Final Exam Battle Plan

I hope this may help some of you. I found it rather useful to organize my time this next few weeks. Have a great winter break!

Bethany

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Final Exam "Battle Plan"
It’s time to start organizing your resources for the final “Big Push” of the semester. This effort
probably will mean making some important decisions about how to divide your time and
energies to achieve maximum success.
The suggested steps are:
1) Figure out what your present situation is in each class.
2) Estimate what catch-up work and new work needs to be done between now and the
final exams. Also estimate how much time will be needed to review for each exam.
3) Learn all you can about what to expect on your final exams.
4) Rank your courses according to importance, and decide on a REALISTIC finalgrade
goal for each course.
5) Estimate how many study hours are available to you and divide them among your
courses ACCORDING TO YOUR PRIORITIES.
6) Adjust your grade-goals, if necessary, to fit the realities of how much study time is
available.
Not everyone needs to follow such a detailed plan, but this approach is ESPECIALLY
RECOMMENDED IF YOU’VE HAD TROUBLE ORGANIZING YOURSELF IN THE PAST.
This method also may help if you have a heavy load of final exams, final papers, etc.
Step One: What is your present situation?
Considering the grades that you’ve received so far and their relative weights, what is your overall
grade in each class as you approach final exams?
Course Estimated Grade Course Estimated Grade
Up To Now: Up To Now:
1.______________ _____ 4._____________ _____
2.______________ _____ 5._____________ _____
3.______________ _____ 6._____________ _____
Step Two: What work needs to be done?
Fill in the boxes in TABLE ONE. Include estimates of HOW MUCH time will be needed for
each part.
Step Three: Know your "enemies." What will the tests be like?
Answer the questions in TABLE TWO about each final exam. If you don’t know an answer,
FIND OUT!
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Step Four:
A. Rank your courses according to how important each one is in terms of the final grade
desired, and in terms of the importance of that final grade. For example, courses in
your major or possible major might be ranked first; courses that are electives or that
you are taking P/F might be ranked last.
B. Then, keeping in mind that information from the previous steps, write in a
REALISTIC grade-goal for each course.
Courses Ranked by Importance Realistic Grade-Goal
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Step Five:
Use the attached schedule sheets to plan a TENTATIVE study schedule for the remainder of the
semester.
A. Indicate the week each schedule will cover.
B. Cross out all hours unavailable to you for studying (class hours, job hours, meals,
etc.)
C. Indicate all your exam times and their locations on the schedule for finals week.
D. Now start allotting study hours to different courses. You will have to make decisions
based on such factors as the information in Table One and the ranking in Step Four.
Remember to BE REALISTIC. You cannot study every waking hour; you will burn
yourself out. Also, allow time for errands and other necessary jobs. To allot hours, it
is suggested that you categorize study hours on your schedule according to course and
type of studying: you might, for example, use a two-letter code, with the first letter
representing the course and the second letter P-N = Physics-new work; B-R =
Biology review.
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E. As you work on this step, fill in the spaces below.
Course Approx. Study Hours
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
If you’ve done a careful job on this exercise, you now have a ROUGH idea of how you could
spend your time during the last precious days of the semester.
NOTE: The time schedule sheets are NOT intended to be the final word. A “battle plan” is only
a rough estimate of how events will occur. No plan can predict every factor perfectly. But this
kind of plan gives you a starting point, a way to know roughly what you’ll have to do to reach
your goals. In short, it may keep you from spinning your wheels. Review your plan as you go
along!
ONE FINAL HINT: In general, it is better to overestimate how much time you will need than
to underestimate. So add a “fudge factor” to your estimate, say approximately 30-50% more
than your most optimistic estimate. Usually you will end up using the extra time, and more!
GOOD STUDYING!
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TABLE ONE
Course_________ Course_________ Course_________ Course_________ Course_________ Course_________
2A. What catch-up work (work assigned and due in the past but not yet finished) do you have to do and approximately how many
hours will be needed to do it?
2B. What new work do you need to do (work assigned between now and the end of the semester) and approximately how many hours
will be needed to do it?
2C. In addition to the above, approximately how many hours will you need to review material for each final exam?
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TABLE TWO
Course_________ Course_________ Course_________ Course_________ Course_________ Course_________
3A. What kind of test is it? Will it be objective (multiple-choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank) or subjective (short answer, essay)? If
it is a combination of the above, list percentages if possible.
3B. How many items will be on the test and how much time will you have to complete it?
3C. How much information will it cover? Is it a unit test or a comprehensive test? If it is a cumulative test (old and new materials),
what portion of the test will cover new material?
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TABLE TWO (CONTINUED)
Course_________ Course_________ Course_________ Course_________ Course_________ Course_________
3D. What is the relative importance of course requirements? Will the text be covered heavily? Will lecture notes be on the test?
Will lab experiments or other outside assignments be covered?
3E. What is the emphasis on various topics? If all of the lecture information and text readings are to be covered, which topics are
most important?
3F. Who is writing the test (professor, text authors, department) and who will be grading the test? What are their biases or
preferences?
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SCHEDULE FOR WEEK OF
SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
7:00
8:00
9:00
10:00
11:00
12:00
1:00
2:00
3:00
4:00
5:00
6:00
7:00
8:00
9:00
10:00
11:00
S:\Masters--Handouts\Reading & Study Strategies\Exam Study - General\Final Exam Battle Plan.doc
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SCHEDULE FOR WEEK OF
SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
7:00
8:00
9:00
10:00
11:00
12:00
1:00
2:00
3:00
4:00
5:00
6:00
7:00
8:00
9:00
10:00
11:00