Study Tips and Tricks for Finals

Although everyone prepares differently for the catastrophic explosion of stress, caffeine, and lack of sleep that is finals season, there is a certain method to the madness.  

First, figure out what type of material you’re working with. Now, what do I mean by that? Your study regimen is going to wildly vary from a literature class as opposed to a physics class. But you also need to figure out whether your professor teaches by fact memorization, methods/reasoning, or broader application.  

In a calculus class, for example, it might be more important to your professor that you understand how to get to the right answer than it is that you actually (somehow) got the right answer. For that final, it’s going to be a combination of fact memorization (knowing the correct formulas) and methods/reasoning (being able to apply them). For an American history class that looks closely at different historical events and then prompts analysis, discussion, and application of them, it’ll be fact memorization and broader application. You’ll need to know the specific dates of different events and names of different people (fact memorization), and be able to analyze these events and relate them to each other (bigger application).  

See what I’m getting at? It’s not as black and white as it sounds, especially given that some professors teach all three at once, or sometimes just one, but roughly categorizing your finals into these boxes can help you understand what kind of prep you’re looking at.  

Study methods for fact memorization classes: 

• Flashcards (online or on paper) 

• Active recall 

• Put together a study group and quiz each other  

Study methods for methods/reasoning classes: 

• Active recall 

• Practice writing down or saying aloud the method you need to understand  

• Do research on why the method is what it is (understanding something better is good for long-term memorization!) 

Study methods for bigger application classes: 

• Explaining the concepts of your course to others 

• Talk about the topics with your professor during office hours 

• Try to find news articles, movies, books, etc, related to the topic  

(Just as a side note, I can’t recommend active recall enough. Look into it if you don’t know what it is!) 

Once you’ve made a list of a few study methods that both work best for you and for the class at hand, it’s important to start early. Rather than waiting until two days before the final and attempting (and likely failing) to study for nine hours a day, start a week or two in advance and do two or three. If you cram your brain with an overload of information at the very last minute, not only are you going to struggle to retain it all, but the stress of overworking yourself is going to impact your sleep and overall cognitive functions. When you walk into an exam knowing you’ve been studying the material for literal weeks, it also adds a level of confidence that allows you to think much more clearly.  

Personally, I start studying exactly two weeks before each exam, and I build from 2-3 hours a day to 4-5 in the last few days. As insane as it sounds, I actually don’t study the day before the final. I’ll do a quick review of my study guide the morning before the exam, just to jog my memory. Which just goes to show, everyone has different methods of studying that just work for them.  

My final tip for finals, which I know for some is an unpopular one, is to go to your professor’s office hours! They really don’t bite (at least, most of them). Your professors are genuinely here to help you and can be pivotal in breaking down those barriers of confusion.  

Good luck! 

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