You’ve put in the work for your fast-paced summer course, and now your final exams are looming. The amount of content can be daunting, but a few extra study tips can help.
​Active vs Passive Studying
​Unfortunately, most schools never teach students proper study habits. While everybody learns differently, there are general methods that tend to make content stick faster than others.
​Passive learning is any type that doesn’t require testing your knowledge of the content. This involves re-reading the material, copying it out word for word while reading it, and highlighting. While these can be useful to familiarize yourself with the content, for most students, this won’t keep it in your head.
​Active studying is the opposite. This forces you to see what you know and what you don’t. It takes more effort, but ultimately it is faster than passive studying. Some common techniques are:
- Using flash cards.
- Cover the content and see what you recall.
- Read a passage, then write everything you remember WITHOUT looking.
- Practice tests, lots of practice tests!
Make a Study Plan
​Sometimes it’s hard to even know where to begin when you’re overwhelmed by the amount to review. It can feel impossible if you don’t break it into smaller chunks. In summer school, it’ll typically be about half a unit per day. Aim to review the content (give it a quick read), then go right into some form of active studying. This way, you’ll quickly find what you don’t know and can focus your studies.
​Do You Know it, or Recognize it?
​One common mistake students make when studying is associating familiarity with understanding the content. For instance, if you glance over the material and recognize the concepts, you might assume you have it memorized. However, if presented with a question about the topic, recognition doesn’t mean you’ll know the answer. This is another reason active studying is so important.
​Try the Application-Style Questions
Memorizing facts is one facet of learning and will be helpful for some exam questions. But to truly understand the content and achieve a high grade, students must be able to apply the concepts. Typically, you can find application style questions in textbooks, on exambank, or QuestA+ (links to all of these). Students can also do some independent research and see if they can connect a few concepts together in a paragraph or two.
​Don’t Cram For Final Exams
​You’ve heard it once, and you’ll hear it again: Cramming last-minute isn’t a great idea. While this is tough in summer school, courses are typically designed to give students about a week to study for finals. Use this week!
​Your brain needs time to absorb concepts, so fitting an entire course into one day typically doesn’t work. Spacing out your studies allows the content to sink in and gives you time to retest yourself over the next few days.​
Review Old Tests, Quizzes, and Assignments
​Now is the time to go back over your previous assessments and see where you struggled. This focuses your studies and fills in the gaps in your knowledge.​
If you have questions, now is the time to ask! With such a short period to study, there’s not much time to dwell on questions you couldn’t figure out. Email your teachers, ask your friends, or bring it up to your tutor.​
Book Some Extra Tutoring
​Whether you’ve been with a tutor during your course or working through it on your own, some extra tutoring sessions can come in handy when prepping for an exam. At Learnology, we help students actively study, give application-style questions, and answer any questions you have about the material.​
Book with us here or call us at 780-700-7877.