Three times a year, South students once again go through the stress, pressure, and anxiety of finals. Every teacher gives different study tips, every student has different study methods, and everyone dreads the weeks leading up to the two last days of the trimester. To help with that this tri, students and teachers have come together to provide a guide to finals. Here are the best tips and tricks to success during finals week.
1. The Classic: make sure you get enough sleep the night before! Students have heard this before every test since kindergarten, but rarely pay attention. Sleep is actually very important and helps with concentration and focus while test-taking.
2. The Classic (part two): eat a good breakfast. Also something that has been said before every test ever, and probably paid more attention to than sleep. Taking a test on an empty stomach is never a good idea, and it is important to get a well balanced meal beforehand.
3. The Obvious: study. If you know what’s going to be on the test, things will go infinitely better.
“Study throughout the week, don’t just do it on Wednesday night or Thursday night,” said senior Haley Plessinger.
4. The Weird: record yourself reading all of your class notes and then listen to it as you sleep. Studies have shown that the brain can absorb bits of information during sleep, and maybe the bits you absorbed during your nap will show up on the final.
5. The Cliche: don’t worry about it! If you’ve gotten this far through the year, then you should have a pretty good understanding of the material. If you review and refresh your memory of the material, things should go fairly well.
“The tests themselves, they’re hard, but it’s just like any other test you’re taking,” said Plessinger.
6. The Living on the Edge: if you really feel unprepared by now, swing by Starbucks on your way to school and hope for the best. Chug a coffee and feel the caffeine-fueled genius take over your test.
7. The Playing it Safe: make sure you complete all rituals, superstitions, and habits necessary before test-taking.
8. The Bare Minimum: use a grade calculator to figure out what you need to pass, and then aim for that. If the number comes out very low, no big deal! If it comes out higher, it’d probably be a good idea to study.
9. The Considerate: while preparing for finals, remember that your teachers are also finishing up the trimester, so don’t try and turn in all of your assignments in the last three days.
“This is a stressful week for everybody in the building,” says Biology and APES teacher Amanda Figolah.
Finals are daunting, no matter how many times you’ve taken them. However, they are inevitable, and feasible. Study, sleep, use some of the tips on this list, and come to school on Thursday and Friday prepared to do the best you can do.
