It's That Time of Year...

As my title states, "it's that time of year" and I am not talking about Christmas time but Finals time!! I guess I wanted to Blog on the final for class talk about the "review" day before the final. I really liked when we did this for the midterm/quiz because it covered a good span of time and alot of information. I liked the way we got into groups and came up with possible vocab words and short answer and essay questions. The final will probably be a little longer than the midterm since it is a 2 hour exam rather than the 50 minutes we were allowed for the midterm. If we do decide to have this review, we should dedicate most of the class time towards brainstorming for ideas about the final.
I like reviews because they give you a chance to recall details of stories that were read weeks ago. And I know for me this is sometimes hard because I have all English classes and I am usually literally reading four different books and authors that are completely unrelated to one another! Reviews are also good because its nice to have the professor give his or her ideas on where to focus your attention when studying, rather than leaving you with a ton of information and not really having a good feel on what the final is going to focus on.

Lastly, I just wanted to give a few good tips on studying for big tests like midterms and finals. I usually do really well on these kinds of exams because the study habits I have developed over the years. A few pointers include:

• Do not wait until the night before to study! If you do this, you are only hurting yourself! Take the time to at least review the material (browsing over it and your notes) two or three days before you study.
• If it helps, study with a friend. Sometimes you learn more from another person's notes, opinions on material or from simply just talking about the stories and reviewing the things we discussed in class.
• Write notes in the book you are reading as you go along. Even if this just includes writing out the plot as it develops. Trust me, this will aid you immensely when you want or need to go back in the text to find certain information. Also, if we discuss certain passages or page numbers in class, you could mark it, star it, write the page number in your notes and a quick note on why its important or do whatever you have to do to remember it. This is very helpful especially when it is the professor who has directed your attention to this idea, sentence, quote, chapter or page--9 times out of 10 it will be important enough to appear on an exam!
• Try rewriting your notes. People think I am crazy for this but I swear this helps!! For the midterm, I literally went back and browsed over every piece we had read and also looked at my notes concerning those essay/stories. I then typed up a nice long study sheet. Yes, it does consume a lot of time but you will be thankful in the end! Typing or rewriting important ideas discussed in the text or class will not only refresh your memory, but it will also help when you are writing that essay. Also, you will have everything of importance organized and in your hands on a couple sheets of paper rather than having to drag around a ton of books and a huge notebook full of notes.
• Another good thing about studying earlier than the day before the exam is that it gives you time to ask questions that may come up while you study. Instead of not knowing the answer or having to wait until right before the exam to ask the professor, you will have time to email him or her and/or talk to them about your confusion.
• Lastly, and again in reference to rewriting notes, it will help you to develop a much more concise, focused and detailed essay. Sure you might not have that thesaurus there to help you plug in some big intelligent words to spice up your idea(s), but you will have concrete details from your notes and the text to back up your points.

I know everyone studies differently, but if anyone wants to consider and use some of these pointers I hope they help you!!!