Preparing for Exams
My name is Rebeca Orozco, I am currently a Sophomore at UTEP and I am part of the Miner Learning Center team. To tell you a little bit more about me I could do the usual and mention my hobbies like videogames, cooking, and dancing, but I rather share you a fun fact about me. So fun fact, I was chased by a chicken when I was 6 years old and I’ve been traumatized since, you may not share my fear for chickens, but maybe we both run away of menacing things like midterms. I am proud to say I overcame my fear of chickens a couple of years ago, and I am here to help you overcome your midterms.
I will share with you my tips, tricks and preparation routine to face head-on exams and midterms, hopefully they are helpful for you as well:
1)Set up the agenda
It’s never too early to start, actually, I prepare for exams since the first day of classes. Let me introduce you to your new best friend, your agenda. On day one, I review the syllabus provided by each class, find the dates of each exam and annotate them on my agenda. This sounds like nothing but I assure you, it makes a huge difference, as the semester goes through, you have all the important dates in the same place and you can plan out your study and homework time.
2) Note Taking
I’m pretty sure you’ve heard this before “work smarter, not harder” so how do we do that? Once more, we must prepare for our exams throughout the semester, not only the week before. So, what do I mean with this? Whenever I take notes, I avoid using the same format, so if I am reading from the book or going through the lecture’s PowerPoint, instead of copying the bullet points or sentences, I build a map, or I do a drawing, or I make a table, or I fuse them all and make a chimaera out of my notes, but guess what…they are color coded! So that way I have a different way to visualize the information, and understand it better.
3) Review
Now let’s talk business, what to do when time is running up. The optimal thing to do would be to dedicate at least a couple of weeks to study for an exam, but let’s be realistic, we don’t always manage to do that and sometimes that is the time we have from one exam through the other, so how do we work through this? So, I made an emphasis on note taking because my way to review is going back to my notes and attempt to explain them to myself. I either read them out loud, record myself doing it, or re-write them in a new format. This way I identify my strengths and weaknesses, the places where I get stuck or struggle, I go back to review in the book, in the lecture and debate with my friends, and for reassurance, I email the professor to make sure I understood correctly.
4)The week of the exam
‘The Final Countdown’ plays in my head, a new feeling gets ahold of me, is it anxiety? No! It’s motivation. The week of the exam can become stressful, so in order to avoid it becoming overwhelming, I go back to my agenda, I want to make sure I have any time-consuming homework out of the way so that I can study. I reflect on the deadlines and set a list of priorities based on that, now make sure you also acknowledge your well-being is the major priority, so I designate times for homework, times for breaks and times to study. Last but not least, before I take an exam, I make sure I got everything I need, my space is organized, take a deep breath, and trust myself, and if I can do it, I know you can too. 😉
About Our Tutor
Rebeca Orozco is a Biology Tutor for the Miner Learning Center. She is currently a Sophomore studying Biological Sciences with a concentration in Biomedical. |