10 Tips for Prepping for Final Exams

Lynn Jacobs & Jeremy Hyman:

Well, it's just about showtime. Soon you will face that grueling week of finals on which the fate of this semester's GPA rests. Sorry, we can't make final's week into a piece of cake. Only your professors can, and we wouldn't be counting on it. But how well you prepare will, in no small measure, determine how well you'll do. So here are our 10 best suggestions on how to prepare for those all-important final exams (together with a brief glance into the professor's mind that will show you why the tips work):

1. Spend a week. Start studying for each exam a week before you are due to take it. This will give you time to divide the material into manageable portions that you can digest over a number of study sessions. This is especially important in the case of a cumulative final in a course with tons of material. Whatever you do, don't try to swallow the whole elephant--the whole course, we mean--in one cram session. (Works because, in most courses, the prof is expecting you to have processed and digested the material--something you can't do in one fell swoop).

Posted by Jim Zellmer at May 5, 2009 2:33 AM
Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas