Final Exams
Assemble Your Materials
Begin by assembling all your notes, homework assignments, handouts, PowerPoint slideshows, papers, quizzes, tests, note cards, etc., and organizing them into an orderly system.
How you do that depends on how you learn best, and what makes the most sense to you—you may want to put them in chronological order, or you may want to group them by type (i.e., go over all the homework assignments, then the quizzes, then the tests).
Set Goals
What scores do you want to get on these finals?
It’s less helpful to think “I want A-pluses on all of them, of course!” and more helpful to think about exactly what scores you need to end up with the end-of-year grades you want. You know how your teachers tend to test you, and score you—you’ve had a year’s worth of experience with that—so you probably have a pretty good idea of what that final is going to look like, and how difficult it will be for you. Depending on how your school and your teachers run the grading system, it may be possible for you to figure out exactly how many points you need to score on the final to end up with your target grade.
Set tasks
What do you need to do to achieve those grades?
Make a checklist for yourself, for each class, with all of the things you’ll need to do in order to be as prepared as you possibly can on test day. Going over a year’s worth of work is a big job, to be sure, but it seems a LOT more manageable when you break it down into smaller, do-able tasks, and check them off as you go. Here are some ideas for that checklist:
Go back to your outlines
- At CATES, we strongly suggest that students keep working outlines going throughout the year for class notes and class readings. Doing so certainly makes it easier to stay on top of the material, and be ready for quizzes and tests as they come at you through the year, but it also pays off big time come midterms and finals. If you have been doing this, congratulations, you’ve made your job that much easier as finals approach. If you haven’t done this, definitely consider doing it for next year—it’s a huge help, and a good habit to get into.
- Review your past tests
- Review the review sheet (if your teacher gave you one)
- Create a study group
- Attend teacher review sessions (If your teacher offers these, GO. They are a gift to you. Do not miss them.)
- See your teacher during office hours
Create a Schedule
When will you complete these tasks? What is your goal for each class in each day of the two or three weeks leading up to finals?
Get it Done!
Just do it. You won’t stick to the schedule you originally laid out for yourself—nobody’s perfect—but stay on top of your evolving schedule, and update your schedule and checklist regularly. If it helps, have someone to hold you accountable—that could be a parent, a tutor, a friend, or a study group.
