Samantha Behar and Jennifer Clemens
Staff Writers
Dear Freshman,
Not to scare you, but finals week is quickly approaching. For many of you this is your first time taking finals. Not to worry, they aren’t as bad as they seem! Here are a few tips to make finals week less painful:
Procrastination is your worst enemy. You have mastered the skill of last minute studying over the past year. Finals are not your average test. You have four tests in the span of one week, which means studying the night before is not the best idea, especially because the test covers material from the whole year. It is important to start studying at least two weeks in advance. You will thank yourself when you aren’t pulling an all nighter on Monday night.
Do not focus on only your first test. Your English final may come first, but that doesn’t make it the most important one. Do not make the rookie mistake of forgetting about the other finals. Spread your studying time evenly. Make sure you don’t get through the first day of finals to realize you haven’t started studying for the next day’s tests.
Come to school on lishma day. Lishma day is one of Milken’s best secrets. Sure we all know about it, but not all of us use it. During this day the teachers sit in their offices, and wait to hear your questions. Take advantage of this opportunity! It can really help.
Take advantage of A and B review days. These days basically allow you to study all day during school. Gather genuine questions that you have for your teachers. Your teachers will be available all day, so take advantage of the opportunity.
Do practice finals. Check in with your teachers for practice prompts or questions that you may come across on the finals. Practicing the types of questions that you will be seeing on the real final, will help you a lot. (Even ask your teacher to grade one of them during Lishma day!)
Don’t lose track of end of the year projects. Subjects like History, Jewish Studies, and Hebrew don’t take finals during finals week. Depending on the subject, you will either take an in class final or complete a project. You will be studying for finals, and yes you will be stressed. Make sure you still try your best on these projects, because they still affect your grade!
Calculate your lowest possible final grade. It’s super easy to do. You go online, search final grade calculator, and plug in your year grade for a class. It then calculates what the lowest grade you need on your final to either keep your grade or raise it. Doing this relieves stress, because you know beforehand how drastically your grade can change.
Do not overstress. Even though teachers and your friends stress how important finals are, it is not the biggest deal in the world. It is usually around 12% of your class grade, which does not affect your overall grade too tremendously. You should study a little more than how you would for a normal test, but do not drive yourself crazy with studying, because your final grade usually reflects how you have done all year in the class.
Do not get distracted by the fact that summer starts the second your last final ends! Most importantly, do not waste your final time thinking about the fact that summer is starting momentarily. Even though you will be counting down the minutes and even seconds until summer begins, do not let that distract you from checking over your answers on your finals, and giving them your all.
Now, go study!