study tips for finals

Stop staring at your textbook.

Seriously. Rereading your notes until your eyes glaze over isn't studying. It's just a way to waste time and feel like you're being productive.

If you want to remember anything when the exam is in front of you, you have to do the work of pulling information out of your brain, not just cramming more in.

Your brain is designed to forget.

Cramming is a terrible strategy because it works against the way your brain is built. You have to signal that information is important, and the way to do that is to revisit it right before you're about to forget it.

It's called spaced repetition.

1. Study something.
2. Look at it again the next day.
3. Then again in three days.
4. Then a week later.

Each time you pull that memory back from the edge of forgetting, the connection gets stronger. It's a hundred times more effective than one miserable marathon session. There are apps for this, but flashcards work just fine.

You have to actually recall things.

Reading your notes feels good. Highlighting feels even better. But it’s a trap. It creates an illusion that you know the material when you're really just recognizing it. That's not the same as having to recall it from scratch, which is what the test will demand.

So, force yourself to recall it.

• Flashcards: Simple. Question on one side, answer on the other. No peeking.
• The Feynman Technique: Try to explain a concept to a friend in simple terms. The spots where you get stuck are the gaps in your knowledge.
• Blurting: After you study a section, put everything away. Grab a blank sheet of paper and write down everything you remember. Then, open your notes and see what you missed. It's brutal, but it works.

Take a break.

Studying for hours straight just fries your circuits. Your brain needs downtime to move information into long-term storage. Try the Pomodoro method: study for 25 minutes, then take a 5-minute break. After four rounds, take a longer break.

And for god's sake, sleep. Pulling an all-nighter guarantees you'll be running on fumes. It hurts your performance more than it helps. Get your 7-9 hours.

A note on "burnout."

I remember studying for my organic chemistry final in my freezing 2011 Honda Civic because the library was too quiet and my dorm was too loud. It was 4:17 PM, and I was convincing myself I was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

I wasn't. I was just tired of studying.

Burnout is a real thing, but sometimes "feeling burnt out" is just your brain's excuse to procrastinate. Your brain is tired, not broken. Take a real break. Go for a walk. Eat a real meal, not just energy drinks and granola bars. Then get back to it.

Get your life in order.

You can't study if your notes are a mess and you don't know when your exams are. Get organized first. Make a master schedule. Figure out what you need to do and when. It kills a lot of the background stress.

If you use a study group, make it count. Don't just get together to complain. Quiz each other. Teach each other concepts. If you can't explain it to them, you don't know it well enough yourself.