Develop a study plan, One challenge of exam preparation is its opened nature: it can be tough to track progress, or to know when you are done. Likewise, you likely don’t have time to follow every review method that occurs to you. Invest some time at the beginning of the exam preparation process to develop a plan. Ask yourself some guiding questions:
● What do I know about the test? What material will be covered? What types of questions (e.g., essay, short response, problem solving, etc.) do I expect to encounter? How much time will I have during the test? Where will I take the test? What materials, if any, can I use during the test?
● What course materials might be useful? Although you may not have time to thoroughly review all of these materials, try to make a comprehensive list at this step. This will help you make informed decisions when focusing your study plan later. Textbooks, class notes, past problem sets, past quizzes, the syllabus, and practice exams provided by the professor are all worth considering.
● How much time can I realistically devote to preparing for this exam? To develop a viable study plan, you will need to be realistic at this step. If you are going to devote 5 hours of your time to studying, they will be better spent following a 5hour plan than following the first 5 hours of a 30hour plan.
With this information in mind, try to write down an outline of a study plan that contains SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timebound) steps. Try to order these steps so that you are covering the most important material first. The activities suggested below may help when writing this outline.
Practice active review. For many students, trying to read (or reread) all of their course materials is unrealistically timeconsuming and a recipe for wandering attention. Instead of taking a linear trip through your textbook, try to find ways to review information by applying it. Each of the exercises below can give you ideas for specific information that you need to find and review in your book/notes....
