Exam Study Tips and Horror Stories

This time of the semester can be stressful for students of any age. Let’s take the stress off, by discussing the top 10 tips for studying, as well as some stories from around the web of students whose exams didn’t go exactly as planned. 

#FinalsWeek, #StudyTips 

Finals Study Plan Worksheet

Dexters Lab – Study Now, Party Later (A Warning): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5F2suIGB7U

How to Learn (Python Programmer): https://www.youtube.com/@gilesmcmullen

My favorite Study Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui7Hb4cvamY

Transcript

Speaker: 0:09

Hello and welcome to the Thinking Ahead Podcast. My name is Rinaldo Stephens, and I'm your host on this journey to not only fund your future and education, but to find the right path for you while staying debt-free. You could say we're seeking truth in college, careers, and finance. It's that time of year after Thanksgiving. There's a chill in the air, a pep in your step, and a feeling in your spirit that you can't shake. That's right! It's finals and midterms time! The period where you have to study for and take all of the semester's finals or midterms. The chill in the air? Well that was the frigid thought of the 50 question test in art history. The pep in your step? That's you rushing to the library to try and book the quiet space before anybody else does. And that feeling in your spirit, well, that was just the fear you'll lose the scholarship that requires you to keep your GPA. A wondrous time for us all. Finals, whether you are in middle school, high school, or college, can be a very stressful time. But don't worry, I'm not gonna leave you hanging. I'm going to give you a few tips so that your finals won't be as much of a burden or a worry to you. And to lighten up the mood a bit, I will also be discussing some scary stories or horror stories I found around the web, as well as few of my own stories on how my finals week did not go exactly as planned. Without further ado, let's get into those tips. Tip number one. Get some sleep. It is mistakenly considered a badge of honor to pull all-nighters. I straight up 32 hours straight studying and preparing fall finals. I'm amazing. This thinking leads to burnout and potential health problems. College Raptor states that, you might assume that pulling an all-nighter is going to give you an advantage on the big exam, but it can actually have the opposite effect. Sufficient sleep not only helps you perform well, but it also plays a critical role in your memory, both short-term and long-term, by the way. And it has been proven to improve your ability to learn, retain, recall, and memorize information. After a full night's rest, you'll wake up feeling refreshed and energized, and your brain will be ready to do its job, which is acing the test. In my case, I pulled way too many all-nighters. And I'm not proud of it now, but when I was in college, I kind of wore it as a badge of honor. Truthfully, I just did a poor job of breaking down projects into smaller tasks. I once stayed up in the laundry room of the apartment complex I lived at because the internet in the apartment wasn't working, but the one from the cell center was, and I didn't want to be bothered by my roommates. It wasn't my best essay, but praise to the most high, I did get through with it, and I was blessed with a talent for writing last-minute essays. Not something to rely on, by the way, because this feature also plagued me when I was in high school, as I had to write a part of a presentation for AP English. Somehow, in that case, the late-night frustration and delirium turned into an artistic expression that ended up being better than the original essay I was going to write. But despite the pleasing results, please don't stay up late to try to boost your creativity. Tip number two, eat well. Also known as greasy food no no. And really, this should go without saying, but I have to say it. Don't eat like trash the day before or a day of an exam. If you're already nervous, the last thing you need is greasy bubble guts to make you run to the bathroom every five minutes. Like this guy from Reddit says, Finals week is the number one cause of explosive diarrhea in the college students. To which NWTree Hugger commented, Energy drinks and Taco Bell. Yeah. Even more horrifying is this story from theHowleronline.org, titled Taco Bell Testing. They say, eating a week old order of Taco Bell before final exams probably isn't the best idea, but when you're starving in the middle of the night, logic tends to fly out the window. Unfortunately for Junior Joshua Lee, his rash actions caught up with him at the worst possible moment. A sudden wave of nausea hit him as he began his history exam. I spread it all the way to the restroom and tried to get it out of my system as fast as possible, Lee said. Maybe it was because I was so panicked or that I ran too fast, but nothing happened. After like two minutes of trying, I think I decided to just wash it down with some water and hope for the best. After only a few minutes in class, Lee was forced to make another trip to the sink. Again, nothing. Lee's cycle of nausea kept repeating until class ended. It was a nightmare, Lee said. Getting up and leaving the class every ten minutes combined with the stress of the actual test. At least the teacher was understanding and let me stay a few minutes after I explained what happened to make up for the lost time. But overall, it was one of the worst experiences of my entire life. Moral of the story Eat wisely. Tip number three. Cram sparingly, or as I like to say, review not new. You can't become an expert in a subject just by reading books quickly in the span of a week. Though I can say that that is possibly the one Time Lord ability I'm most jealous of. Yes, over regeneration. If you try to study a lot of new content in a short amount of time, what happens is your brain crosses wires and confuses information, especially if you try to memorize just by reading, and doubly especially if you're learning new vocabulary and new situations. The brain best works in most situations by recall, so you should have a recall trigger to bring back what you've practiced, studied, or read before, that is, over the course of the entire quarter or semester. Bestcolleges.com suggests that simply rereading material again and again does not do much to help retention. The University of New Hampshire calls rereading an over-learning strategy. It's not the most effective way to study. Other techniques to avoid include one single cram session before the exam, which is a notorious college trope. Spacing out study sessions, and focusing more on effective techniques like self-testing, that is, asking yourself questions about what you've just read, can help you study smarter and not harder. I'll finish off this section with a recommendation to go to YouTube and check out Giles McMullen, also known as the Python Programmer. While his channel traditionally talked about coding, he has recently switched to meta learning topics or learning how to learn. If you really want to level up your study techniques, give his channel a watch. Tip number four leverage instructor resources for exam prep. Fastweb.com states your instructors, professors, and teachers are there to help. Ask them questions regarding the material as part of your exam prep. Ask questions so you're prepared when test time arrives. For students in graduate programs, consider this your time to become a subject matter expert. That's right. Just ask your teacher or professor for help ahead of time. Ask them for a study guide if they haven't given one out already. Ask them what they recommend you focus on. If nothing else, talking to the professor about the test usually takes some of the mystery and heaviness away, which will make you less nervous. Alternatively, Tim Ferris had a technique where he annoyed the professor during office hours so much with questions about failed exams that it would make the professor think twice about failing him. After all, who would want to spend two hours with a nosy sophomore that just can't stop asking questions? I don't recommend this technique for most people. Tip number five. Phone off during study time. Obviously. This sh one should go without saying, but in the modern world there are people that would rather not drink water for five hours than give up their phone for five minutes. The problem is your phone is a portal to the outside world. And yes, it's a two-way portal. You may tell yourself that you're only going to search up a definition or see a short video on quadratic equations, but next thing you know, you're looking at cat memes on TikTok. It's okay. Your secret's safe with me. Phone off. If you happen to use your phone to listen to instrumental emphasis, instrumental focus music on your phone, you can use airplane mode instead. The takeaway? No internet, no access to the outside world, and no distractions. Again, use airplane mode if you have focus music for studying. Tip number six make study groups with someone who knows how to study. Because making a study group with just friends is kind of silly. Many times, when you hear the advice to make a study group, your first instinct will be to partner up with a friend or someone that you hang out with on occasion from the same class. That's a rookie mistake, also known as a freshman mistake. Study with someone who knows how to study, review, ask questions, and above all, focus. Check with your school to see if they have advice on how to manage self-study or how to manage a study group. UCF created a section called Study Union. It's a student government initiative to help students prepare for final exams with tutors that can help guide them on how to prepare for their upcoming exams and projects. Who knows? Maybe the professor or teacher from your class can even help lead a study group. Tip number seven, create a study plan. Most people make the mistake of cram cram cramming over a three-day period. But as I've said before, the way human memory works is that if you revisit a topic consistently over a spread amount period of time, it's better than spending the same amount of time all together in one clump. For instance, if I study Japanese for 10 hours straight, I won't be able to speak it as well as somebody who studied 30 minutes a day over 20 days. Your study plan should keep this in mind. I have a free download for final study focused session planning sheet that should help you see and plan out a better study week. For extra accountability, share your plan with a partner or your parents to ensure that someone is holding you accountable. To tell the errors of not forming a good study group, let me regel a tell. Regal a tell. Let me tell you a story. Anyway, I was my my I was in my sophomore year of college and taking art history two right after I had retaken art history one, which I did not pass the first time. Because at the college, in order to pass courses, you had to get a C or higher for the for them to count. Anyway, so I took that knowledge and I was like, alright, art history two. I'm going to study with my friends, so that way we all can pass. So we ended up making a study group. We met inside the dorms, we were looking over our notes. We didn't really know what we were doing, but we figured, hey, look over the notes, look over the book, reread, write down dates, and hopefully that will help. And it did a little bit. And so I went into the test super confident, saying, Yes, I've got this. I am going to pass art history to my first time. I got a D. Which means I had to retake it. Moral of the story, know how to study, study with the right people, ask questions, and you'll do better. Tip number eight, and this one comes from Fast Web, make it fun. I agree wholeheartedly with this tip. Who says that studying has to be boring old and read and ask a question only? Why not make yourself a Kahoot or quizzes and use that to study with your friends or colleagues? Maybe you can do Pictionary for that biology quiz. You can even up the ante and wager gifts or snacks for whoever gets the highest score on a review game. Flashcards are useful as a study tool and can be used in the same way that you use headman headbands or blind man's bluff game. Get creative, have a good time, and learn something while you're at it. Tip number nine. Schedule the time before your exams to be open and free. If possible, get the hour or two before your exam to be open. No obligations. If you're working part-time, this can be a little more difficult. If you're working full-time, even more difficult, but your boss should understand that academics come first. Show up early, grab a coffee or some other relaxing beverage, and don't stress. At this point, you should have done everything you've been able to do, and worrying won't help. Side tip put your finals on your planner and calendar along with the time to arrive so that you don't miss out. Extra side note, take into account parking. Because lo and behold, if you go to a school that everybody drives, all the people will show up to class for the finals. There will be people that you have not seen the entire school year, but they'll show up on final exam day. They'll probably fell, but they'll be there. In my case, I made the mistake of going home a couple of hours before the exam. I was already on campus, I was helping out a friend with a project, which was also a mistake. I should have let him fell of his own accord, but then I was like, I'll go home and just get a little bit of rest before the exam. I ended up losing my awesome parking spot, taking 15 to 20 minutes to find another parking spot, and being five minutes late to my exam, where the professor locked the door and ended up giving everybody that showed up late either a D or an F. Yeah, I had to take that class again. Hopefully you also don't have a hell day like the freshman struggle on Reddit, where, and I quote, all of his professors, or all of their professors, four classes at the junior level, decided that it would be best if they gave their final before finals week, so they could focus on their other finals. So they had three finals in one day of the last day, last week of regular class. But you also don't want to be like dreaming off flying from Reddit, who says, I got the time wrong and I showed up for my final four hours after it ended. Just like your nightmare. My professor thought I was an idiot, but I ugly cried in her office and she let me take it during a different class exam time. Depending on Ugly Cry to get through college is not necessarily a resume builder, so do yourself a favor and show up at the proper time. Tip number 10. Reward yourself for project milestones and when all the testing is done. A lot of you won't have final exams or final tests per se, but you will have a project that is turned in on finals exam day. If you've broken your project down into steps, a good way to motivate yourself to reach those steps and reach those little milestones is to give yourself micro awards for reaching those milestones. Something like a Slurpee or ice cream or watching that DVD of friends that you borrowed from somebody, but you're like, where do I even find a DVD player at these days? You know, something like that. But you can also give yourself a congratulatory outing once all of your finals are done. Personally, I would like to go to the movies whenever I finish with finals week, or I would give myself a video game day where I would just take all day, sit down, play video games with the peaceful knowledge that all my final tests are done. Set up a definite reward that you can keep as a glowing beacon, something to look forward to when all your testing is done. It will also help you stay on track and not be tempted by anything else that may come up or be offered during your study time. A couple of random stories to close out today's session. First year, second semester of engineering in Toronto. It's exam time, what we call finals. I had six courses that term, five core engineering classes, and one elective, philosophy. We get our exam schedule, and lo and behold, I have five exams in five days, Monday to Friday, all the core subjects all at eight AM. Sounds not too bad, right? That was the week that Transit Commission, the buses, streetcars, and subway trains, decided to go on strike. It usually took me about an hour to get to university via subway, had to take another train, walk 30 minutes, bla blah blah. It was April in Canada. It was cold. It was bad. I managed to pass all of them, and instead of parting on the weekend, I slept for about 30 hours straight with the occasional water and bathroom breaks. Or you could take this cautionary tell or interesting tell. One has kind of a happy ending. First tell from Christine in the kitchen. One, I go to my calculus final and I realize that I've forgotten my calculator. Not gonna work. Fortunately, the college I was attending lets you come and go as you please during a final exam. Lucky. So I go back to my room to grab my TI-85. When I get there, my roommate is like, uh, you need to sit down. I gotta tell you something. Apparently, one of the administrators of the program we were in found out that she and I had been smoking cigarettes. Oh the horror. And she told my roommate that either we could tell our parents or she would, as we were under the age of 18 at the time. This may not be a big deal for most, but I have kind of overbearing parents who knew who I knew would totally flip their wigs over this. So I take a deep breath to keep myself from freaking out and tell my roommate, thanks for the information, I have to go finish my final now. That sucked. Next terrible story, the suckier one. I came back to my dorm from a calculus final. Different semester. Go to take a shower and get back to my room to find out that my boyfriend had called me. Cool, I'd love to talk to him in the middle of my exam schedule. So I call him up and he tells me, this isn't working. Uh what are you talking about? What's not working? We're not working. I can't do this anymore. No prior indication that he was feeling this way and he wasn't willing to talk about it. That really sucked. At that point, I only had a French final left. Fortunately for him, my calculus final was over, or he would have been missing some body parts for doing that to me. However, this story has a long-term happy ending. He and I didn't talk for about six or eight months after this, I understandably was pissed. Then we randomly ran into each other again. First words out of his mouth was an apology to me for how he acted like such a jerk. We were friends for a few years after that, and then we started dating again after we'd both had a chance to do some growing up. We'll be celebrating our seven year wedding anniversary at the end of this month. So congratulations to Christine in the kitchen for that happier ending. So that's all the crazy stories I can share today. What's your crazy story? Or your interesting, weird, scary, horror final story. Email or message it in the chat or on the comment section, and I can share it on a future episode. If you have any questions for me or ideas that you'd like explored on future episodes, please leave a comment or reach out at thinkingaheadpodcast.com. Also be sure to subscribe on your favorite listening platform so you don't miss an episode. And don't forget to download that Finals Study Plan sheet that I have linked in the show notes. In the meantime, keep believing in yourself, get plenty of rest, and keep thinking ahead.