Finessing Finals

By Alex Long
     Finals are the last obstacle before crossing the finish line to summer. Unfortunately, they are often the cause of some major end-of-school stress. Students end up spending hours at the library pouring over all of their work from earlier in the year. Thankfully, there are a few shortcuts to come out of finals like a winner.
       The first tip is to prioritize your classes in order to avoid extra work. Your first step before you begin to study should be to calculate the grade you need to get on the final in order to secure a good grade for the year. There are websites that will help you do that. The guidance counselors can also help calculate grades. Grade calculations can also be found on page 12 of your agenda book. This way you know how much effort you need to put into studying for each class and don't waste time on classes that don't need it. However, that doesn't mean that you should skip out on studying, make sure to spend some time on each class.
       Secondly, make yourself a study guide. Many teachers hand out study guides or a list of topics to go over for their final and it really does help to look over it because there are usually a lot of similar questions on the final as the study guide. However, if your teacher doesn't give out a study guide, make your own. Compile a set of questions from each test you took third and fourth quarter to look over. Junior, Paige Reese, likes to use previous work and “Make a little practice quiz to refresh what we learned.” Make sure to keep all of your work from previous quarters so you actually have material to study from.
     The last helpful tip is to involve others in your studying process. Making study groups with your friends and looking over work together will make studying a lot more bearable and can help you study new topics you wouldn't have thought of to go over before. Junior Allyson Kim says that she likes to, “Organize study groups and go to the library to meet and share ideas.” Don't be afraid to involve your teacher as well. Ask them what you should be studying or what to do to get a good grade for the final. Most teachers stay after school and you can always come in during Glad Time to speak with your teachers. They will be happy to help because they want you to do well on their final.
      Hopefully these tips will help you succeed on finals without major stress. The study tips can be used for other assignments as well. Forming study groups and talking to teachers can help you do well on any sort of test. Good Luck!