How to study for finals

Step 1. Rank your finals by what's at stake

Not every final deserves the same hours. One final can move your grade a lot, and another can barely move it at all. Before you plan a single study day, write down every final with three things:

• The day it's on.
• How much of your grade it's worth. It's in each syllabus's grading section.
• The score you need on it for the grade you want.

The last one is the number most people guess at. Work out what you need on each final with the free calculator, one class at a time.

A worked example

Three made-up classes, each with its grade so far, what the final is worth, and the grade the student wants:

The history class, by hand: the grade so far is worth 0.8 × 93 = 74.4 points. The final has to add 90 − 74.4 = 15.6. Divided by the final's weight, 15.6 ÷ 0.2 = 78.

Statistics needs a 92, the highest of the three, so it gets the most hours. Biology needs 88.4, so it comes next. History needs a 78, so it gets the fewest.

This is our way to split the time, not a rule. Your syllabus decides how each grade is worked out.

If a grade you want is out of reach even with a 100, the calculator says so. Put those hours where a grade can still move.

Step 2. Find out what each final covers

First, check whether each final is cumulative (it covers the whole course) or only covers the last unit or two. The syllabus usually says. If it doesn't, ask your instructor.

Then look at the clues your class has already given you: the study guide or review sheet, practice questions your instructor handed out, the quizzes and homework you got back, and the learning objectives in the syllabus. A topic that shows up in several of those goes near the top of your list.

Here's the full method for ranking a final's topics by those clues, with the order we'd trust them in and a worked example.

If the final is cumulative

• Start with the units you remember least, not the ones you liked most.
• Use the midterms and quizzes you got back as a self-test: cover the answers, redo the questions, then check.
• Check whether the syllabus or the study guide puts more weight on the later units. Some cumulative finals do, and some don't.

Step 4. Test yourself, don't reread

In one experiment, students who tested themselves remembered 61% of a passage a week later, vs 40% for students who only reread it.

A large research review rated practice testing and spaced practice as the two most useful study techniques. Rereading and highlighting were rated low.

Three ways to test yourself for a final:

• Cover your notes and write down everything you remember about a topic. Then check what you missed.
• Do the practice problems before you look at the worked answers.
• Turn each line of the study guide into a question, and answer it the next time that topic comes up, without looking.

When you're out of days

If a final is tomorrow, there's no time to spread anything out. Spend tonight on the top of that class's ranked topics, and test yourself on them instead of rereading.