By Levi Kassinove
It’s the end of the year, and you’re probably cramming for finals. I’m here to teach you how to actually study efficiently, so that you don’t have to lose sleep. First off, for the night before the actual test, I personally don’t think you should study. The night before my APUSH test, despite several people telling me I was crazy, I didn’t review anything and relaxed the whole day. I got nine hours of sleep. By test day, I felt prepared and ready to take the exam. All of the knowledge you get from studying doesn’t get the chance to solidify if you don’t take a day off, in my opinion. Studying your head off the night before the test will only make you feel overwhelmed and probably forget a lot of what you studied.
Without further ado, here are some of the best studying tips*:
- Eat well.
If you’re the type of person who eats either nothing at all or complete junk food, you’re going to fail at both life and your exam. Eat some actual fruit for once–stuff that’s not jam packed with artificial chemicals you see on ingredient labels like “blue 10” or “red 9.” And, try to eat an avocado. Those things are amazing.
- Go through past quizzes.
One thing that I like to do before an exam is look through past quizzes. A lot of teachers either put similar questions to their old quizzes, or they just outright copy questions from their old quizzes. It’s definitely worth it to go through your old quizzes before taking a final.
- Get good sleep.
We all know that getting enough sleep (ideally 9 hours, realistically 7-8) is good for studying. Try to have some self control with your phone. At 11 pm at night, ask yourself, “Would I rather continue scrolling through TikTok, or get enough sleep to secure a bright future?”
- Don’t memorize.
One of the biggest mistakes that people make when studying is to only focus on memorizing facts. In any subject, it is much more useful to make sure you understand the concepts of your course. For instance, if I were studying for APUSH, instead of memorizing the fact that Lincoln won the election of 1860, I would rather try to understand why he won and what the effects of that election were. The latter study option allows you to answer a much broader range of questions, rather than hoping that the one specific fact you memorized is on the test. Even in math, as long as you understand the concepts and what’s actually happening in the problem, you could use logic to answer the question–even if you don’t directly know how to solve it.
- Relax.
The best thing that you can do for yourself before an exam is to relax. Studying comes second. Constantly having test material bouncing around your head right before the test is not going to help you remember the material. Just relax, take deep breaths, and try to meditate. If you struggle with relaxation, I suggest that you practice meditation. It can change your life.
*The above study tips, while reasonable, come from the anecdotal knowledge of Mr. Kassinove and do not necessarily represent the educational community at large.
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