Finals Tips

• Review notes paying special attention to handouts or final exam study guides which may offer questions that are amazingly close to those on the exam itself.

• Try to plan your study time- give more time to those subjects or materials that you don’t yet know as well- then just plan to review things that you remember well from the semester. 

• Teach someone else. Helping someone in your class who may not understand the material will also help you retain the information.  Sometimes teaching is the best way to learn something- just make sure you really do know what you’re talking about.  Also, remember to make sure you’re using your time wisely- only help someone else if it doesn’t hurt you or take away time that you might otherwise need to finish a paper or study.

• On rare occasions, some professors have been known to allow students to use their notes during a final hoping that your notes will then help you to better establish your own way of answering the question; make sure your notes are in good order just in case.

• Be sure to eat before an exam- but not too much. You don’t want to find yourself distracted by hunger during a test, but you also don’t want to over-eat which can sometimes add to fatigue or sleepiness.

• Protect your health and your attitude. Avoid negative people who act like they don’t care how they do on their finals- negative attitudes can be contagious (even if they’re faking it about not caring). A negative attitude is not something you want to come down with right before a final.  On the same note, be sure to take care of your health; you also don’t want to come down with a cold right before finals. 

• Don’t panic.  Remember that most exams will have questions that most students find to be harder but also questions that students find to be easier.  If you feel like you’re not finding the “easier” questions, just take a breath, try to regroup and re-read the questions.  This may jog your memory and help you recall some of the information covered.

• If you feel yourself getting bored, anxious, or distracted, be sure to take a few breaths, count to 10 and try to refocus. 

• Make sure that once you’ve finished a paper or exam, you go over it (possibly more than once if you have time) to make sure that you find any mistakes.  If it’s an exam with problem based questions like those often found in math, you may want to actually work the problems backward with the answer that you’ve provided to be sure that the answer is correct. 

• If you’re answering in essay form, be sure to restate the question in the first sentence of your essay. 

• Write neatly.  Many teachers will make an answer wrong if they are not able to distinguish your writing. 

Good Luck!