Finals are slowly creeping up on us, and before we know it we’ll be preparing for finals. Unfortunately not everyone knows how to properly study which can be a fatal to your grades. You have all of the material, you just don’t know how to study it. Here are the best study tips to help you conquer any exam!

1. Be Organized

So often people underestimate the importance of being organized. This is not only helpful as a student, but it will also be helpful in your future endeavors.

• Have a study time scheduled in your day. This is the best way to ensure that you will study, if it’s scheduled into your day you are less likely to get distracted and it ensures that you will get to it because you’ve set aside time to do so.
• Refer to your syllabus. Your syllabus is a free tool that you didn’t have to do any work to get, and sadly so few people use it. The teacher takes the time to layout everything you need to know for the semester so why not use it?! This is your guide to success in your class, and if you use it to your benefit it’s almost difficult to not succeed.
• Write everything down. You’re probably really tired of hearing about agendas from me, but I cannot stress the benefit of having and using one. Your agenda can be a great tool if utilized correctly. I use mine to write down homework assignments to do, upcoming tests, due dates, work schedule, everything can easily be accessed in one place; your agenda!

 
2. Only Study What You Need to Know

A lot of the time your exams are broken up containing only a few chapters, or your professor will tell you prior to the exam what you need to know. So instead of going through and rereading every single chapter or studying all of your notes. Study what you need to know. Don’t fill up your head with a ton of information that will be completely useless on the exam. College students tend to make things 10x’s more stressful than it needs to be.

3. Turn Off Distractions

I’m pretty sure you’re not going to be as productive or truly be studying to the best of your ability if you’re blasting music, watching Netflix, or on your phone. Turn your distractions off! I know it’s a crazy concept in 2017 to put your phone down, turn off the TV, and just focus on school work, but it is possible and it will benefit you. The truth is multitasking is actually more harmful than helpful so just try to remain focused on one thing, what you’re trying to study. But if you do need to listen to music or at least have some sort of noise I would suggest listening to calming music without lyrics, this will be the least distracting and still allow you to study effectively.

4. Test Your Knowledge by Trying to Explain the Concept

I love this technique because it truly allows you to understand what you know, and what you need to work on. Whether it be with a study partner or your sibling or parent, sit down and explain a concept on your upcoming exam to them. If you can fully explain every point and the entire concept to them then you are golden, if not just jot down what you still need to work on and study, study, study!

5. Personalize Your Studying

The same method of studying does not work for everyone, so personalize it to yourself and make it work for you. At the end of the day no one study method is going to work for every college student in the world, you have to just find out how your brain works, and how you learn best. Just be willing to put in the time and effort, and it will work out.

That’s all I have for study tips, I hope this was helpful and I wish you all the best on finals!

“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.”

-Jimmy Johnson

–Danielle