Exams are probably the part about school that no one looks forward to. There’s always so much to work to do to prepare for them. You have to spend hours studying, and if you have awful professors, you may not even know what to study. Thankfully, by this point in the semester, you should already kind of know what your professor’s teaching style is like and how their tests and quizzes are like to better prepare for them. These tips should set you on the right path.
Make your own study guide.
It may seem a little tedious to do this, but it’ll help give you direction on what you should study. If your professor goes over what’s going to be on the quiz in class, take notes. You can turn that into a study guide for yourself that you’ll be able to look over in the final minutes before your test. If your professor doesn’t do that, try to figure out what’s going to be on the quiz. Look at what the most important concepts of the class may be, and focus on those. It helps if you’ve already had a quiz or test in the class because you’ll have something to base it off.
I had a history professor while I was in community college that would lecture for the whole class period, and he would occasionally write terms on the board to go over. It was only those terms that would be on his tests, in addition to some readings from the book. Though he never specified which terms exactly would be on the tests, it was a lot easier for me to figure out how his tests would go as I would just have to figure out which terms were the most important.
Talk to classmates.
A lot of the time, classmates can be very helpful when it comes to preparing for tests. You’re all in the same boat, and if there’s a concept you don’t understand, a classmate may be able to help you figure things out.
Most of the time, I’ve been able to arrive to classes early, and I’ve always seen classmates outside doing last minute cramming before the test. With the history class I took in community college, it was extremely helpful because we could try to work out what would be on the tests together, and then go over those terms as a group. Of course, this may not be the best course of action for everyone as your schedule may not allow you to do this, but if you can, you should definitely take advantage of it!
Source: Giphy
Study a little bit in the days leading up to your exam.
Maybe your morning routine consists of having breakfast and scrolling through your social media. Instead of scrolling through your social media with breakfast, look over your notes to study for your exams. You can review your notes while you’re eating meals over scrolling through your social media for the tenth time that day. This may be the most helpful while you’re trying to make a study guide or just don’t quite know what’s going to be on the quiz.
Whatever your study plan is, you’ve gotta do what you gotta do to pass your classes! After all, a lot of money goes into our college education (free education when?), and it’d be a waste to go through 16 weeks of a course only to fail it. Best of luck on your exams, Monarchs!