Finals week is fast approaching and all around the nation college students are starting to feel that all too familiar feeling of overwhelmed, stressed, and an overarching sense of dread. If you are just starting out in college, you may have realized by now that the concept of studying in college, is vastly different from it was in high school. For one thing, in college students are expected to demonstrate what the know by taking just one or two exams, while in high school your grades are defused by many assignments spread out over a long period of time. You may have other assigned readings, projects, or other papers in college, yet generally speaking, the bulk of your grade will be dependent on how well you do on your midterms and finals.

Even though high schools are said to be “preparatory” or “prepare you for college,” many times the basic skills – of actually how to study – are not taught or even reinforced.  High school is a different ball game altogether, your challenge is to switch strategies and play the game by different rules. Many students enter college under the assumption that what worked in high school will work in college. If you think that, then you are in for a big surprise. This article will hopefully provide college students with a basic “playbook” on how to effectively study for the big exam. I believe the more you learn about how to study and study how to play “the game” of college the more successful you will be.

Here are a some of the top 10 time-saving, stress-reducing, and A+ strategies that will help you rock that exam.

1) Planning is key.

Plug in all your assignments, due dates, and exams from your syllabus into an online calendar (such as Google Calendar) or a planner. If you put the exam out of your mind and forget about it before you know it – it’s 12am the night before and you are trying to cram… not a good plan. So, success starts with good planning and organization. There’s a saying, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Don’t just schedule the stuff from the syllabus, also create multiple color-coded calendars (this is easily done in iCal or Google Calendar) for your study planning, personal, assignments, etc. For instance, if you have reading to do – schedule it. If you need to study for your exam on Wednesday, then schedule a group study session with people in your class for the Saturday before. Taking the time to think through and plan your schedule will do wonders for your organization and prevent unnecessary stress from building up.

2) Make your own study guides/outlines.

One of the best tactics is to create your own study guide and you can start this the first week of class (recommended). What you do is this, take your notes from class and chapter notes from assigned readings. For chapters focus on the key terms, bold items, and diagrams. Look at the glossary and the back of the chapters for review questions, quizzes, and summaries. Some books actually give you a one-page overview of the chapter’s key terms and summarize the learning objectives. This is a great place to start when compiling your study guide. The more organized your notes from class and assigned reading are by the time midterms and finals roll around the easier it will be to prepare for your exams. Plus making your own study guide (or filling out and adding to the one your teacher provides) will make you look like a rock star in your study group. Everyone will want a copy of your study guide.

3) Form a study group and study independently.

Find the smartest person in class or that attractive person in the third row, ask them if they would like to form a study group. Likely the smart studious person will be able to teach you the material by explaining concepts in simple terms or show you helpful study techniques. The attractive person will be of less help in explaining concepts to you – generally speaking (not that attractive people can’t also be the smartest person – that’s a win-win), but you can flip the tables and explain things to them (which you will likely be more motivated to do for obvious reasons). The act of explaining things out load, and thinking through concepts, helps with retaining information. Not to mention that because they are attractive, it will motivate you to bring your awesome study guide from #2 and show off your mad study skills. One mistake novice students make is believing they need to find “one way to study” or “the best way” to study and stick with it – that’s a mistake. It’s better to incorporate multiple types of studying into your exam prep routine from groups, to chapter reviews/quizzes, to flash cards, and study guides. Why limit yourself to just one? You may think well “I don’t have time,” you do… you just have to block it out and schedule for it ahead of time.

4) Don’t cram.

Ok, your friends will do it and the library will be packed until 3am every night during finals. But guess what? They are all making a huge mistake. The number one thing you can do the night before a big exam is to be well rested. Sleep, especially REM sleep – the deep reparative kind, helps you to file away important information into your memory storage banks. If you are sleep deprived, it’s like driving your car on empty and you won’t be firing on all cylinders. At the very least, make sure to get 4 hours of sleep that’s about one full cycle. Obviously, 7-8 hours is preferred. Likewise, if you cram, there is a point at which you are reaching diminishing returns. I had an economics professor explain this concept to me using a bell curve. Once your studying reaches the top of the bell curve – any more studying beyond this point is robbing you of much-needed sleep and harming your performance, not helping it.

5) Take good in-class notes.

Taking notes in class is a study technique. The act of writing things down has been shown to help with memory and recall. It’s something about the tactile nature of moving your hand and having to write down what you are hearing/see on slides. So, even though your professor may say they all the slides are on Blackboard, don’t just close your notebook and take a breather. The more engaged you are in class – raising your hand, taking notes, etc. – the more you will remember on exam day. For more note taking strategies/techniques check out the Cornell Notetaking Method.

6) Go to class regularly.

This may seem like a no-brainer, but regular class attendance will significantly increase your exam grades. Studies have shown a direct correlation between the time in class and your final grade. Often times teachers will give you hints throughout the semester about what will likely be on the exam, you will get to know their thought process and where their interests lie. This will help you when you have to make an educated guess on that really difficult exam question because you can draw on that contextual knowledge and think about what the teacher feels is important. Likewise, lots of the material on the exam will likely be straight from in-class lectures, so if you think that you can sit home all semester, read the textbook, and show up for the exam – you might be sorely mistaken. the will Attendance grades are easy, most professors will give you anywhere from 10-15% of your overall grade for simply attending class. Don’t miss the opportunity to cash-in on free percentage points.

7) Get help and go in for office hours, attend review sessions (when offered) and meet with TAs.

Professors love to be needed and most will be delighted to answer your questions. Make sure to prepare for your meeting ahead of time and draft up an agenda or list of questions. Some professors will even hint to exam questions or give you pointers about what chapters to focus on. This can save you a huge amount of time and it show them that you are a diligent and concerned student. They will be more likely to help you out (give you that deadline extension on your paper for instance) if they believe that you are genuinely invested in your own education.

8) Take good chapter notes.

Highlighting the hell out of your book will not help you. I’ve seen freshman just highlight almost every word on a page. That’s not useful when you are trying to look back at a chapter that you read and the beginning of the semester and trying to synthesize the important details. A better tactic is approaching the book from a learning perspective. You don’t have to read every line of every page. You don’t even have to read the chapters in order. This is different from the novels you read for English class in high school. The way to approach textbooks is – you read the first and last lines each paragraph (skim for understanding). If the text seems important or there is a concept that you don’t understand, then by all means, read the paragraph. But often times it’s not necessary to read everything because it wastes your time and there’s lots of filler text in some of these books. When taking chapter notes write them out in an outline format – Chapter #2 – key terms, concepts, main points/summary. Do this for every chapter and by the end of the semester, you will have your study guide pretty much done, by the time the professor announces the exam.

9) Shift your mindset.

Instead of getting overwhelmed about the sheer amount of information, make it into a game. It’s a challenge. Studying is more about the journey than the destination. You will get the desired results if you put in the necessary time and effort. Don’t get fixated on failure or doubting your abilities. This is counterproductive and stressing about that will just waste time. Shift from destructive thinking and negative thoughts to constructive thinking and positive thoughts. Students that have an optimistic attitude find success and success begets success. It’s been shown in the research that students that have a history of performing well – let’s say getting A’s or B’s on exams, will be more likely to achieve that success in the future. This is partly due to their confidence and optimistic outlook. If they believe, “hey I’ve done this before and I’m a good test-taker” they will be more likely to measure up to that expectation. The opposite is true as well if you believe you are a failure and not a particularly good test taker, that leads you to think “what’s the use in trying.” That type of attitude is defeatist and in the end becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Moreover, having an overall mindset of a love of learning and growth will be invaluable in college and later in life.

10) Relax and visualize success.

Remaining calm and breathing throughout the exam, will help reduce test anxiety and hone your focus.  Prior to the exam – like 15-30 minutes before and the night before try visualizing success. It may sound ridiculous, by I promise this technique is used by elite athletes to get into the zone. Close your eyes and imagine that you are in your exam, you are calm, cool, collected, and prepared. You take the exam and ace it! Woo-hew. Of course, doing this visualization will not make it actually come true, but it does relax you and prepare you mentally so that you can approach the exam with confidence and purpose. Try it out, I think you will find that it works.

Good luck on your exams. If you have comments, please leave them below. As always, I’m here to help.