I forced myself off the seats and out of the stuffy bus onto the concrete walkway. I made my way into the same, mundane halls that seemed to blur right past me. Before I knew what was happening, I found myself in my first period classroom with five minutes left until the bell rings. Sighing, I pulled out my old agenda and read the messages and reminders from yesterday, from my past self. Realizing that all my homework was finished, I took a quick peek at my calendar and felt my inner being freeze when I glimpsed at the few forgotten words that were scrawled all over the next few weeks: final exams and EOC’s. I sunk into my chair in utter despair as I remembered my past self trying to unsuccessfully squeeze in time to study for exams along with other homework assignments.

Final exams as well as EOC’s are the final walls to push through before the end of the year for many students. However, there are many people who are pushing off studying “until later” or perhaps not knowing how to start. But, in order to finish the year with success, it is crucial to study hard and pass the finals and EOC’s. Here are a few tips and advice on how to get in the right mindset to study and have the proper tools to pass the exams.

1. Don’t Freak Out: Especially for people taking AP or IB courses, studying for the high school finals can be quite the challenge and even seem tedious when one sees all the material that has to be understood and memorized. However, although it sounds cliche, the important thing to do is to remain calm. More panicking or stressing over work is not going to get more of it finished and will only multiply the workload and waste time. Whatever amount of time you have, a good mindset to keep in mind is that getting the best grade possible is a better choice than giving up and getting a worse grade.

2. Have a Battle Plan: School can sometimes be described as a battlefield and if that is the case, then the final exams are certainly no exception. It would certainly be wise to have a battle plan in hand before attacking the final exams. Some good strategies would include studying for exams that are more recent rather than later exams, but at the same time, making sure to study for AP/IB exams every day. Also, a good idea would be to schedule even the hours of the day depending on what must be studied. Using myself as an example, I try to have at least an hour and a half of studying for the AP Human Exam every day, as well as squeezing in an hour of studying for each subject I have.

3. Get Good Resources: Once a battle plan is ready, having great supplies and weapons would be in order. Sometimes it’s not enough to only quickly skim through the final review worksheets or EOC study guide. To study, it might be necessary to dig deep for all the resources needed to study effectively. Perhaps it’s time to sort through the old piles of class notes and look over each unit’s study guides. For people taking AP/IB exams, perhaps it’s time to get some resources to help you study such as the Princeton Review or any books from AMSCO (Links to Princeton Review here and AMSCO material here).

“I use the Barron’s AP Psychology Review Book, Quizlet, and several practice tests to study for my AP Psychology Exam and they definitely help me.” said sophomore Kirtan Subramaniam.

4. It’s Not Just Studying: Yes, studying is an important part of preparing for the finals, but it is important to know that it is not the only factor either. It’s crucial to stay in good health and receive plenty of sleep in the midst of all the studying. It’s not rare to find some high school student pulling “all-nighters” or staying up late in order to cram in as much studying as possible. However, the truth is that it only wastes more time by causing people to lose more energy for the next day. This, in the long run, wastes more time rather than it saves. Especially during the last week of final exams, it is very important to make sure one develops good habits of eating properly and sleeping plenty of hours.

“I usually go to sleep at a reasonable hour and eat meals when I have to, so that I am able to study properly for my AP exams.” said junior Sebastian Cherres.

5. Get Started and Push On: Although this is quite obvious, it’s crucial to start studying immediately in order to be fully prepared for the final exams. If there is much time before the exams, do not put off studying until later. Otherwise, you might find yourself pulling “all-nighters” a few days before exam day. Many people might try studying for a few days and feel worn out or discouraged of the same strenuous studying routine every day. However, a good saying that my father told me to keep in mind was “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time”. This means that staying calm and setting goals is very necessary to reach the end of the humongous meal that is known as studying for the final exams.