Balancing Final Exams and Test Prep: The Best Ways to Study for Both
In a previous post, we delved into the challenges that students face during the springtime. One of the hardest quandaries this time of year is how to help students successfully balance studying for both the ACT® or SAT® in addition to their high school final exams.
Studying for multiple tests at one time is equivalent to keeping multiple plates spinning in the air—while making Jimi Hendrix proud by playing “Crosstown Traffic” on a kazoo— while keeping your counter going on your Skip-It (or your other favorite 90s pastime of choice). So, one of the best ways to support your clients during this time is by helping them to find ways to balance it all.
Dual Planning: Advice for ACT®/SAT® and Final Exams Prep
It’s impossible to sugarcoat this predicament—it’s not an easy task to handle. But, with the right guidance, your students will be sufficiently prepared and able to persevere. Our advice?
Start early. Students should always endeavor to be ahead of schedule with their test prep. By starting early, students will have enough time to dig into those troublesome spots, and figure out the best way to commit that information to memory.
For ACT®/SAT® prep, students should already have a firm grasp on which concepts they need to be sufficiently prepared for, and in which subject areas they need to focus on the most. If they’ve started early, then they’ll have ample time to get ready.
As for starting early on final-exam prep, students may not have had a class review session or received their final exam study guides yet, but they should have a basic idea of which concepts will be on their finals and a general idea of what they’ve struggled with in class.
Best case scenario: they’ve gotten a proper head start on their studying and will be more than prepared for their test days.
Worst case scenario: their teacher tacks on a few concepts that they’ve forgotten about or didn't expect to be on the final exam, but (because they’ve started early) they have plenty of time to add those ideas to their study plans.
In either case, starting early is a win-win.
Prepare for a marathon, not a jog. Preparing for multiple exams in one stint is a lot for anyone. Students must understand that this will be an arduous task that requires some serious endurance combined with a solid test-prep plan and laser focus.
Schedule study time. For each exam, students should have study time scheduled—as precise and regimented as possible—so that their allotted study time does not conflict with any other activities.
Students should dedicate extra study time to the more stubborn concepts and subject areas.
Multiple Tests in One Day, One Week - How to Find a Balance
Each student’s final exam schedule will look different; they may have multiple exams on the same day or simply within the same week. Likewise, some students may be preparing for a perfect storm: taking the ACT® or SAT® on the same day or week as their finals. No matter what their test-prep quandary may be, having to study for multiple exams at the same time is a heavy burden to bear.
Here are a few ideas to share with your clients to help them shoulder the load and find a balance.
Avoid brain overload. Too much information in too short a time will only cause students to burn out faster, making them far less likely to retain crammed information. To avoid this, students must pace themselves through scheduled study times and breaks (advice for schedules and breaks to come).
Rank importance. Students should create a hierarchy based on the importance of each test. It may not be possible to give each exam an equal amount of time to study for, so they should rank each exam by pertinence (i.e., the subjects that pose as the biggest cumbrance should rank the highest and so on and so forth).
Know the score. For final exams, students need to have a basic idea of what grades they must achieve on their final exams in order to gain or maintain their target GPA.
Likewise, they must have a bullseye score in mind when preparing for the ACT®/SAT® in order to graduate and/or gain admittance to their choice college(s).
Have strategies for combating test anxiety and frustration. The ACT® and SAT® are high-stakes exams that typically induce test anxiety. Having to study for such a high-risk exam while also studying for their finals (each of which have their own consequences attached) can become a seemingly insurmountable task.
To help release the pressure, students need ways to decompress. Doing so looks different for everyone, and having a few strategies to choose from will make much-needed mental and physical breaks more productive in finding and maintaining a balance.
Physical exercise (running, biking, swimming); mindfulness practices (yoga, walking, meditating); and implementing cognitive therapy techniques (e.g., positive thinking and self-talk through affirmations) are all constructive ways of managing anxieties and frustrations.
General Study Tips
Our study recommendations can easily be applied to studying for the ACT® or SAT® and final exams. These tips will give more specific guidance to students trying to juggle studying for multiple exams at the same time.
Train smarter, not harder. Focus on the short-term goals, choosing quality over quantity. Again, students should rank the importance of each exam and put the most time and effort into the most difficult content and subject areas.
Make a study schedule (and stick to it!) Students need to create a timetable to organize their study sessions. Utilizing an agenda or calendar is essential. They need to have designated daily study time defined and blocked out—free of interruptions (more on this later).
Practice! Students need to practice and test themselves often. Practice exams are a perfect way to identify troublesome areas that need to be worked on. Analyzing and reviewing mistakes are the best ways to refocus where a student’s time and energy are best spent.
Get creative! Studying can be dull - especially when studying alone. Encourage your students to try different types of studying techniques from flashcards (handwritten or electronic) to active recall (asking themselves questions, testing themselves without notes) to making charts and diagrams and creating connections (e.g., text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to-world). They can even try studying with someone else and test each other. Any studying technique that makes a concept click into place is a major triumph!
Don’t memorize, understand. Students must dig deeper than simply memorizing relative nomenclature. They need to find methods to practice and apply vocabulary and terminology in a variety of scenarios to ensure a basic understanding.
For example, they could practice using vocabulary terms in everyday conversation or try explaining a scientific concept to someone else (sort of like playing the role of teacher). These are ways of engaging with subject matter in a way that will further their understanding and commit that knowledge to memory.
Actively study. Along the same lines of studying in creative ways and developing deeper understanding, students should avoid simply reading their notes from class or their test-prep sessions. Reformat, condense, underline, and highlight key information so that they are studying the most important material and cutting out anything extraneous that they know will not be on their exams.
Switch it up! Prevent learning fatigue by shifting gears from one study topic to another about every 30 minutes. Doing so will give their brains a break and help keep them from getting burned out by mulling over the same ideas and terms ad nauseum.
Find the perfect study space. We all have our own ideas of what makes a place the perfect spot to study. Whether it’s the back table of the library, under a favorite willow tree, a park bench in a secluded area, or the kitchen table, different places make us more productive.
Many students claim to need complete silence—even a lightbulb buzzing drives them up a wall. Others like to have soft classical music playing in the background or some other sound they can control completely.
Wherever they choose, advise your students to find a place that is conducive to concentration—free of distractions (TVs, radios, cell phones alerts, screaming children, barking dogs… you get it). They should also make sure that the place they choose is one in which they will be the most productive as opposed to a bedroom or a family room where they may be tempted to take a nap or play video games.
Stay focused! Leave all distractions out. of. sight. Students should make sure that the important people in their lives (parents, besties, whomever) know where they are, what they’re doing, and for how long. This way texts and calls do not need to be immediately responded to and students can focus on the tasks at hand. Advise them to request support for their need of space and time from these people, so that they’re able to give their studying the full, undivided attention it requires.
Take breaks. Part of a productive study session is incorporating breaks when needed. Pushing too hard will only result in learning fatigue. Short breaks—about 15-20 minutes long—are long enough to allow the brain a chance to disengage and recharge while short enough to prevent loss of focus.
Make sleep a priority. Sleep helps our brains and our bodies recharge. Having the right amount of sleep will help students retain the information that they’ve been studying. Encourage them to get an extra hour of sleep when engaging in intense studying, and especially on the nights before their exams.
Snack on Brain Food. Not in the zombie-sense, but in the chock-full-of-nutrients sense. A balanced diet of fresh fruits and veggies, proteins and healthy fats will fuel the mind and give the body energy. Accompanied by plenty of water, Brain Food is all that the body needs to keep going during even the most grueling of study sessions, and especially on test day(s).
Have a carrot on a stick! Students need to reward themselves; studying is hard work! Remind them to treat themselves not only with much-needed breaks, but rewards at the end of their study sessions. Are they looking forward to a new album that just dropped? Season 3 of their favorite show was just added to their watch queue? Encourage them to have something to indulge in after a long period of studying.
Study Tips for Final Exams
The content tested on final exams depends on the curriculum and which concepts the teachers of each class have chosen to evaluate. Typically, students are provided with a study guide as well as at least one final exam review in class. That said, here are a few of our tips for having the most productive final exam studying sessions.
Start in class. Effective studying starts in class. This involves paying attention, asking questions, being an active participant, and taking good notes. Advise your clients to make the most of their class time.
Be in class. Not just physically, but mentally. Students need to try their best to stay focused. That means refraining from working on assignments from another class, daydreaming, staring out the window—activities that are guaranteed to make them miss something important.
Take good notes. The goal here is for students to be able to understand their notes when they’re studying that information outside of class. Shorthand is great, but it needs to make sense later. Taking good notes in class will help them pay better attention to the lessons and ensure that the information is more comprehensible during their study sessions.
Know the content and format of the exams. Generally, teachers take the time to prepare their students for their final exams—both the content and format. However, students should make a point of asking specific questions about the content and format of the exam (e.g., Will there be multiple choice and/or open-ended questions? Will there be a word bank or an essay?) to get a clearer picture of what they can expect come test day.
Draw on all of the materials from class. The syllabus they received on the first day of class, the notes they’ve taken from class lectures, print-outs from their teacher, questions and answers from past tests and quizzes, and any papers they’ve written are all resources students can pull information from when studying for their final exams.
Study Tips for the ACT® & SAT®
Your tutoring sessions have been productive and your clients have made huge strides in preparing for the ACT® or SAT® thus far. At this point, you’ve helped your students follow their long-term plan based on their ultimate goals. However, the final leg of the race is here and your students are spending more time studying for their exam on their own time than during your tutoring sessions. Here are some tips for helping your students get the most out of their time in between their test-prep sessions.
Overlap studying for finals and the ACT®/SAT® whenever possible. Some of the content being tested on their final exams will overlap with the content of the ACT® or SAT®. If any subject matter matches up, help students to create a study plan that merges their final exam(s) and ACT®/SAT® study sessions. Doing so will make their study time more efficient and productive.
Make their practice test feel like the real thing. There’s no better way to prepare for test day than by taking practice tests that mimic the real ACT® or SAT®. Practice tests that simulate the actual exam allow students to become more comfortable with the content, timing, and formatting, so they have a better idea of what they can expect come test day.
Take advantage of Score Analysis. The best way to assess a student’s overall performance in preparation for the big test is by analyzing their practice test performance. A Score Analysis gives unmatched insight into where the student’s trouble spots are and thus, where their focus needs to be when studying.
Have a Test Day Checklist. It’s easy for students to get caught up in the whirlwind of studying for finals and the ACT® or SAT®, and forget that (unlike their final exams) the ACT® and SAT® have strict requirements on test day. From admission to the test center to what type of pencil is permitted, be sure that your students are well-prepared in advance.
Helping students find a balance is the key to them finding success when preparing for and taking multiple exams. Clear Choice Prep can help: with our 100% customizable curriculum and materials with lessons and practice tests that can be modified and individualized, we can help you and your clients make the most of your test-prep and their study sessions.
For more advice, tips, and tricks to help your students navigate finals and ACT®/SAT®-prep season, check out some of our study-focused blog posts and don’t forget to subscribe so you are always up to date with our latest test prep news and advice!