Midterms are coming up, and it can be a very stressful time. As a senior accounting major, I’ve taken my fair share of midterms and finals. I still get nervous about tests, but with the right study plan, the stress can be eased. In this article, we’ll examine a few tips and some tools that have helped me be successful on exams.
Start Early
It’s been said before, I know, but a common question is about how early to start. As I have gotten into my higher-level courses, I have experienced less homework but more exams. At first, I used the extra time I had without homework to focus on clubs or hobbies, but as exams came around, I had to cram months’ worth of material in a week. I learned that it was best to study along the way and replace the time I would have spent on homework with studying. I recommend starting with an hour a week when the test is four or more weeks away, increasing your studying to two hours a week when the test is three weeks away, and so on until you’re spending four hours the week before the test. You might realize that you know everything by the week before the test and do not need to study as much as you thought. I have found that I need to study for at least fifteen hours in order to do how I want on a test, but spreading it out makes it much more manageable.Â
Set Goals
Setting goals can really help to make studying less daunting. Before you start studying, take a moment to decide what you want to get out of the session. You don’t need to write it down, but have an idea in your head for how long you want to study, how many sections you want to get through, and how well you want to know the content. Having specific goals in mind for a study session has made it easier for me to get through it because I know when I will be done and when I can take breaks. Setting goals has also helped me to avoid burnout because it enables me to break studying into chunks that feel more reasonable. The way I go about setting study goals is to consider how much I have already studied, how much I need to study, and what I want to get done in that sitting. A concern with studying can be that sometimes we study to check a box rather than to learn. I have found that setting goals helps me to retain information because I have to study for a specific amount of time, get through a set number of sections, and reach a certain level of mastery.Â
Use Tools
Most of us know Quizlet and Kahoot, but have you heard of Blooket or Gimkit? Study tools can make the process more enjoyable by creating a fun activity. Blooket and Gimkit have a variety of different minigames where you have to answer questions correctly to progress. For Blooket, it works best if you have at least two other people to play against, but there are collaborative games you can play in Gimkit alone or with peers. I recommend creating your own Quizlet first and then transferring it into Blooket or Gimkit using their import feature. Creating your own Quizlet can also help you to study because you have to write down definitions and lists in a way that you understand, rather than using someone else’s. If you don’t learn best using technology, I have also used psychological techniques for studying, such as acronyms and associations. I have a friend in nursing school who made up stories about bones to memorize the anatomy of the human body. It may take a few tries to figure out what works for you, but once you do, you can use those tools for the rest of your college career.
Reward Yourself
You’ve worked hard studying, now you deserve to treat yourself! Whether it’s an hour to do nothing, a snack, or a hangout with friends, you should always end study sessions with a reward to trick your brain into thinking studying is a good thing! Some people think that getting a good grade on an exam is the best reward. I would tend to agree except that you need some immediate gratification every now and then! The method I use to work rewards into my studying is to study for an hour, engage in a hobby for thirty minutes, and then repeat. By breaking up study sessions with rewards, they seem less intimidating because you don’t have to be completely locked in for four hours.Â
Conclusion
If you use these four tips, I think you’ll find that studying won’t be as difficult as it was before. Starting early, setting goals, using tools, and rewarding yourself are all things that I’ve been taught or learned over my college career that have helped me be successful. I hope you learned at least one new study method or tool from this article, and if you have any other tips, please let me know!