probably remember what you had for breakfast this morning, but probably won't remember what you had a few days ago. Likewise, it's going to be easier to remember that one paragraph explaining the answer to problem 27 if you read it a couple hours ago, instead of the night before.
In high school I would go to bed around 21:00 at night and wake up around 03:00, which proved to be excessive, even for the earliest of early morning tests. I recommend studying for at least 2.5 hours before the test for finals, and about an hour for smaller tests like midterms.
Also, give yourself a 30 minute break before the test so that you aren't burned out before you start. Use the time to make sure you have everything you need, use the restroom, get water, etc.
Textbooks are bad in the age of the internet. If you're having issues grasping a subject, look it up online or watch a video on it. It's going to be a lot more refined than the walls of text and puzzling figures that you'll find in the book.
Furthermore, practice problems are the best thing to prepare you, do them. They will tell you more about your understanding of the subject than reading through resources. Even if you may not fully understand the "why" behind each step of a problem, it will familiarize you with the process. Additionally there have been multiple times where my teacher/professor has directly pulled test questions from practice problems in the homework or study guide, basically giving you a free question since you'll have already solved it an hour ago.
This one is especially useful for comprehensive finals. Go through all the homework, in-class materials, and extra resources and jot down anything useful, whether it be definitions or equations. Try to keep it organized and put some care into it. Treat it as your masterpiece. Now throw it away.
Ok don't actually throw it away, bring it with you to the test, but you're barely going to use it. You basically just did all the studying you will need to do by making it and it's firmly planted in your brain, at least for a little while. You may end up glancing at it from time to time during the test, but really it is just a good studying tool.
So now you've finished the test, you got an A. You're not likely to ever use any of what you just learned ever again, but it's ok. You didn't spend every waking moment for the past week memorizing the textbook by heart, you just got up a little early and gave up your morning to doing a handful of practice problems and making a pretty looking study guide. Now you have the rest of the day to do whatever you want.
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