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Finals, that time of the semester is upon us once again. Most college students will spend most of their student lives stressing over them. Why, they feel unprepared, they neglect studying, or they try cramming everything into the last few days. Needless to say this isn’t a great idea; it’s a perfect recipe for burning out. I tend to prefer a more structured approach to finals; break down your subjects, decide which ones will take the most effort to prepare for and start early.
Breaking down how I study for finals
This depends greatly on which class I’m studying for, in a biology class, such as my genetics class, I may spend a couple hours a week going over my notes. For a more technical class like my organic chemistry class, I may spend a couple hours a day going over homework problems, practice exams, and notes. Since, I too am going through the stress caused by finals; I will have to keep this post fairly brief. I may at a point in the future elaborate on this topic. For the sake of time, I will attempt to break all classes into three categories: Science-Technical (Chemistry, Physics, Math, etc.), Science-Non-Technical (Biology, Ecology, etc.), and Liberal Arts. Please keep in mind that these are broad generalizations, and may not work for everyone, or work with every course that falls within a certain category. I also focus on science related classes since I am a Biochemistry/Molecular Biology major.
Science: Technical
The only way I have seen that works for courses in this group, is repetition. I once had a math teacher in middle school that loved to say “Practice makes better,” and I don’t think that statement could be more right. You have to constantly repeat the mechanisms, equations, formulas, and methods, in order for your mind to accept it as second nature, and for it to come natural to you. One of the greatest causes of stress for students, taking exams, I believe is feeling unnatural. If you can look at a problem, and recognize it, you can take away a large amount of the initial stress. I have spend hours, repeating the same physics problem over and over, just so that I could understand every aspect of that problem, and solve for every variable, no matter what the professor throws at us. I know the underlying concepts of the problem.
Science: Non-Technical
Keep up with the material throughout the semester, do not fall behind; cramming for classes like these can bury you. The amount of material that you have to know for these exams can seem obscene at times. More than anything these exams are based on understanding and memorization. If you can memorize massive amounts of information, and apply it you will be fine. For classes like this I usually spend 3-4 hours the night before the final exam, going over the notes, since I have kept up on the material throughout the semester.
Liberal Arts
Now, I have the greatest deal of respect for liberal arts majors, but I have rarely found a need to study for most of my liberal arts classes (this is probably due to the fact that most of them have been in the 100 and 200 levels). I usually spend a couple hours before the exam going over notes, and reading up on summaries of the material. This might be, because I am a science major, and my liberal arts classes tend to be some of my easiest courses, or because I enjoy keeping up to date on most of the materials we cover in my liberal arts courses. Either way I would highly recommend that everyone have at least one liberal arts class every semester, they are a great way to not only broaden your mind, but they also give you great analytical skills.
Everyone has to find their own way of studying, some people prefer cramming, some people prefer a long term approach, and others don’t really study. Regardless of your approach, try to structure it in a format that will place minimum stress on you and keep you calm. A stressed student makes stupid mistakes, on exam day remain calm, and think everything out.
