Speaker 1: And here I am again with another school-related video, probably like the last one of 2020, so... Yeah. What's up? Welcome back to my channel. Hope you are doing good. Anyway, here's my comprehensive guide to final exams because final exams are coming up. So I was thinking you may be wanting some tips. Okay, let's get started with the video. We're gonna start with organization because even if you're starting to study for finals well in advance or you're starting the night before the final, you need to be organized. So my very first tip is organize all of your notes so literally everything is together and you know where everything is, whether that's online or on paper. Then do a quick skim over all of your notes for each subject and make a list of what topics or chapters you need to spend more work on so as you're like flipping through your notes and you realize, oh wait, I did really bad on chapter 2, then maybe spend a lot of time on that chapter. Just kind of do a quick inspection of what you need to study the most. Then if you're like me, sometimes your notes on certain days are better than notes on other days and sometimes you didn't take notes at all. So when you're skimming through your notes, flag the pages that are like scribbled and are super confusing or just, I don't know, are kind of bleh. Flag those, note those, and realize, oh, I'm gonna have to come back to these and spend time trying to understand these because it doesn't really make sense. Also while you're skimming through the pages, if you miss class one day, flag that spot where you missed class and spend time on that content that you did miss. � And finally, once you've gone through and skimmed all of your notes, then prioritize the class's finals. So which final is the most crucial to do well on, which one will have the most impact on your grade, which one is the hardest, and if you're running out of time, which final may need to be sacrificed for spending time studying for all the other ones. And then once you've prioritized your classes, organized your notes, then you can get started on creating your study schedule. So what I did in high school is when I had seven classes each semester, is I had a calendar and wrote down what I wanted to study and how long I wanted to study each day. And based on your study style, it kind of depends on how early you want to start studying your finals, how early you want to start your schedule. And everyone's like, start studying early, start doing all this stuff, but honestly if I start studying too early, then I'm gonna forget everything by the time of the final. But then if I start studying too late, then I get super stressed out, so you just wanna find that middle ground of when you want to start studying. The easiest way I think to plan out your schedule is to just use Google Calendar and put in all the assignments you have to do and then set due dates for them. And now we're getting to the real content of this video. Does that make sense? I hope so. First for pretty much all of my classes, I just rewrite all of my notes so they're clean cut and concise and just has the essentials of what's gonna be on the test. Then if I have time, I'll make a quizlet or use flashcards based off of those notes. Make online flashcards just because then you can pull out your phone wherever you are and just start studying pretty much from anywhere. And if you do use flashcards, which I totally recommend, answer them out loud. Obviously you wanna do that when you're like by yourself because otherwise that'd be awkward if you're just in the library and you just started talking to yourself really loudly. But anyway, answer the flashcards out loud when you're going through them because it makes you really think about like what the questions are asking, if that makes sense. It really makes you have to comprehend the information instead of just regurgitating it. Keep in mind about what type of questions that could be asked on the test and write those down and then study those questions while you're studying. Or I saw this on TikTok is once you have your study guide typed out, go through it and like cut out important keywords and just add like a blank line and then try to fill out the blank lines as your study guide. And then if you do this over and over again, you'll have all the information memorized. I haven't actually tried this. I just saw that it really works for a lot of people. Or even better, if the teacher gives you a study guide, just do the study guide. Also, if you have questions, ask the teacher and ask them early because if you ask them the night before the test, they're probably not going to be too pleased that you waited to the last minute to ask them. And also go to review sessions if teachers and TAs are holding them, even if you don't think you need to go to the review session because often the review sessions, the teachers tend to draw hints about what's going to be on the test as almost like it's a reward for you showing up to the review session. I ran out of breath there. And study groups, good or bad? Sometimes they're good. Sometimes they're bad. Even if you're on Zoom. But basically think to yourself, do study groups work for me? Am I really just going to go to the coffee shop and spend four hours talking to my friend and doing five seconds of work? Because that's always how it is for me is nothing ends up getting done. Just don't do study groups if they don't work for you. Instead, just study hard for two hours and then spend another two hours talking to your friends that way you're actually doing the work and you're not stressed about doing the work when you're talking to your friends. After you've been studying for a while, check to see if you really understand the material by trying to explain it or teach it to somebody else, even if that somebody else is, does not exist. Pretend you're trying to teach it to Harry Styles or your pet hamster. If you can't explain it, then maybe study more and if you can explain it, then good job. Then look up the course on the internet and look up like AP stats past exams and see if you can solve those problems. If you can, you're doing something right. This also pretty much only works if you're in an AP class or in any sort of college class because your high school's very specific class is not going to have like past exams on the internet. And now cramming tests. Normally you shouldn't be cramming for tests but sometimes, you know, it just kind of happens where you run out of time and you're like, uh oh, I have a test in two days and I haven't started studying. Sometimes, you know, cramming is necessary even though it's not recommended. First things first, it's way easier to cram for tests when the test is memory based, so like a math test or an econ test as opposed to more of an open-ended class like philosophy or something like that. Just because obviously for philosophy, you're most likely writing a bunch of stuff instead of like with calculus 3 where you're just doing problems. Anyway, my recommended cramming process if you have to cram is organize your notes slash take notes if you haven't taken any notes, then memorize, then take the test. So when I've had had to do, so when I've had to have done, oh I cannot speak when, I have had to have done, when I have had, when I have had to do cramming, sorry my brain just like shut down for a second. When I've had to cram before, I basically just rewrite my notes. Normally I do it handwritten because that helps me retain knowledge way better. When you're handwriting, make sure you're highlighting or underlining the most important parts and just write, write, write, rewrite those notes and this will literally take up like 75-80% of your time. When you're finally done with that, reread the notes whenever you have free time. Reread them over and over and over again and go over them in your head once you've kind of gotten them down. And then if you run out of time and can't write everything down because oftentimes you just can't, focus on memorizing the starting information. So like the starting formulas or the building blocks to all of the problems that are going to be on the test because then if you have basic ideas of everything, then you can get partial credit and it looks like you kind of know what's going on. Especially if it's like a short answer based or an essay based test, if you know the basic like characters of a book and the basic plot lines, then you'll kind of have an idea what of what you're talking about and then you can kind of just fluff up the details of the essay. Finally, right before the exam, the day of the exam, tips to do well. Don't drink too much caffeine before the exam because then you're going to be super jittery and not very focused. You're going to just want to have the normal amount of caffeine plus a little bit more but not too much more. Also drink the caffeine maybe like an hour or two before the test so then it really kicks into high gear during the test. Basically review your notes over and over again before the test. If you're at home right before the test, do a quick workout. Nothing like too complex. You don't have to go run seven miles unless that's your thing, which it is not my thing. But anyway, you can literally just look up quick five minute workout on YouTube and just do that right before the test. That'll wake you up a little bit if you're tired and it'll just kind of your energy will be released. Then get there early, whether it's online or in person. But also once you get there, it's super important to just try to tune out like everybody else around you. Like not to be rude to them, but like just kind of stay in your lane, stay in your own bubble. So like you're not picking up on the nerves and the energy of everybody else because even if you're not nervous for a test, somehow being in the area with 50 other people who are super nervous, that just subconsciously rubs off onto you even if you're doing fine. Then the very last tip is, um, what's the very last tip? Be prepared to write down any important information or formulas or just really anything that is going to be on the test that you're afraid you may forget. Be prepared to write it down at the very top of the paper as soon as you get that test. Write it down so you're not worried about forgetting it later. So that was it for the tips. Best of luck on your exams. I know you're going to do really, really good. Just remember that as soon as these exams are over, it is break time and you can just make gingerbread houses and eat cookies and just have a really good time. Watch Netflix. Do fun stuff. Okay. Anyway, thank you so much for watching today's video. I really hope you liked it. If you did, please give it a thumbs up, comment down below anything you want to. Comment down below what day your winter break starts. Subscribe to my channel, turn that notification bell on, follow me on Instagram, and I will see you next time. Have a great rest of your morning, evening, afternoon, nighttime, whatever. Bye.