With the end of April comes the end of the winter semester. After a long school year, the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight. There’s just one last obstacle between you and a well-deserved break: finals. Final exams can be very stressful for the average college student; you have multiple exams to study for, and each has its own different information to review.
The best thing to do during exam season is, no surprise, to study. Reviewing helps solidify the information in your brain, making your life easier during this stressful time. There are endless study methods to use, so if one doesn’t work for you, there’s bound to be another that does. I’ll show you a few options to help you be ready for those final exams.
Pomodoro
Starting with my favorite: the Pomodoro method. The technique, created by Francesco Cirillo, is based on time intervals. You spend a certain amount of time studying/completing tasks before taking a designated break for a different amount of time. The most common style is four task completion times, usually lasting 25 minutes, and five-minute breaks between each. This would add up to just under two hours spent working.
A pomodoro study session often starts with a few minutes of planning and writing down the tasks you’d like to complete during each work time. It’s also a good idea to gather some snacks and water, maybe even turn off your phone, to avoid any distractions while you work. At the end of the four sessions, it’s recommended that you take a long break so you aren’t left fatigued.
The great part about this method is that you can pick and choose the duration of time you want to use, making it fit what suits you best. Even better is that you can find all kinds of videos of Pomodoro timers on YouTube or other apps. These videos also have different times! You’ll never be lacking in variety for this method.
Group Work
Okay, I get it, it’s obvious that group work is a good study method. You get to work together with your peers to help each other out. I can also recognize how inconvenient it can be to plan a group study session. You have to find a time when everyone is free, then find a place that works best for each of you, and finally, make sure you all can stay focused.
If you can work past all these barriers, you’ll find yourself using an effective study method to ready you for the exam. By working with your classmates, you get to exchange information you’ve gathered during the semester, so if one person is struggling with a topic, the others can help out.
A group study session can also help you to designate time for studying and give each other structure while you’re together. If you’re like me, a study group can also keep you accountable. When you meet with your group, you’ll probably need to be ready to study at a certain level or on a certain topic. This means you might need to prepare beforehand so you can hop right into the group studying instead of spending half the time reviewing what could’ve been done on your own.
I can recognize that it could be difficult to form a group if you didn’t build some level of connection with your classmates early on. You also might not be a social person, and that’s okay. If you can find a way to get yourself out there, it’ll definitely be worth it.
Primacy and Recency
This is the moment I get to pull out what I’ve learned as a psych major: the primacy and recency effect. If you’re not a psychology nerd, you might not know what these words mean, so I’ll give a quick explanation.
Primacy and recency are related to your memory. To keep it simple, I’ll break down the memorization process into three different times: the firsts, the middles, and the ends. The firsts are the things that you see and learn before all the others. The middles are the in-between information. The ends are the information you’re given at the end, making it the most recent. What’s important here are the firsts, which are the center of the primacy effect, and the ends, the center of the recency effect.
The primacy effect is when you remember the first things you learn better than the later things. These could be the lessons you were taught earlier in the semester, solidifying them in your brain. What helps with this is that you’ve probably been going back to those early lessons throughout the latter half of the course.
The recency effect, in contrast to the primacy effect, is when you remember the newest information presented better than the older information. This is because it’s at the front of your mind when you recall it. In terms of semester courses, this means the newest lesson material you’ve learned is easier to remember.
To apply this to your studying means that you focus on absorbing the information when you first get it and, instead of studying it throughout the semester, you take the time at the end of the semester to return to the material. This would mean that when you’re first taught the lesson material, you need to work hard to absorb it.
I know I’ve just thrown a dump truck’s worth of knowledge at you and that it could be stressing you out. I’m sorry for geeking out, but this is an underrated study style. In the end, try to prioritize solidifying the information when you first learn it and return to it at the end of the course.
It’s Study Time
Now that I’ve thrown a few study methods out there, it’s time to find what’s right for you. I hope that I’ve been able to help you during these trying times, and if not, then there are a hundred other techniques out there. All that matters is that you put yourself to work and try your hardest. It might sound corny, but you can’t win them all, so at least make sure you’re proud of the work you put in.