Jessica HongWriting an In-Class Essay
If you’re in an Arts degree, chances are that you’ve got an in-class essay (or five) amongst your upcoming finals. If you’re wondering how your prof expects you to write several “well-written” essays in a couple of hours, never fear. With a bit of prep time and the right mindset, you can breeze through those essays.
The joy and the pain of essay exams is that memorization isn’t going to take you very far. Your prof can only really ask you about a couple broad topics — what facts you tie into those topics from the course is up to you. With that in mind, planning is key. If you’ve got a kind-hearted prof, you may already have the exam questions or at least a list of the possible exam questions.
If this is you, congratulations — your job is easy. Make practice outlines of how you would answer each question and you’re ready to go.
If your prof is more a man or woman of mystery, it’s time to do a little sleuthing.
Think back to those sleepy classes in February and March. Were there certainphrases that kept coming up? Are there words your prof has said so many times that you’re sick of hearing them? Guess what: those concepts will probably be on the exam. You can also look at the syllabus to find out what your prof thinks the important structuring ideas of the course are. Once you’ve done your detective work, you can plan out your ideas accordingly. Make a sample outline or make a chart sorting facts by what concepts they relate to.
Then there’s the exam itself. You show up with your three pens (never know when a pen will die) and memories of essay outlines in your head. First — don’t panic. Take a moment to write a quick outline. Once you put pen to paper, remember that this essay is about speed, not style. Don’t waste time writing a fancy intro — just set up that thesis and go onward. It doesn’t matter if it’s kind of clunky. Nobody’s expecting a literary masterpiece.
So there you have it: planning, extra pens, no panicking, no literary panache. Go forth and ace those essay exams!
Multiple Choice Exams
Multiple choice exams rock. There’s no other test that gives you the answers right on the page, yet many people get stressed out by them. Choice can be overwhelming, so we get where you’re coming from.
The first step is to actually read the question. Take your time here because it’s the most important part. Now read all the answers. Then, go through each answer and cross out the ones that you’re 100 per cent sure aren’t correct. These are the answers you aren’t even going to look at again. If you have more than one that’s not crossed out, and neither of them look correct at first glance, make a mark beside the question and move on.
One of the easiest ways to fail a multiple choice exam is getting stuck on a question. If you force yourself to move on, you’ll have time to go back at the end and fill in the ones you missed. Not knowing the answer will also make you feel unsure about the rest of the test, so it’s best to just come back to it later.
Guessing on the correct answer depends on the type of test it is. If your prof’s a dick and subtracts marks for incorrect answers, don’t take the risk. Otherwise, a good way to find the correct answer if you have no idea is to see if there are two similar ones. It’ll likely be one of them. And if all else fails, choose B or C.
Dealing with Stress
It’s no secret that finals season brings with it a lot of stress. Just trying to keep one’s head above water can be difficult, let alone maintaining the things we do for fun. Although finals season is by its very nature stressful, there are ways to minimize that stress.
The better prepared you are for exams, the less studying you’ll have to do, and the more time you’ll have for enjoyable activities.A good way of doing this is making sure you don’t fall behind in class. Keep up-to-date with the material, and have a good idea of what’s going on. The secret? In order to do this, you need to attend class. Mind-blowing, right?
If you find yourself unprepared and anxious, then having good study habits is a good way to help keep your cool. Don’t try to learn an entire course in the span of a week. Focus on the most important points. Budget time for studying, and just as importantly, budget downtime as well. In general, your productivity will decrease the longer your study session lasts. Break the time up into smaller increments, interspersed
with things you find enjoyable and relaxing.
If things are going particularly badly, and you know there’s nothing you can do to improve your situation — we’ve all been there — then remaining stressed out about it won’t do any good. Whether or not we are stressed out is to a large extent within our control. Sometimes it’s necessary to accept our predicament and move on. If we waste our time regretting all those late nights spent at the bar instead of doing homework, or worrying about how badly an exam will go, then we lose the enjoyment of the present.
Most importantly, remember that you’re not alone in your struggles. Final exam season is stressful for everyone — even the most prepared student — and chances are the person sitting next to you in your MATH 113 exam is just as nervous as you are.
Study Tips
Studying can be daunting when you haven’t gone to a class since the midterm and you have five textbooks you need to study in the course of a week. To help you make sense of your studying and to actually be effective in your studying, here’s some tips.
Make sure you know what’s going to be on the test and what isn’t
If the specifics of what will be tested on aren’t in the syllabus, make a meeting with your prof to make sure you know exactly what will be on the exam. Is the whole textbook fair game or only the concepts you covered in slides? Make the distinction now to avoid tears.
If you don’t get your tests back
Go to the exam registry at su.ualberta.ca/services/infolink/exam. It’s a beautiful
tool that has past exams from a lot of teachers, so you can get a feel for the styles of questions you should be prepping for. Do they like definition questions or problem-solving ones?
Get the ideas to stick in your head
Half of the battle when you’re studying is just memorizing four months worth of information. To help remember information,
invent a ridiculous example where you can apply chunks of your terms or concepts. The silly nature of your story makes studying more fun, and since you’re recalling something funny instead of sitting in a lecture hall, it’ll be easier to bring the terms back when you’re writing the test.
Don’t only memorize terms
Chances are you’re going to need to actually apply the terms to an example, so knowing what words mean isn’t your best plan of action. Use Venn diagrams to compare and contrast ideas. Make concept maps. Create examples of when the concept would be applied. If you work to apply your knowledge when you’re studying, you’ll be able to contextualize the knowledge in a stressful, test situation.
Mental Health Resources
Finals can be incredibly taxing on both a physical and mental level. Don’t write off symptoms of physical or mental illness as just being “stressed out.”
Finals can take a toll on anyone, regardless of physical and mental health history. If you don’t feel like yourself, or you just need someone to talk to, the university has you covered with a variety of physical and mental health services.
University Health Centre
Located in SUB 2-200, the University Health Centre provides professional and confidential services to students with both mental and physical health issues. Drop-in hours are available from 8:30-4:30 Monday through Friday.
Counselling and Clinical Services
Tucked away in SUB 2-600, the Counselling and Clinical Services office provides both psychological and psychiatric services including personal therapy, drop-in workshops, and group therapy. Hours of operation are from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday, Thursday, and Friday and from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday.
Peer Support Centre
Just need someone to talk to? The Peer Support Centre, found in SUB 2-207 is there for you. Providing peer-to-peer counselling, the Peer Support Centre is an invaluable resource for students looking for some informal talk-therapy. Hours of operation are from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Chaplains Centre/Interfaith
For those who are more religiously inclined, the Chaplains Centre and Interfaith can provide spiritual counselling and advice, as well and a space large enough to fit a prayer group or other religious gathering. The Chaplains Centre is located in HUB 169 while Interfaith can be found in SUB 3-02.
If you are faced with a sudden crisis or instance of distress over exams, but cannot make it to one of the above services, call the Edmonton Distress Line at (780-482-HELP) for 24-hour help.
Coping with Failure
Sometimes no matter how hard you study, things just aren’t going to go well and you might find yourself with an F on an exam. Instead of panicking or going into an alcoholic
spiral to cope, know the ways that you can handle a failing grade.
Wendy Doughty from the Student Success Centre stresses that if you leave an exam feeling like it went terribly, don’t sit at home and avoid looking at BearTracks thinking that the grade will go away. If you feel like the exam didn’t go well, or you’re already looking at an F, talk to your professor about the possibility of a rewrite, or have the exam remarked.
“The key word is ‘act,’” Doughty says.
“There are critical periods of timing that are involved. There are clear stipulations about (failed exam) situations in university policy and you need to act before you miss those opportunities.”
One thing to keep in mind while watching BearTracks for grades is the F1 on a transcript. This means that some requirement of the course was not completed. A lab could have been not handed in or a report from earlier in the semester could have been lost.
“This is another opportunity that students often miss because students don’t know what it means or they are avoiding looking at their marks so they don’t see it,” Doughty notes. “After a certain period of time it will be converted to an F.”
If you find yourself with an F1, contact your professor immediately. If a report did get lost, you may be able to resubmit it and avoid losing that weighting in your final grade.
If you try all of these tactics and are still left with an F, don’t stress out. You can always retake a course to bring up your GPA in following years. While it’s a shitty feeling, the reality is that your life isn’t going to end if you fail a class. Take a deep breath, and use it as a learning experience for the second time around.
Quick Tips
Give yourself extra time to get to campus.
There’s no worse feeling than sleeping in and realizing you won’t make it to campus on time for your exam. If you live outside of Edmonton or rely on public transit, you might want to aim to get to campus an hour before your exam starts. That way, you’ll have some buffer time in case your bus (inevitably) doesn’t show up, or you hit the snooze button too many times. Best case scenario: you get to school super early, and have some extra time to chill out and cram.
Bring a snack.
Maybe Gatewayers are just starving savages, but we believe hunger is one of the biggest distractions while writing an exam. Plus, it’s kind of embarrassing to have your stomach growling in a silent room for two hours. Leave a discreet food item on your desk before the exam begins, then you’ll be able to grab it mindlessly when you need it. Some quiet options include a granola bar (unwrap it before the exam starts) or grapes.
Be positive.
Okay, if it’s 3 a.m. and you’re nursing a caffeine headache this might be hard to believe. But, your outlook on taking the exam will usually impact your outcomes. Remember (or at least imagine) that your instructor likes you and wants you to do well. Think of the exam as a way to prove yourself and show off all the ballin’ knowledge you learned this semester. As lame as it sounds, think of finals less as daunting examination and more like a talent show.
Practice self-care.
Maintaining balance in your life is super hard — but super important — during high-stress times like finals. Performing self-care is doing anything that makes you feel like you’re de-stressing and taking care of yourself. For some of us, that can mean cleaning our rooms or doing laundry, and for some of us that means having sex or eating pizza with friends. Attending to your physical and mental health during these tough times usually pays off — chances are, if you’re well-rested, well-fed and well-showered, you’ll feel even more inclined to kick all of your final exams’ asses.
At the end of the day, it’s just a test.
And after the exam, you’re still a cool person who can’t be defined by their grades. Of course, school is really important and your GPA may impact your options in the immediate future. But, chances are that you won’t be shut out of your dream job or grad school because of one exam. Chill out, study hard, and remember that if worse comes to worst, you can always re-take the class, or graduate a semester later, and the world won’t end. Promise.
