May 21st, 2010
At the end of each semester final exams await the college student. It is easy to get overly stressed out about this rite of passage. However, you need to develop skills that alleviate this stress and will help you perform to the best of your abilities. It is only human nature to have some stress over these exams as they do typically count for a substantial percentage of your semester grade. Hopefully, as you get deeper into your college experience, you will have grown somewhat accustomed to these rigorous tests and will have created a system for conquering your stress.
Preparation is the key to putting yourself in a position to succeed. Typically, you will have a period as long as a week to prepare for the exam period. However, your preparation should begin during the beginning of the semester. Organize your notes after each class, keep all handouts, and make notes of important passages from your textbooks. If you stay on top of your assignments and readings as outlined in your course’s syllabus, you will be ahead of the game when it comes time to start studying for the final exam. If you feel like you are getting behind at any time during the semester, seek out a trustworthy classmate. Ask for notes you may have missed or ask if you can take a look at how he or she has organized his or her binder for the class.
Do not be afraid to visit your professor during their office hours. If you are feeling uneasy about some subject material, it is up to you take the responsibility of getting caught up. Your professors want to see you succeed and will generally help you as much as they can to clarify any areas where you are confused. Remember that preparing for the final exam is a semester-long exercise. Be sure to attend the final class before the final exam as many professors will conduct a review session and may hand out an outline of the exam.
Consult the exam’s outline or your syllabus and organize your notes in clusters that make sense to you. Most college courses follow some sort of order and you can be sure that your exam will have questions that highlight each major segment of the course. Set up a study schedule with enough time allotted for each class. The easiest, and most harmful, trap you can fall into is cramming the night before. You may memorize a few facts, but chances are good that you will not have a complete sense of the material covered over the entire semester.
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