Exam Survival Guide from a Fourth-Year Student

Written by: Sarah Stacey

Thumbnail Photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash

Photo by Alexis Brown on Unsplash

All students have experienced the feeling when they realize an important test is coming up sooner than they thought. Let’s be honest; midterms and exams are tough, and nobody wants to spend more time studying than you have to. As a fourth-year student, it is important to develop time management and study techniques in order to do well in class. Reaching out for help via peers, professors, or campus resources and adjusting your studying practices to retain information more effectively are two of the best ways to prepare for midterms and exams. 

The first and most obvious tip is to reach out for help if you need it. Saint Mary’s offers many resources designed to help students succeed. The Writing Centre is an excellent tool that provides relevant feedback on academic writing. They can also help you devise a plan to write a paper and provide tips for taking notes. Another resource is Research Help, an excellent service offered by the Patrick Power Library. One of their primary services is to help search for books, ebooks, and articles relevant to a student's topic. They also help cite sources, write an annotated bibliography, and properly format. Students that visit Research Help will gain valuable knowledge in researching and developing essays.

Another great tip for every student is to attend office hours. These time slots are specifically there for students to drop by and have a one-on-one discussion with their professor. This is a great time to clarify a topic or expand on a subject taught in class. Also, create a study group! Not only are these a great way to balance social and academic life, but discussing complex topics outside class over coffee will help you retain the information. In addition, study groups allow students to help each other, which is mutually beneficial when studying.

Many leave studying to the last minute resulting in extreme cram sessions right before a major test. However, it is clear that this is not an effective way of studying and will lead to declining grades for most. That is why distributed practice is encouraged among universities. Distributive practice is precisely as it sounds when studying is done across multiple sessions. This way of studying is scientifically proven to improve exam scores. In university, you have to study various topics, and it can be difficult to remember all important concepts. That is why distributed practice studies multiple concepts within the same session instead of block practice focusing on one subject. A study by Blasiman R. N. demonstrated that students who used distributed concept review answered more correct questions on tested information than those who used alternative methods. In addition, students who used distributive practice increased test scores by 8% in three sessions. The distributive practice also helps to avoid illusions of learning where students believe they understand a topic deeper than they do. It is recommended to study a topic as often as possible leading up to the test or exam; however, even stretching studying out to one week prior can help improve the understanding of a topic. 

Another studying technique is the PQ4R method. The PQ4R method helps students to understand reading materials and to make the course more meaningful. This method follows the review, question, read, reflect, recite, and review sequence. The first step is previewing the material to pull out relevant information quickly. The next step is to focus on what you want to learn and create specific questions to guide you. Then, read the information thoroughly and try to identify your questions. Next, reflect on what you just read, and if you did not answer one of your questions, try to figure it out now. To solidify your knowledge, try to recite what you just learned on paper or out loud. Lastly, review your notes and answer any questions you still have. This method has you reading the material multiple times and applying your critical thought through questions and answers. This allows you to easily memorize and understand the core of reading materials (Sartika, 2021). The PQ4R method combined with distributive practice is, in my opinion, the best way to retain information and reduce stress before a test. 

No ultimate guide will show you how to study well because every student is different, and in the end, the only way to succeed is to find the best method for you. This article listed some actions students can take to improve their grades as well as a few scientifically proven techniques to improve grades. This may be trial and error, but finding the most effective study method will help you throughout your next years of university and beyond. 

Resources

Blasiman. (2017). Distributed Concept Reviews Improve Exam Performance. Teaching of Psychology, 44(1), 46–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628316677646

Sartika, R. P., & Hadi, L. (2021). The improvement of students’ conceptual understandings through the PQ4R aided the 5E learning cycle model on the topic of salts hydrolysis. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1788(1) doi:https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1788/1/012036