Study Tips: How to Study for High School Finals

Some of the most common study-related questions pertain to final exams, and for good reason. For many high school students, their final exams determine their success or failure in a class. That single test can be 50% of a student’s grade for an entire semester of work. Here are four steps to help you make sure you get the most out of your study sessions for your high school final exams.

1. Make sure you have all your supplies.

Few things are more annoying than having to continually gather school supplies. Make sure you have all the books and other supplies you need for that class. Frankly though, your books should just be a reference right now. You’ve been taking good notes and studying all the time, so your most important materials aren’t in your books. It is in your own words on your own paper.

You’ll also want to make sure you have enough materials to stay in place for at least 50 minutes. A writing utensil, paper on which to make new review materials, and a focused mind should suffice. If you prefer to create a digital resource rather than a handwritten one, that will work. But before you commit to a computer, consider these three benefits of handwriting your review materials.

First, it has the additional memory aid of kinesthetic learning. This is the main way people get information and believe it or not, simply writing something down can be tremendously helpful for memorization. Second, there are visual aids that you get from handwriting a new review sheet that get lost on a computer screen. For example, many people have had the experience of remembering where an answer was on a particular page. If you ever thought, “I remember it was under the alligator image in the upper right corner of the page …”, you know what I’m talking about. That benefit is mostly lost on a scrolling computer screen. Third, successful students know the benefits of arrows, diagrams, squiggles, squiggles, and all other weird handwritten items to study. You miss that in Microsoft Word. There is no way around it with the current state of technology.

If you have all of your materials, you are now ready for step 2, setting up the environment for a successful final exam study session.

2. Establish a great study environment.

Many college students lose this element completely. Consider this: How many students have you seen at Starbucks with an open laptop, Facebook in the background, Gmail chat in the foreground, Twitter feeds on their phones, text messages that come in every three minutes, and a chemistry book on your lap? ? That kind of study, if it can be called “studying” at all, is not particularly useful for studying for final exams. High school students should understand this element of studying for final exams before graduating. Your environment matters. You can make or break your study session.

The problem with a bad environment is that time moves at the same speed whether you are learning or not. More than one disappointed student has spent hours in the cafeteria crowding for tests, but failed a test due to poor environment. Large environments improve study exponentially.

Large environments, while different for each individual, will have certain things in common. Social media will be kept at bay. As difficult as it may seem, it must be done. Say “Goodbye” to Facebook for an hour. Twitter, text messages, Voxer and HeyTell have no place in a final study session. More traditional media like television also need to shut down for a while. Establish an environment where you can focus without the constant pull of the media around you. Music can help some students stay focused, but try to make sure it is instrumental and that it plays quietly in the background, if at all. The calmer and more focused your surroundings, the more productive your study session will be.

3. Focus your studies on the most important ideas and details.

When studying for final exams, you should not reread the chapters. Reading is an important part of the learning process, but it is too thorough to be useful on a final exam. You want only the biggest and most important details. Birthdays, maiden names, pet names, favorite colors, and state flowers are generally not featured on final exams. The essays on the main thought movements and the key thinkers involved are in the final exams.

Making it through your finals depends on whether or not you can focus your learning on the most important ideas. If you can, you will surely get a higher score in less study time. If you can’t, you probably know a lot of information, have spent many hours in the library, and don’t understand why so much of what you studied was not on the exam. Learning what to learn is just as important as learning to learn.

4. Study.

Get down to business with what you know. Go over the notes you’ve taken, make a study guide for yourself, and get the work done. I recommend 50 minutes of study at a time. Break up those sections with a ten minute break to get the most out of your session.

5. Stop studying, sleep and dominate the final test.

There comes a time in each study session when all the students have to sleep. Sometimes students forget about this. They stay up late, drink a lot of coffee, feel miserable, and work for a long time. Then when the test comes around, they’re groggy and end up writing weird stuff.

Don’t write weird essays. I just went to sleep. It is one of the most important things you can do during the study process.

A friend of mine from high school drew a sailboat on a writing test because he couldn’t gather his thoughts enough to write a great essay. In case you’re curious, sailboats don’t perform well in test tests. And yes, that is a true story. You can’t make that up.

If you’ve done your job, you should be prepared for a great performance on your final exams. Relax, know you’ve done your best, and master the test.