Study Habits: Preparing For Finals

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Conquer Your Finals: From Stress To Success

With finals just around the corner, obtaining good study habits will be essential for your success. In this article I will discuss different methods that have prepared me for my finals and put me on honor roll. First, I will discuss the approach to studying for finals. Both physical and mental approaches that will enhance your studying experience. Next, I will provide different studying techniques designed for understanding new information and  retaining old information. All of these techniques work differently for everyone so try whatever works best for you. 

The Approach

The best approach to studying for any exam is to have a calm and level head. Now there are various techniques to calm the mind, so I will be separating the different techniques from physical and mental strategies. To be effective while studying requires your mind to be free of distractions and worries.

Physical Approaches

1. Checklists - The most effective way to organize your work is with a checklist. There are various ways to list your work. Personally, I make a checklist two days in advance and split up the work for my assignments in a Google Doc. Another strategy is to list out all of the assignments or exams in that week.

2. Creating a Master Schedule - When starting early, a great way to find time for all of your studies is making a master schedule. For an effective master schedule, break your work up into chunks. Set aside 50 to 90 minutes a day for each individual exam. An important point for schedules is to make them visually appealing. This way looking at the work that has the get done is less stressful

3. Finding A Place To Study - The studying environment can make all the difference in terms of productivity. Studying in a comfortable environment can increase distractions and decrease productivity. Finding a designated place in your home or on campus will make studying more productive. I recommend finding a place with minimal distractions and preferably outside of your home.

Mental Approaches

1. Preparing Your Mind - Right before you start a study session, activate your mind to be in the right headspace for studying. The same way singers warm up their voice, having a small brain exercise can put you in the right headspace. I recommend reviewing diagrams and drawing pictures of the different course elements.

2. Giving Yourself Breaks - Although working hard is very important, allowing yourself to take breaks while studying is healthy for yourself. 

3. Studying With Friends - Finding the right group of friends or classmates can increase focus. The right group of people can even hold you accountable. 

4. Sleep is Non-Negotiable - Try your best to get between seven to nine hours of sleep. Any less amount of sleep will make studying a lot more difficult and actually decrease the quality of performance when taking an exam.

Studying Techniques

Onto study habits and strategies that can help you with retaining information, learning, and enhancing your overall studying productivity. These will increase your productivity and help you achieve higher test scores. Again, all of these strategies work differently for everyone so use what you find to be most effective. 

Memory Retention

1. Spaced Repetition: This strategy of learning new and retaining old information over a long period of time. From the point that we learn new information our brains hit a forgetting point. How spaced repetition overcomes the forgetting point is by reviewing old information every time you are about to forget. This can be achieved by two ways: planning around your points and review.

2. Active Recall: This is the most commonly used method. This technique can take several different forms such as flashcards, practice tests, teaching a concept to someone else. The most effective of these methods for me are flashcards. A site where you can partake in many different active recall activities is Quizlet.

3. The Feynman Technique: The Feynman Technique put simply, is the idea that the easier it is for you to explain a topic, the more you understand a topic. This technique was created by Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman who was called the Great Explainer for his ability to boil down complex physics topics into understandable content. The Feynman Technique can be done in 4 steps on a piece of paper.

1: First, get a piece of paper and write down the name of your topic on the top of the page.

2: Second, write out the concept by explaining it in simple language. Write out the explanation as if you were teaching someone about it. Also, do not settle with just writing down an explanation, complete practice questions or write examples of the topic. 

3: Identify any information that you are stuck on or have trouble defining. This requires you to spot whatever piece of the topic you are struggling with and go back to the source material or your notes to review it. 

4: Pinpoint any complex terms and challenge yourself to simplify them. 

Active Recall Exercises

1. Flashcards: In my opinion, flashcards are the most helpful strategy for active recall and retaining information. To make a flashcard is simple: on one side you have a term and on another side you have the definition. People like doing this in different ways, on physical flashcards people like writing down the different terms. People also make these digitally on websites such as Quizlet, which is what I use. This strategy is the most common active recall method and for good reason. It can help you keep information in your head for longer. 

2. Practice Tests: Creating and taking tests are a great way to prepare yourself for the actual exam. There are several ways to take a practice test. The easiest way is if your professor provides practice tests from previous semesters. Another way is to make your own tests or to take one provided by AI or Quizlet.

3. Concept Mapping: This outlining technique involves creating a map, spider diagram, or a cocktail napkin picture. This creative active recall technique is helpful when learning a new topic or reviewing an old one. This brainstorming technique is a helpful guide for keeping track of concepts and learning new ones.

Whether trying out these different techniques or not it is always important to stick to a routine that maximizes productivity. But pick and choose which works for you, the only thing that matters is how effective a technique is for yourself. Always remember to keep a calm and focused mind, by setting up your final guide this way you will see enhanced productivity.