Final exams are here. This means lots of cramming for some students. Let me assume that you have attended class, taken notes, and read the readings. You now need to review your notes and the readings. People will study in different ways. I’m going to make some suggestions for prepping for the final.

1. See the instructor or Teaching Assistant and talk about the final exam. Find out what the instructor is looking for with the final.
2. I used to re-type all my notes so that the information would sink in deeper. If the class required learning lots of terms, I would use index cards and I would handwrite the answers and quiz myself with the index cards.
3. Form a study group and work together with your classmates. This allows you to pool your knowledge and quiz one another as needed. Plus, some of the group members might have strengths in some areas that you do not.
4. Study. Sleep. Eat. Exercise. Repeat.
5. If you don’t know where your grade is prior to the final, confer with the instructor and find out what your mark is to date. This is a great incentive to help you figure out how much you really want to dedicate to studying for the final exam. Yes, I realize that students often do a cost-benefit analysis to figure out how much time or energy that they will dedicate toward a final.
6. On the day of the final exam, sit down to write the exam. Close your eyes and picture your notes, the books, and think back to the lectures. If you’ve studied, the information is there, but you need to articulate it. You can do it.

Good luck!