I knocked out two of my final exams for the semester yesterday. It kind of makes for a long day. My first exam was from 8-10 a.m. and my second one was from 7-10 p.m. The evening ones are the worst. Usually I am thinking about going to bed at 10 p.m., not writing differential equations and designing control systems. My brain just seems to slow down when it gets that late in the day.
Luckily, I don't get too stressed out about finals week. My first semester here, I was kind of stressed, a little less the next semester. Now, final exams are more of an inconvenience than anything else.
It is kind of interesting looking at the different study habits that the students employ. We have a few rooms where the Chemical Engineering students tend to congregate. Some of them get together in groups, have pizza, listen to music, and chit-chat. After several hours, they all say they are tired of studying and take off. I guess it is more about the social aspects of studying rather than the actual value of studying.
Others will read the textbook cover to cover and do as many practice problems as possible. They stay up all night to study before exams. Personally, I would rather get in a good solid night of sleeping before an exam.
I like to look at any previous exams that the instructor has made available, review the notes that I have taken in class, look at the homework assignments that we have been given, and then decide what questions are most likely to be on the exam. It lets me target just a few areas. I have done extremely well in predicting the sort of questions that are going to be given on the exams and avoided extremely long hours preparing for exams.
Several students convince themselves that the professor is going to try to trick them. They are almost positive that there will lots of obscure questions on the exams. They end up spending hours and hours studying things that have almost no chance of being on the exam. They neglect to study the material that the professor spent several lecture periods on, because they think they already know all that stuff. It appears they have yet to make the connection between the amount of time a professor spends discussing a topic, and how important the professor thinks it is.
I am much happier just spending a few hours brushing up on what I think will be on the test and getting a good night of sleep. Life is much less stressful that way. I guess it pays to be a little older and wiser than my compatriots.
Luckily, I don't get too stressed out about finals week. My first semester here, I was kind of stressed, a little less the next semester. Now, final exams are more of an inconvenience than anything else.
It is kind of interesting looking at the different study habits that the students employ. We have a few rooms where the Chemical Engineering students tend to congregate. Some of them get together in groups, have pizza, listen to music, and chit-chat. After several hours, they all say they are tired of studying and take off. I guess it is more about the social aspects of studying rather than the actual value of studying.
Others will read the textbook cover to cover and do as many practice problems as possible. They stay up all night to study before exams. Personally, I would rather get in a good solid night of sleeping before an exam.
I like to look at any previous exams that the instructor has made available, review the notes that I have taken in class, look at the homework assignments that we have been given, and then decide what questions are most likely to be on the exam. It lets me target just a few areas. I have done extremely well in predicting the sort of questions that are going to be given on the exams and avoided extremely long hours preparing for exams.
Several students convince themselves that the professor is going to try to trick them. They are almost positive that there will lots of obscure questions on the exams. They end up spending hours and hours studying things that have almost no chance of being on the exam. They neglect to study the material that the professor spent several lecture periods on, because they think they already know all that stuff. It appears they have yet to make the connection between the amount of time a professor spends discussing a topic, and how important the professor thinks it is.
I am much happier just spending a few hours brushing up on what I think will be on the test and getting a good night of sleep. Life is much less stressful that way. I guess it pays to be a little older and wiser than my compatriots.
No comments:
Post a Comment