Midterm exams are just around the corner, but with tips from juniors and seniors, who have been through it several times, you may get a better idea of what to expect and how to prepare. Exams will be given this Thursday and Friday, and next Monday through Wednesday.
What is your best advice for the freshmen and sophomores?
Senior Cole Sorenson
“My advice is to just overview the information, go back through your notes and summaries. If you don’t know something, try to remember, but don’t spend all your time on it. If you don’t know it after 30 minutes, give up and move on.”
Senior Matthew Jones
“Freshmen need to start studying now. It’s way too early for them to be suffering from senioritis.”
Junior Andrew Zandomenego
“Begin studying days before the exam rather than the night before. Use these early years to find your best study methods so that you can apply them successfully during your junior, senior and college years.”
Senior Megan Carr
“More often than not, the exams slightly alter the grade, give or take one to two points. If the semester went well, more than likely the exam will go well too. [Also,] do review sheets.”
Senior Sabrina Viota
“Don’t freak out about exams too much. They’re important, sure, but psyching yourself out about them makes it ten times worse. Also, try to avoid studying with friends if you get distracted easily. And flashcards are your best friends, seriously. I would die without Quizlet.”
Junior Joseph Schneider
“My best advice is to ask plenty of questions during review week. Do not try to pull an all- nighter. It’s just not worth it and you will not do well on your exam. If you have been doing all of the work that your teacher has asked of you and paid attention in class throughout the semester, then you will do fine on your exam. ”
Junior Madisen Francis
“The teachers do a great job during review week, and I would suggest looking over tests and quizzes and focusing on the concepts you don’t really know.”
Senior Jorge Zavala
“Make sure you do your studying days before the exam time, study for a few hours at a time and give yourself a good break about every 45 minutes. Don’t cram the night before, it doesn’t help. Relax the night before and get some good rest. Maybe watch a movie to calm your nerves.”
Junior Kacey Ogline
“My advice to the freshman and sophomores would be to set up a schedule for yourself telling when you are going to study for a certain class. I would avoid waiting until the day before to begin studying for an exam.”
Senior Tiag Bhamber
“My advice for the underclassman is this: Hakuna Matata. Exam week can be pretty stressful, but it’s not the end of the world. They’ll probably do better if they relax anyways.”
Senior J.J. Byrnes
“Study often and study early. Set up a schedule to study different areas of a subject a few days in advance. What I find great is to study a few sections each night, then the night before the exam, go over everything one last time, as a refresher. Another piece of advice is to keep your eating and sleeping habits the same. Don’t spend hours and hours on end without a break. Study for one to two hours and then take a break. Staying confident and being focused are imperative to success on these exams.”
Senior Devin McSweeney
“Talking about the material with someone is definitely very helpful. I know it’s cliché, but relaxation is very important. Stressing over exams this week and over the weekend and next week will only potentially bring negative effects. Also, make sure to get a lot of sleep. I know it’s tempting to stay up late and enjoy the night, but sleep plays a critical role in the mental abilities of a student.”
Junior Valerie Arias
“The best way to prepare is by knowing what way of studying is most effective for you. [Make] note cards, study guides [to go] over notes [and to know] how you learn is very important. Also, don’t freak out, rather, trust yourself because if you put in the effort then you’ll get rewarded.”
Senior Delia Revard
“Sleep. There is absolutely nothing worse than coming into an exam that you’ve studied your butt off for only to be nodding off throughout and not being able to focus and apply all that studying you’ve done.”
Junior Christopher Pollan
“Exams count for 20% of your grade. All teachers make it impossible to improve your grade. Hopefully you have a one or two percent cushion or else these couple days are going to go very badly.”
Junior Kassandra Woodruff
“It’s easy to say you’re going to study ahead of time and then most people don’t, but it really is advantageous to study ahead of time. Also, it’s much easier to study in little chunks for 20 minutes every day than to cram for hours the day before. Study the stuff you don’t know the most, because studying the stuff you already know, while you still should review it, it’s much better to spend the majority of your time on the stuff you don’t know.”
What do you think about the split in the exam time frame?
Senior J.J. Byrnes
“The split weekend is great because it provides us with extra time to study and relax. Usually, when exams are all in one week, students tend to cram for the next exam [that night]. Taking two exams before the weekend gives us time to focus mainly on those two subjects while studying for the next few exams in the background. Getting time to get your mind off of exams is a great way to refresh yourself and when you’re ready to study again, you feel more relaxed and prepared.”
Senior Cole Sorenson
“The weekend can be both a blessing and a trap. If you use it properly, you can get a study group together and power through the information for Monday’s exam. But a lot of the time, it is a distraction and Netflix becomes an issue.”
Junior Andrew Zandomenego
“The split with the weekend for the exams is helpful because it provides more study time and relieves a lot of the stress due to timing with exams.”
Senior Matthew Jones
“Love the weekend split between exams. It gives us a much needed break as well as a lot more time to prepare for our final three exams.”
Senior Megan Carr
“I like it. The weekend is a good reprieve in between exams.”
Senior Bradley Beazant
“I don’t think it is ideal to split the exams because it can cause us to lose focus throughout the week, but I think it is unlucky for the school, scheduling-wise, because there was no other option.”
Senior Sabrina Viota
“I would rather have them all in one week because I usually just study for the Monday exam over the weekend. I just like being able to walk into an exam with the material fresh in my mind. Also, studying the whole weekend is really stressful.”
Junior Joseph Schneider
“I like the split with the weekend for the exams because it allows me more time to study for the exams that I have left. It also just gives me a break, instead of having to take five exams in row. It just depends on what the exam schedule is for that year, and who you are as a student.”
Junior Madisen Francis
“I think the split is a good idea since it gives us a chance to relax [and] study over the weekend rather than having five exams in a row.”
Senior Jorge Zavala
“It’s quite nice actually [because] it gives me a good break in between exams to relax and brush up on other subjects.”
Senior Devin McSweeney
“The separation of exams through the use of the weekend is highly beneficial for the students. With a weekend between some of the exams, more study time is available. This week, more focus can be given to the Thursday and Friday exams with a lesser, yet still present, focus on next week’s exams. Over the weekend, no study time for this week’s exams is needed, therefore, giving more study time for next week’s exams. This definitely increases both my confidence and levels of preparation for my exams.”
Junior Valerie Arias
“The split of exams due to the weekend is very helpful because it allows us to take a break and have more time to study for the next few exams you have. Although I believe that conflict exams should occur before the weekend; that way people don’t have more than three exams the next week.”
Junior Kacey Ogline
“I enjoy the weekend that comes in between exam week because it gives me extra time to study and is a nice break so we don’t have to take five exams in a row.”
Senior Tiag Bhamber
“The broken up exam week is deceptively inconvenient. We have that weekend to chill of course, but we don’t get much time to prepare for that Thursday exam, especially because review “week” is only two days.”
Senior Delia Revard
“Basically, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I’ll get two exams out of the way and I can devote all the weekend to studying for the three other ones. But it’s kind of intimidating and weird to have three days of review and then go into an exam on Thursday. Even though the review time would probably be the same either way, it just feels as though there’s more review when the exams aren’t split up. Also, you get the exams done in one fell swoop, all in one week.”
Junior Kassandra Woodruff
“I like the split in exam weeks because then you get two weekends to study, however a lot of teachers still give a lot of homework, especially when you get older, before the review days so it’s hard to have time to study. Then you’re still stuck cramming the day before.”