They say don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but there are some gifts that make that a little harder than others, ones of these ‘gifts’ is the take-home final. When your professor first announces that the final is take-home, you probably feel like taking them out for some Starbucks and Chipotle because you love them so much, but not so fast ladies. Take-home exams are extremely underestimated because you’re sitting there like, “This is good. This is real good. I’ll have my classmates, my notes, the textbook, and my BFF the Internet, and I’ll be done with this in no time.” But once the excitement and relief wears off of not having to study for at least one exam, you realize this might be a little harder than you expected. You see, the professor knows you have your classmates, your notes, the textbook, and the Internet, and because of those factors and because you’ll have a significantly longer period of time to complete the exam in comparison to what you’d receive in class, your professor will most likely make this exam significantly more difficult and they will grade it harsher. Here’s a couple tips to help you ace that take-home final, and may the odds be ever in your favor collegiettes.
1) PREPARE! No matter if it’s a take-home or in-class final, you need to be prepared for whatever questions are thrown your way. So catch up on your notes, make flashcards/charts/graphs/etc., answer the textbook’s practice questions, and go to your professor’s/TA’s office hours. Make sure you feel comfortable with the material that the professor has said will be on the exam. You don’t want to sit down to begin your exam and realize that most of it is made up of questions from that one day in class where you and your girl decided to skip and take part in some retail therapy.
2) Don’t waste any precious time! Sometimes professors will post a take-home exam online and give you a certain amount of time to complete it, while others will give you the exam several days before you need to hand it in. In the case of the latter, use the extra time given to your advantage. Several days means that you don’t have to take the exam in one sitting; spend one day on the multiple choice, one on the short answers, one outlining and planning your essay, and then the last on the actual essay. Breaking the exam up can also help to decrease what I can only assume will be crazy amounts of stress.
3) Set the mood! No, I don’t mean what you think I mean. At this point in your educational career, you should know in which type of environment you do your best work. Some people need to be in a classroom to focus and do well. If that’s the case, try and find out if your professor can reserve a room for students such as yourself to go and take the exam in. If you’re someone that spends every afternoon in the library because that is the ONLY place you can focus, reserve a study room at Bailey-Howe or set up shop in Billings Library (one of my favorite spots on campus). If you’re like me, and like to do your work at home, lock yourself in your room with all the necessary provisions (snacks, coffee/tea, the limited edition of Poland Spring Seltzer, etc.), light some candles, play some calming music (I swear by the Birdy Pandora station), get into your favorite sweats and sweatshirt, and make that final your b*tch.
4) Treat this exam like any other. The biggest mistake you can make is treating a take-home final like it’s no big deal. I could go on about take-home final horror stories I’ve heard where people thought it was going to be a piece of cake and it turned out to be the kind of exam that makes you feel like you’ve just been sucker-punched. A take-home final can be a freaking blessing, but only if you take it seriously.