With finals coming ever closer, many students can find just the thought of studying for them daunting. Often, students will only have a few weeks to study for their tests or work on their final projects. While this may not feel like a lot of time, there are ways for students to make the best use of the time they have.

One of the best things someone can do while studying is reviewing previous work. Whether it’s essays, notes, tests or homework, reviewing what you went over during the semester in any way you can could be very helpful. 

“Even if you don’t want to study, the minimum you can do is review. Always review,” junior Julio Rojas said. “Even if you’re like ‘oh, it’s just algebra I know algebra,’ review some questions because maybe there’s a formula you didn’t know, and now you know it.”

By reading back over things you’ve struggled with in the past, you can understand what your strengths have been and how you can steer clear of making the same errors. Oftentimes essays and projects are graded on rubrics, and you can see what score you got on each part of the rubric on canvas. Go over a past essay with the rubric opened in another tab, and try to find why you got the grade you did.

“I like to brainstorm like, what did I do last essay? What did I do good, what did I do bad, right? I find how I can improve,” Rojas said.

If you’re in an IB class, reviewing your previous tests can be especially helpful. IB exams will often ask you very similar questions to the tests you’ve taken over the semester.

“You need to review all your tests, especially in IB because it’s always the same types of problems,” math teacher Martin Demailly said.“Take notes of the things you did wrong. The kinds of things not in equation packets.”

Once again Canvas is a great tool. Look for the tests or topics that you got the lowest scores on, then review your old tests. Look over problems you’ve gotten wrong before, and try to do them without the help of a teacher’s corrections. 

When studying, always make sure to make good use of your time. Procrastinating can seem enticing, but waiting for the last second to cram can often only lead to more stress.

“Don’t even think about waiting until the last minute, especially if you’ve been slacking off in a class,” sophomore Leo Breuninger said. “You need to just get your crap together and start studying for that class. And when it comes to the final, don’t procrastinate, don’t be like ‘oh I have a week, I’ll do it in a couple of days.’ Just do work that day, and you can be like ‘okay, I have some done.”

If sitting and focusing is hard for you, take breaks. For every hour you spend studying a hard topic, spend 10-15 minutes doing something you like.

Avoid segmenting your studying it to large groups of one subject each day, and instead do a bit of everything. Studying even a little bit every day for a week will help you maintain that knowledge more than trying to study an entire semester of material in one day. 

“Definitely don’t say ‘I’m going to review everything in English one day, I’m gonna do everything in another class another day,” Demailly said. “It sounds like it makes sense, but it’s really much easier to do a half hour here and there everyday.” 

If you think you would find it helpful, consider finding the time to study with other people in your class. Having a friend quiz you on the material can test your knowledge and show you which topics you still need to study. 

“Study with other people, not just during class, planning a study session can be really helpful for some students,” Demailly said.

If you can’t find the time for that, quizlet is a free online tool you can use to quiz yourself.

During study week, make sure to use your time in class to ask questions. Your teachers are happy to help, and not asking about a topic you’re confused on can hurt your chances of success. If you’re embarrassed to ask a question in front of the class, see if you can come in at lunch or during flex.

“Know how to ask for [help from] teachers because they’re here to help you guys,” Demailly said. “It’s okay to say I don’t know how to do that.

The worst thing you can do is let the stress affect you. Going into a test with a bad state of mind can hurt your performance. Sleeping well and taking breaks when needed will help you in the long run. 

“Try not to worry too much. Usually teachers don’t make the finals with surprises,” Demailly said. “So students should know what to review and they should be fine. It’s not going to be some new concept or problem.”