Exams: What Really Matters and How to Effectively Prepare For Them
Exams. One word has never struck more fear into a student (save for maybe the word failure). Final exams are treated as the final battle royale for college students — an insurmountable obstacle to survive.
Truth be told exams don’t warrant nearly the amount of stress and anxiety students have come to associate with them — the drama and hyperbolic language create a negative environment that reinforces the idea that if you are a student about to take exams you must be: struggling, sleep-deprived, anxious and depressed — all at once if you want to be extra “dedicated.”
In reality, final exams are just a test to measure your knowledge and understanding of a subject. Yes, cumulative exams are challenging given the amount of material they cover, but most finals just cover the most recent portion of class, with, perhaps, a few questions from earlier lectures. Final exams are no different from an exam at any other point in the semester (save for the expectation of needing to recall material from the whole syllabus as opposed to just the most recent chunk — which is challenging but not impossible).
Students continue to ineffectively approach and prepare for finals, which ironically limits and reduces their chances of success. Instead of jumping on board the anxiety-riddled train to nowhere with your peers, here’s how to effectively prepare for your upcoming exams.
Change your attitude to improve your odds
Studies show a positive open-mind leads to greater creativity, better memory retention and improved performance abilities meaning, your performance on a test could be enhanced or at least better than if you show up with a depressed, anxious state.
My college professor would draw this curve on the board prior to every exam (the Yerkes-Dodson Law) to reemphasize the goal is to be slightly stressed (like just before a game or before the midnight premiere of the new Avengers film) but not so stressed you go into a flight-or-fight response that forces your body to cut off critical resources including creativity and memory which can hinder your performance on the exam. Adopt a more positive attitude and focus on a healthy state — while any kind of performance-based task like a test warrants adrenaline and stress — just make sure it’s not because you are overwhelmed or scared of failing. Negative attitude leads to negative stress which will ultimately impact your ability to perform well on the exam.
Reframe your mindset: exams aren’t a punishment, but an opportunity
The whole point of exams is to recap your knowledge and understanding of the material. it’s an opportunity to not just show your professor, but yourself, how well you understand the material and your progress in the subject matter. Learning isn’t about a strict dichotomy of ‘you know it’ or’you don’t know it’ — rather an exam shows what your depth of understanding of the material is — is it shallow or is it deep? Can you apply the material in a context different from which you learned it? Can you recognize it without relying on rote memorization? Can you use it to connect disparate ideas? Instead of viewing exams as a final obstacle, view them as a final opportunity to get a greater sense of your understanding of the material. By focusing on a positive goal, you are more inclined to remain centered, giving you a better chance at preparing effectively as opposed to stressing out and cramming for the exam. Instead of asking — ‘what’s on the test?’ try asking ‘how deep is my understanding of this material?’
Make only a rough plan, but commit to a schedule
I understand wanting to plan every study session out to a T, but having a rigid plan can add to your stress when you encounter a situation in which you realize you don’t have as deep an understanding on a concept and need to spend an extra session on it. By committing to a schedule (ideally a month prior to exams) to begin your review, you are giving yourself the time and space to refresh your memory of the material, get a deeper understanding of your knowledge of the subject matter and then determine where to invest your time in studying. Your last month of the semester should look drastically different from the previous months — you should have defined study sessions (and even a space picked out) to ensure you are slowly building your knowledge of the material instead of cramming it all in last minute (which studies have proven, rarely works). Commit to spending at least one hour a day and larger blocks of 2–3 hours on the weekends leading up to exams. You’ll thank yourself for making time to study slowly which will help you encode the material more effectively while also reducing your stress levels.
Remember, exams are just the culmination of your effort over the course of a semester
If you are struggling and needing to cram last minute or fearing failure, then in all likelihood you haven’t been effectively keeping up with your assignments and the material. Exams are not the time to be realizing this — if you know you have struggled and are nervous, take a moment to accurately and honestly reflect on your performance in the course to determine the most likely outcome and what you can do now to perform to the best of your abilities. If you haven’t made much of an effort, then your ability to perform well is likely to be hindered by a lack of knowledge of the material and a shallow understanding of the concepts. If this is the case, your best strategy for studying is to focus on identifying and understanding the largest themes and concepts, rather than trying to memorize minute details. You can’t learn second or third order principles of a subject without first learning the foundational principles. Start big then zoom in — and start now. The sooner you start preparing for exams, the longer you have to essentially teach yourself the entire semester’s work. Will you get everything? Of course not. The point is to improve your odds as best as possible, and starting at the broadest themes of the subject is better than picking a handful of terms and concepts that are statistically less likely to be on the final exam, given their level of specificity. Work smarter. Also, don’t just throw in the towel — if you know you are behind in the material, don’t use this as an excuse to not do any preparation for exams. Winging it isn’t smart or strategic — it’s immature and ineffective. As an adult, there will be more than your fair share of experiences in which you show up feeling unprepared — learning to commit to something and give it your best shot is preparing you for approaching life with a more positive and committed mindset. You probably can’t get an A+ at this point, but giving up ensures you won’t excel.
Focus on the present and lower your expectations for final grades/performance
Instead of worrying about the future, focus on what you can do right now to improve your odds. Think critically — will staying up until 2:00AM help you feel refreshed and ready for the 8:00AM exam? Is missing hanging out with your friends for one afternoon really more important than your performance and final grades? Regardless of your performance in the class or college overall, up until now, focus on making better decisions now. In this moment, can you stop reading for just five minutes and go pull together all of your school papers and notes so you have them ready for your next study session? Can you take two minutes to text the group to tell them you can’t make Saturday’s hangout session because you need to begin preparing for exams?
“Do something in this moment — the greater action you can take without deliberating over it the more you are likely to accomplish.”
It’s also best to lower your expectations on your final performance. Instead of imagining an A- imagine a B+. Think realistically, given your performance thus far, and focus on what would be an improvement for you, not what is defined (by society, your peers, your parents) as the BEST outcome. Yes, everyone would love to get an A+ on every exam, but think critically about each of your courses and do a quick recap of your performance so far… has class been easy or hard? Did you struggle with previous exams and assignments? Lower your expectations for a final performance and determine how to work toward achieving that goal (or even a little better) — shoot for the A- but be proud of achieving the B+ if that is realistically an improvement given your current standing in the course. Instead of accepting A+ as the “best outcome” determine what is the best outcome for you given your personal standing. Striving for an impossible outcome like an A+ when you have a steady C- in the course will only set you up for failure. It’s better to work toward more achievable outcomes, and slowly work your way up, then trying to jump from one level to a much higher goal. Small incremental improvements do add up.
Consider this — Do you actually hate exams? Or do you just hate them because everyone else does…?
Think for yourself — one of the fundamental goals of college is to develop the ability to think critically and independently. You can follow the crowd, the mediocrity (and negativity) or you can rise above the rest and focus on maintaining a positive attitude and doing your best work. To be frank, this is why study groups are actually quite terrible — because a lot of time is spent complaining and sharing fears and worries about exams and trying to outdo one another on who is more stressed. We live in a culture (here in the US) that loves to complain and project our busy-ness on to others. It’s sadly something we pride ourselves on, but is ultimately ineffective and arguably a huge source of increasing rates of depression and anxiety. Think for yourself and decide if you actually hate exams. If you do hate exams, think critically for a moment….why is that? Do you just really hate tests… or is it because you know you aren’t prepared for final exams. If this is the case, the exams aren’t the problem, your system for studying and preparing throughout the semester is — which should be a huge signal going forward. You can spend every semester hating exams or you can buckle down and devise a system to make sure you feel confident and prepared for them each time around. Your choice, totally up to you.
These may seem like counterintuitive strategies for approaching exams — so much “talk” centers around students being overwhelmed by the thought of performing well on exams but the reality is, the “threat” of poor performance has been there from day one of your class. You have known since the beginning of the semester that exams were coming, so why not proactively prepare for them? Why not take an extra 20 minutes everyday to review what you learned and make sure you understand the concepts being discussed? So much of students distaste for exams really boils down to poor time management and a desire to fit in with their peers — not caring about schoolwork and complaining about school are sadly popular practices, even in college with adult students. This is the average approach — and it will only net you extra stress, anxiety and late nights in the library. Take a moment to decide if that is really what you want — do you want to be average? Do you have to be stressed out? Choose the path less taken and invest in building better habits and practices of mind — learning how to think differently from the crowd and determining the best strategies for yourself will serve you well long after graduation.
