With the beautiful sunshine and summer anticipation approaching as late May leaves and early June is rolling around, the most dreaded part of the school year finds itself upon us: finals week. While the last few weeks of school can be extremely overwhelming and stressful, implementing just a few strategies to set yourself up for success can help ease your mind. 

Set Yourself Up For Success

While finals may be just a week long, they are meant to test your whole body of work. This means that preparation goes beyond simple cramming the night before. It’s important to show up to class everyday, and to turn in assignments with quality work. Instead of rushing through homework assignments just to get them in, do them with the goal of mastering the content. Another important way to set yourself up for success is by getting sufficient sleep, and eating in a balanced diet. 

A study by Harvard Health revealed that it is “…simply more difficult to concentrate when we are sleep deprived; this affects our ability to focus on and gather information presented to us, and our ability to remember even those things we know we have learned in the past.” Sleeping at least eight hours is one of the best ways to improve your information retention and memory, which can drastically improve test performance. 

Tips for Studying

Liz Thibert, the Tahoma School District Wellness coordinator, has offered some key strategies that can help with studying:

• Set aside specific time to study 
• Get study groups together that are learning the same material
• If possible, have a place at home where you can study without interruption
• Get used to putting your phone in a different place than where you are studying
• For recalling formulas or processes, practice writing them out so they feel natural
• If allowed, wear earplugs when you are studying or doing a test to decrease distractions

Testing Tips

When it comes to testing day, there are many things you can do to maximize your scores. When you are first handed your test, the best thing you can do is quickly do a “brain dump,” and write down all of the formulas or bits of information you can remember. That way, if you get stuck or can’t remember something later on the test, you can go back to the notes you made for yourself.

Another helpful strategy is to answer the questions you know first, and circle ones you need to come back to later. This ensures you don’t run out of time and miss any easy points. Once you’ve completed all the questions you do know, you can go through the test a second time, answering all the ones you left blank. Use the process of elimination if you have multiple options, as tests typically have some obviously wrong choices. Finally, make sure to check your answers! It’s important to make sure you answered ALL parts of every single question.

Finishing Strong

As the school year comes to a close, the importance of finishing strong during finals cannot be overstated. Remember, the effort you put in now will pay off in the long run. So, stay focused, manage your time wisely, and maintain a positive mindset. You’ve worked hard all year and now it’s time to shine!

In the words of Thibert, “You are stronger than you know and smarter than you give yourself credit for. You are almost done but still have some work to do! We believe in you!”