Stephanie Kalinowski ’19, Student Life Editor
As our little taste of freedom from Christmas break comes to an end, we have little time left to prepare ourselves for exam week. Exams can sometimes either make or break your grade; you can have an A all semester, but fail the exam, and it can take your grade down a whole letter. This is why exam week causes lots of stress, so here are some ways to lessen that stress and help you be prepared.
At South Lyon High School, there are a couple of exams of which students will never forget the difficulty. Senior Molly Thomas said, “The biology exam was the worst; there were over 100 questions and constructed responses and as a freshman, it was tough because it was a big change from middle school.”
As we get older, tests only get harder, especially at the college level. The AP classes offered at SLHS give juniors and seniors a little insight on the toughness of a college class. Senior Bree Koski said, “I decided to take AP Gov to improve my GPA, which wasn’t the smartest idea because I was really bad at the class, and I forgot to study for the midterm.”
The number one reason for failure on exams is not studying properly or not even studying at all. There are many different ways you can approach studying. First, the most helpful is to give yourself more than enough time to review the material that was covered the course. You might want to determine when you should start studying by how much material you need to review. For instance, if you have to review material for an entire semester, you might want to start studying a few weeks prior. However, if you are just taking an exam that covers material over a few chapters, a week prior or even three to four days may be sufficient.
Another good thing to do when studying is to find out what is on the test directly from your teacher. Many teachers will provide some guidance on what will and will not be covered on the test. Knowing what material will be covered will help you focus on the main information that you need in order to study.
Even though exam week is stressful, there are always strategies and study methods you can use in order to improve your chances of success. Websites like Quizlet, StudyStack and memorize.com are helpful when you’re studying. Learning good study habits now will benefit you for studying in college and even later on in life.
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