December 7, 2009
by Christopher Geanakos | Staff Writer
Finals week is the playoff of the semester, perhaps not as competitive as an athletic playoff, but certainly as important. One bad grade is all it takes to throw out all the hard work performed over the course of a term. For those who are counting down each passing day with dread, here are a few tips which may help you for the exams.
Procrastination is the biggest roadblock for any student, especially when it comes to finals week. Be sure to set aside a few hours each day for study. If you procrastinate and wait until the night before your exam, studying could become a very painful process since it’s quite hard to memorize a textbook in one night. Though this may seem painfully obvious, it’s astonishing how many students suffer because of procrastination when it is not necessary.
City College boasts many resources which could help out with studying for the finals. Walk-in tutoring service is provided for all sorts of academic disciplines, even including dental hygiene and accounting. There is also the library in the Learning Resource Center for students without textbooks, so long as the required text is on reserve, there is no reason why not owning the book should stymie the study process.
Study groups can greatly increase your chances at passing finals. Though some may be expert note takers, it’s likely that many students will miss important pieces of information from time, whether it is from lectures or assigned reading. Study groups help eliminate information holes, which should be regarded as potential questions on the final. They are also good for rounding out your comprehension on a given topic since there is a whole body of people to bounce your thoughts off of.
Rewriting your notes is also a good method to make information easily retainable. Though rewriting the notes verbatim may not be very helpful, unless you’re in a calligraphy course, I’ve found that rewriting the day’s lectures into complete sentences and paragraphs make me engage what before I was simply trying to memorize. As you are forced to summarize and find the appropriate words, it becomes easier to learn the subject matter. For many students, their own words are the easiest to remember.
While getting in sufficient study time is obviously important, it is also important to relax and not overload yourself with information. Marathon studying might seem appropriate, depending on the complexity of the course subject matter, however it becomes harder to recall facts and details when you take on an unreasonable amount of data in a given day or study session. Be sure to start your studies early enough to ensure you don’t have to do any marathon studying.
These are just a few simple pointers to help struggling students toward the right direction in studying for their exams. Chances are, if you take this advice to heart while studying for your finals, your studying will be less stressful and probably more fruitful.
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