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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Virginia Tech chapter.

It’s finals season, which means it’s all day, every day studying. If there’s anything I’ve learned over time at college, it’s how to cram. From watching different YouTube videos to learn different strategies to trying different things myself, these are the steps that have worked for me.

Onenote

If there’s any application that works great for notes, it’s OneNote. I didn’t learn about it until one of my friends this semester told me about it. When I had told them about how I printed my fill-in-the-blank notes for a specific class, they then put me on to OneNote and showed me how much better it was because I wouldn’t have to print anything rather then fill in the blanks digitally. I download all of my lectures then upload them to a folder specific to that class to be able to go over them before an exam.

notion

After reviewing my notes on OneNote, I go over them while using Notion to write down the most important things to remember and the general gists of concepts I have to memorize. I used to love Google Docs for taking notes, but Notion is my preferred method now.

make practice tests

After reviewing lectures and writing down my own notes and reviewing them, I make my own practice tests. Using my own notes from Notion, I make questions from the concepts I have to learn. It’s great to make them multiple choice at first when you are trying to make sure you know the content, but then, switching it to short answer to ensure you know your concepts and have learned them properly.

quizlet

Another way to do step three is to use Quizlet. I’m sure a majority are used to Quizlet, but if you aren’t, it’s a website to make your own digital flash cards. It also allows you to use your flash cards as matching games and allows you to make practice tests differing options from matching to the letter, short answer and multiple choice.

Honestly, this should take at least three-four hours. If you repeat these steps, taking new practice tests and reviewing notes between each one, it should help if you’ve procrastinated studying. It’s nearing the end of the semester, so this is the final push before we leave for break or some of us graduate ending our college careers. Either way, let’s make sure we can get through this last part of the semester, so then, we can relax or get to work for the summer.

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Alejandra Jimenez

Virginia Tech '24

Alejandra Jimenez is a sophomore at Virginia Tech studying Computational Modeling & Data Analytics. She has a passion for shopping, tv shows, reading, and spending time with her friends and family.