Hello everyone!
In today's video we are going to discuss ten ways to survive finals and ace your exams
in the end of the semester.
I know that many of you are finishing college right now and really need to get those good
grades in your final exams so I thought it would be quite interesting to discuss ten
ways to better your grades and improve your final results.
So Tip number 1 is to rely on your most summarized source of information.
While it's encouraged that you try to develop the information that's being lectured or study
your textbooks during the entire semester it's also encouraged to simplify that information
when you're trying to study for a big test or a big exam.
Basically the reasoning here is that, during the semster you should do a more 'in-depth'
kind of studying and during your exams you should be able to master all the concepts,
all the topics and be able to quickly change between them without losing the grasp of the
material.
If you made good notes during the semester, this is the time to start studying them in
depth and remember them as the basic source of all information retention for your exams.
Of course that you should rely on other sources as well, if you have the time but be sure
that you have at least a good set of notes, or mindmaps or outlines, to base your study
for the entirety of your study session.
Tip number two is to stay true to your optimal productivity schedule.
I actually talked about this a lot in a video that was published a couple of weeks ago,
titled "You don't have to wake up early to be productive" and in that video I discussed
how everyone has their own productivity schedule and have a different optimal time for studying.
Your finals season is a really important time for your academic career, so I think it's
really fundamental for you to not try to develop new habits at this time, I think you should
stick to what you know and trust your gut.
So, if you study very well in the evening, don't try to become a morning person now,
and if you're a morning person, please stop trying staying up late at night because you'll
retain no information.
Tip number three is tied to this last concept and it's basically protecting your asset.
Protecting the asset is something mentioned in 'Essentialism' which is a concept and also
a book that we'll be discussing in next week's video.
Protecting your asset means that, when you are studying,YOU are the most fundamental
asset.
So your head will be doing all the work for you so you need to protect your body to also
protect your mind.
This means having a good sleep schedule, eating healthily, working out to relieve stress,
and overall try to live a healthy life at least at its minimum because it will produce
better results and improve your ability to study during longer periods of time.
Tip number 4 is to prioritize and plan.
Basically this means that, when you're starting your study session, you should understand
right away what are the notes, the textbooks and the study materials that are really priority
and fundamental for your study.
We always know what are the chapters in our textbooks that will be in our final exam or
test so I think it's really important to understand whether you master those couple of chapters
and what's the best plan for you to understand those concepts.
Even if you can't compromise to the point of studying 100% of the information lectured
during the semester at least you know that the chapters covered in the final exam are
well studied and you feel comfortable about answering questions on those topics.
At the same time it's really important to schedule your study sessions prior to your
finals season and also plan and prepare for all the different kinds of materials that
you need to address, everything you need to study, all the textbooks you need to rent,
and overall just gain the abillity to prepare for the unexpected and make sure you cover
all the points of your syllabus or the initial plan for the semester.
Another thing that's really important is to have thorough and entertaining breaks between
study sessions.
Maybe picking up your phone and scrolling through social media or watching some random
Youtube video like this one will not be enough for you to feel fully rested and entertained.
If you know there's an activity that relaxes you, makes you feel happy and makes you have
fun, I think it's really important to schedule those activities.
If you're into videogames I think it's important to schedule a 30-minute video game session
in the middle of the day or maybe you can take a walk outside, listen to some music.
But make sure that your resting period is not passive or thinking that by "not studying"
you're automatically resting because that's the exact opposite of what's happening.
Also, if you're a visual learner, this is the time to ditch your notes and summaries,
and go for mind maps.
When I say this I don't mean that you should stop reading your notes and summaries from
your semester or past study sessions but maybe it's not the time to produce any more study
materials.
If you really feel that you have to write down ideas and key concepts, I advise you
to write down mind maps.
This are way simpler because they're free-form and they basically allow you to connect the
dots.
You can understand how different topics, concepts and definitions work, how they interact and
overlap and what are the relationships between them.
I can tell you for sure that drawing mindmaps helped me achieve my best grades when I actually
had to cram for tests and exams and I didn't master the entirety of the study materials
and having mind maps nearby really helped me make a better job out of it.
Another thing that's really important is to compound knowledge instead of strictly dividing
it.
Usually when people plan for study sessions, they try to divide a chapter per day or study
session and the group of those chapters is considered to be the final result of their
planning for that exam.
However there's a big problem in doing that and that is when you're just dividing the
chapters per day and you're not trying to rework the past chapters or revise the past
material, you're basically just dividing your attention between different topics and not
understand how they interact between each other as well as not focusing on remembering
things that you've learned in the past.
That's why I think it's very important to study new material but also schedule a 30-minute
session to review all the material you've learned in the past.
This way you understand if there are any gaps in your knowledge or some concept you didn't
understand and basically allows you to correct your own expectations and create a bugger
in case something unexpected happens, so you're sure that when the big day arrives you're
effectively covered in all aspects of your material.
In that sense, another tip I can give you is to try to go beyond your basic study materials.
Even if your professor recommends a certain textbook or a certain set of notes I think
it's fundamental to go beyond that.
It gives another depth to your answers, allows you to perceive the same subject in a completely
different way and changing perspectives will be really valuable for you to understand the
concepts under a new light and that will reflect on your answer and give it way more quality
and depth.
Tied to this concept is another tip and that is finding a study buddy.
I have a very particular approach to this one because I'm absolutely positive that not
all study buddies will be the best fit for you.
For instance, in my case, I think I have a very specific way of working, and I have a
very specific study ethic and when I was in Law School I had this very particular friend
that had the exact same work ethic as I did and we got along very well, we shared notes,
we studied together, but that was the only person able to do that with me because I felt
that I didn't feel comfortable at all studying with any other person so I think it's fundamental
to find someone who functions in the same way as you do and if you don't find that person
it's perfectly fine, there are other things similar to that that you can do on your own
and I think that one of the best tips I can give you if you are in that kind of situation
is to mock a presentation wheere you're trying to explain to someone a part of the material
you don't understand very well and you can film that or record that, or even do it without
any of those devices and I think that speaking out loud will be very important for you to
retain information better.
Finally, and I think this is so very important in case your test isn't very theorectical
and that is solving practice tests and papers.Sometimes teachers actually provide these during the
semester and final season, sometimes you have to reach out for other people who've taken
the same classes as you did, and ask for those tests and those papers.
Most of the time, teachers have the same way of asking questions and evaluating your answers
so having practice tests beforehand will be very valuable for you to antecipate whatever's
going to be covered in the test and it will basically allow you go to to the test without
being in the dark.
Also, if you need more in-depth tutoring or explanations on specific classes or topics,
or other skills you need to develop for your finals, you can check out today's sponsor,
Skillshare, who has a library with 25.000 classes in dozens of different categories.
And the best thing is that you can actually have all of those classes for free for two
months.
Skillshare is an online learning community with more than 25 thousand classes in dozens
of different categories and they can help you build new skills, develop new strategies
and learn more about anything you feel curious about.
Skillshare portfolio includes productivity and business masterclasses, tutorials on how
to work with different types of software, language classes, art and design courses and
so on.
But if you're watching this video because you want to ace your exams you'll probably
want to watch their classes on how to read better, to develop your study skills, boost
language fluency or even watch their complete mind mapping course.
Premium membership gives you unlimited access to all these incredible classes so no individual
payments required and since skillshare costs less than 10 dollars a month for the yearly
subscription, it’s the perfect platform to conitnuously develop your study skills.Also,
if you one of the first 500 people to click the link in description box to get your first
two months of unlimited classes for free.
I hope you enjoyed this video and I'll see you next week.
Bye!