How to Study for Finals without Losing your Mind
Photo by Getty Images
Finals are coming up and they can be a pretty stressful time. Luckily, I, your knight and shining armor am here to save the day. These exams are the last hump of the semester that is between us and the blissful break that will follow. My job today is to take the jumbled mess of wrapping up all of your classes seem more balanced and doable. Here are some tips for dominating the Finals season.
The Only Math You Will Be Thankful for Learning
For a lot of classes, our finals are worth a large chunk of our grades, and it can be overwhelming thinking about passing along and typically cumulative test. That’s why I use RogerHub to figure out what I need on my finals to alleviate some of the dread. The simplest way to calculate your minimum final exam grade is to put how much you currently have in the class, put what your final is worth, and put what you want in the class at the end of the semester. However, if you are calculating your needed grade without certain other assignments being graded yet, there are other options on the website that can walk you through more complicated calculations.
Canvas itself is also a good tool if the professor’s grade breakdown is already logged in the system. Sometimes this is not the case, but if it is, you can go to your grades tab (when using the desktop version) and type in “what-if” grades for certain assignments, and the overall grade will change to reflect those. Once you have some sense of comfort because you know what you need to make at the least to keep the desired grade you want, you can move to the next step.
To-Do Lists: Prioritize Your Life
The next thing to do is map out all of your classes by making to-do lists. Fill out what you need to do for each class, any last homework assignments, any presentations, or projects, and of course, what the final will be. In college, that could be an exam, a paper, or as stated above a presentation, or project. Sometimes, professors like to be kind and give you a test, paper, and a project, which is just dandy.
Once you have everything filled out, you can make a game plan on how to best achieve it. Sometimes people like to start the harder things first to make sure they get some headway done early, but others like to make sure they finish the easy things so that they can mark as much stuff off of the list as they can. Double-check due dates as well because some professors put certain assignments due at the final time on the final schedule, but others put them on the last day of classes at the end of Prep Week.
Another thing that will dictate your priorities is your Finals schedule. These have been available for Centenary students for most of the semester. Every class meeting time has a corresponding Final Exam time even if there is not a proper exam in the class, like choir for example. If a hard Final is earlier in the week than your easier ones, spend most of your time during Prep Week and the weekend before on the hard Final that way you can focus on the easy stuff when you are completely done with the difficult class.
Ambiance: Where to Study and Who to Study With
Photo by Stanford
Many environments can help you get into the right groove with your work. If your room doesn’t do the job for you, other places might work. In general terms, study rooms in academic buildings, the public or college library, or outside tables can offer the right setting for successful studying. To be Centenary specific, the third floor Mickle study rooms work well for my STEM majors. For humanities people, the third floor of Jackson (fondly known as the Harry Potter room by my friend group) is a favorite. The Music Library is a hit for all the music majors out there. To be Shreveport specific, either Rhino location will give you the studious and cool coffee shop feel. If you want to be outside and not on campus, Betty Virginia has many picnic tables for you to spread everything out.
Now the who. It depends on who you are, but you may work better with other people around you, or you need to be isolated. If you need to be isolated, I get that, and you can skip this paragraph. There are a couple of different ways to study with other people. For example, if you are in the same class with a few of your friends, then you might want to all study for the Final together to help each other out. Or maybe you don’t share a class with any of your friends, but you don’t want to study alone, so you all work on your own stuff in the same place. Either of those techniques can work for people, but just be mindful of your progress, because while it can be productive, it can also slow you down and become a distraction.
Bonus: Extra Credit is Your Best Friend
Before actual classes end you might want to double-check emails or Canvas posts from your professors with possible extra credit opportunities. If professors do these, they are often due on the last day of classes, so they are not overwhelmed with submissions during Finals Week. If you want to give yourself some extra cushion, I highly suggest checking to see if those opportunities are available to you. Also, many professors like to offer a bonus point or two to get the majority of their students to fill out course evaluations, so take the 10-20 minutes you need for that.
Final Remarks
I just want to end this compilation of tips with the classic advice of getting proper rest and nutrients intake before your Finals—it really does make a difference. Believe in yourself and just remember that 2 ½ months of a warm and sunny summer are headed your way. Good luck!