Students advise on to cram for finals

Hadley Hoskins
Editor-in-Chief

purple shirt girl — Art by Tania Peres-Landerio

Deadlines and dates seem to sneak up faster in December; holiday preparations and the anticipation for the end of the semester leaving students panicked when they realize finals week is sooner than appears.

While cramming is undeniably a bad study tactic, sometimes this rush leads to its inevitability. The first thing someone cramming for a final should do is figure out what grade they need to get the grade they want. This can easily be done at rogerhub.com/final-grade-calculator. It’s important to be realistic here. It’s unlikely that one will be able to earn 100% on a final they crammed for the night before– aim for scores earned on past tests and quizzes.

One of the most common pieces of advice for students cramming for finals is to study in the morning, not at night.

Junior Tony Dearmitt said he recommended skipping the night-time studying all together. “Go to bed as soon as you get home. 4 p.m., 5 p.m., it doesn’t matter. Then, wake up at 3 a.m. and cram,” Dearmitt said.

Senior Tessa Garrison recommended studying in the morning as well as at night, saying it would be a good reminder since, “A lot of times you forget a lot overnight.”

As for the actual studying tactics, students said to start by figuring out what is not known.

To do this, Garrison said she had several methods. “If it’s for math or science, I use Khan Academy, and I take a [practice] test. Or I look over my notes, and I’m like, ‘I really don’t remember any of this.’ Or, if teachers give a practice test, I use that,” she explained.

Once this is done, the actual studying can begin– which differs between classes.

Students said to prioritize questions that have definitive right or wrong answers for math and science questions, since it’s usually possible to earn partial credit on these questions.

For history and English classes, students said watching review videos was the best way to go. One popular YouTube channel for history review videos (especially for AP World History and AP American History) is Heimler’s History.

“Make sure they’re short; don’t spend more than 10 minutes on each topic. Get everything down,” Senior Owen Barrs said.

As for essay-based finals (for example, LEQs and DBQs), the best method for studying is to reread.

“You can get credit for showing what you know when you’re writing; it’s not just solving a problem,” Barrs said.

Memorization finals are best crammed for with “brain vomit,” Dearmitt said.

“I write down everything I don’t know, and I do that again and again and again until I have nothing left… just write it again and again and again until it’s shoved in your head,” Dearmitt said.

The actual studying isn’t the only important part of cramming for finals, though.

“Make sure you put your phone in another room or something, and take breaks if you need to, but don’t take breaks whenever you want to,” said Garrison about her ‘extra’ advice.

Barrs added, “Sleep, honestly. You feel better if you sleep. Don’t be up until midnight cramming for a final.”