School and Such: How to Conquer Your Midterms

For those of you still stuck in the midst of midterms, there are many ways you can prepare that will better ensure that you get an 'A'. I just finished my midterms earlier this week. Thank God. As a first-year, there was a lot I had to learn during this daunting process, and I walked away with A's on every one of my midterms! Here are some helpful study tips I follow: 

Plan Ahead

It's always a good idea to be aware of your exams way in advance. Your exam dates should all be in your class syllabi. Look up these dates ASAP and mark your calendar. It really helps me when I can visualize how the entire month is going to pan out. By knowing early-on which days you have exams (perhaps you have more than one in a day!), you can plan accordingly. For example, I have a slew of major exams scheduled for next Friday. I've known for  a while that next week is going to be a "hard week", meaning I have a lot of deadlines and exams; as a result I've opted to finish assignments now that aren't due until next week just to free up my schedule. Even if you don't start studying more than two weeks in advance, if you have a paper due the same week as the big exam you can start working on it when you have free time now. I have an Erin Condren Life Planner that I absolutely LOVE. (you can get one here: Erin Condren Life Planners). Use a day planner, an app, or just a plain calendar printout to stay organized. 

Listen to your professors

Oftentimes your professors will provide you with valuable resources to help you prepare for their exams. DON'T IGNORE THEM! Continually check D2L or whichever website your school uses to see if your professors have posted any additional materials. These could include additional problem sets, links to review videos, PowerPoints, lecture notes, study guides, etc. In my experience over half of the class fails to review the Midterm study guides our professors give us, and they end up getting D's or below on the exam. Someone is literally giving you the exam! Don't take it for granted. Some professors send out emails that list all of the topics you are expected to know for the exam. After studying for my chemistry exam, I printed out my professor's email and highlighted all of the topics I was confident about. Then I was able to go back and review the topics I felt shaky on. Make sure you work on additional problems you are given. These are great ways to test what you know - merely skimming over your class notes is  not enough. 

Ask good questions

How do you go about asking a good question, you ask? Well, before you attend your professor's office hours, a tutoring session, or a class review session, it's good to "know what you don't know" in advance. In the past I've been lazy and have attended the review session hoping it would be enough to prepare me for test day. This method is foolish! Believe me I've learned the hard way. Make the most of your time in your review session by showing up prepared. This means you need to have actively studied and tested your knowledge (using your past HW or those additional practice problems!). Write down a list of SPECIFIC questions you have about the material. This way you won't be wasting your professor's time and you will be a lot more efficient. If you are counting on just sitting in the lecture hall and soaking in as much as you can, you won't be making good use of your time. By studying beforehand, you can use the review session as reinforcement. 

Hope this helps! Happy studying! (: