Prepping for At-Home Finals

How to conquer your exams, virtually.

by GIANNA PORECK ★ DECEMBER 3, 2020

Ah yes, everyone's favorite season is upon us: exam season. If you’re like me, it only takes one exam to send my stress levels to a solid ten. Luckily there are ways to get ahead of exam stress before exam stress gets ahead of you. Making a plan, staying organized, and taking time for yourself are all important factors for success.

The key is to divide up your work into “little tasks” and “big tasks.” This lets you slowly chip away at exam studying, rather than looking at studying as one monotonous task. Little tasks, especially, are ways to be productive without really needing to put in too much mental effort. These are perfect for times when you know you need to study, but aren’t mentally there or are looking for a way to break up your studying to prevent burnout. Little tasks may range from organizing study materials to cleaning your workspace whereas big tasks include physical studying for your exams. Below, we’ve outlined some ways that have helped us prepare and study for exams.

Little (but important) tasks to prepare for exams:

Clean your desk:

I know we all get busy and suddenly, ten textbooks, five magazines, and hundreds of eraser shavings are suddenly consuming your desk, but it is crucial to have a formal study space. Don’t even get me started on The Chair: that one chair in your room, often your desk chair, where all of your jackets, jeans, sweatshirts, and leggings are suddenly creating a scarily high fabric mountain instead of being used for sitting. For exam season, it’s important to do a deep desk clean to ensure you are working in an environment where you can truly concentrate and retain information. According to The Harvard Business Review, studies show that “our brains like order ... when participants cleared clutter from their work environment, they were better able to focus and process information, and their productivity increased.” Throw out any old notebooks or irrelevant sticky notes, store as much as you can in drawers, invest in pencil holders, neatly pile your textbooks by the side of your desk—whatever you do, keep the desk space as tidy as possible. Staples, the Container Store, Walmart, and other similar retailers have plenty of nifty items to help maximize your space.

Credit: Pinterest (@theholymess)

Organize your study materials:

One of the most helpful organization habits I’ve learned over the years is how to organize your study materials. I often like to get four large binder clips, place tape on them, and label them: READINGS, NOTES, STUDY GUIDES, OLD TESTS/QUIZZES. Organize the materials in each of the four binder clips by unit (unit 1, 2, 3…) then grab a Post-it Tab Divider to mark the start of each unit you have to study. Doing this is particularly helpful when wanting to conquer different aspects of the unit all at once, such as reviewing math lecture notes and then wanting to re-do some study guide or old test problems. The tabs make different unit materials for the class easily accessible. If studying virtually is more your style, you can still follow this way of organization using Desktop Folders, or even better, Google Drive Folders. Create subfolders for labeling the kinds of material in the folder and what unit they correspond to. While most materials, due to the pandemic, are online, you can always scan or take pictures of any paper handouts to upload to your digital folder.

Make a study plan:

Exams have a funny way of suddenly creeping up on you at the last second... but not if you have a study plan! Grab a calendar, or use your phone’s calendar, and write down the time of your exam under the correct day of the week. Then, figure out how to divide studying for your exams into manageable chunks. I like to divide my study days by unit, but you can also divide it by time or specific goals that would allow you to cover everything you need to know by exam day. I like to allot myself the last day or two before the exam to do a general review, because you’d be surprised how many things you didn’t cover well enough or are still having trouble comprehending after your designated study day. This extra day or two really helps to prevent mid-exam mental breakdowns and keeps all of the information fresh in your mind. 

Credit: Pinterest (@thelamare)

Big tasks to conquering studying like a pro:

Change up the way you study:

Your old and dear ways of studying may not cut it for certain classes. I used to be a big fan of Quizlet, but some classes cover topics that are really difficult to put into flashcard format. I’ve always found summarizing important readings, teaching others the content, re-doing study guides/practice tests, and answering possible exam questions to be extremely helpful. Whatever content you forget to teach or put into your answer, simply repeat it a few times, draw diagrams if it helps, or continue to look over the problem and practice it if it is giving you trouble.

Credit: Pinterest (@savvycollegegirl)

Try out new study methods:

Specific methods, such as the Pomodoro Method, may help to prevent study burnout! If you keep catching yourself falling asleep, taking TikTok breaks, or needing to walk around and clear your mind, it’s totally normal. But it may also indicate you aren’t studying efficiently and effectively. The Pomodoro method essentially lays out your studying for you: Put all distractions away, figure out the task you want to accomplish, work on it for 25 uninterrupted minutes, then take a five minute break to do whatever you would like before repeating the process again. After four repetitions of this method, take a 25-30 minute break to recharge. In a case study conducted by Chris Winfield, this helped participants finish 40 hours worth of work in an average of 16.7 hours. The GTD (Getting Things Done), Action, and Eisenhower methods are other alternative methods that have the same goals as the Pomodoro method, but may be tailored more to your preferences.

Take breaks… seriously:

I know it seems counterintuitive to have large amounts of content and be told to take breaks, but it's scientifically proven that breaks are the key ingredient to study efficiently. In 2016, psychologist Karrie Godwin, conducted a study on the effectiveness of breaks and learned that breaks help reduce stress, increase productivity, and boost brain function. According to Dr. Douglas McKeag, exercise is one of the best ways to take breaks because it helps to make you more alert and able to retain new information. However, any break you see fit will suffice. It could be playing with your dog, doing a face mask, taking a ten minute nap, fueling up with a healthy snack, or even hopping in a warm bath, just remember your brain needs rest to fortify the information you have just learned.

Credit: Reddit (@cozyplaces)

Put in the work, but accept what you cannot change:

It’s important to put in all of the effort you can afford into studying for exams. It may be easier to want to blow off an exam or two, but your future self may look back and regret taking a four hour long Netflix break for a barely average show rather than putting in the work to boost your GPA. Realistically, there’s only so much studying you can do before you can’t take it anymore. I know, I’ve been there. You may have come to hate some classes more than anything and are just burnt out. There may be more important things going on in your life that simply take precedence, and that’s okay. Your mental health should always come first. College work is no easy task and it is important to remember that in the grand scheme of things, one exam grade won’t affect your life’s course. As long as you know that you have put the maximum amount of effort into preparing for your exams that you personally could, that’s all that matters. You’ve worked long and hard this semester, spent countless hours on work, and maybe have faced some unexpected setbacks due to the pandemic. At the end of the day, congratulate yourself on making it through one of the most unforeseeable semesters of college, maybe ever. 

Good luck to everyone in the Orange Community taking exams in the next few weeks! Studying for exams is hard, but not impossible. I hope these tips serve you well and can help you make some adjustments to your studying habits in the coming weeks. Study smarter, not harder!