1. First off: Don’t procrastinate! Give yourself enough time to study and prepare for your exams.

“Make sure you give yourself enough time to complete your work, do the reviews, and study. This is one of the main problems that I have. Procrastination just leads to even more stress on top of everything else you have going on, so don’t do it,” Daisy Moran, a Marshall Academic Decathlon member, said.

2. Take as many breaks as you need while studying! Don’t exhaust yourself. You don’t have to rush.

“Stay focused, but take breaks whenever you can; around like every thirty minutes or so. When you let yourself have that time to relax, you’ll be better prepared to study the next segment,” Callahan Palmer, an AP student, said. 

3. Find out what’s most important within your notes. The most important information (especially the ones your teacher has explained or discussed numerous times) is what will show up on those semester exams. Read over your notes over and over again each day.

“A lot of what I do is just going through my notes again and reading it out loud so my brain can actually take it in. [I do this because] I struggle with learning things long-term, and I do better short-term,” Kendall Perry, a Dual Credit student, said.

4. Don’t cram your studying into one session. Do a little bit at a time. 

“You won’t memorize all the important information overnight. Practicing little bits at a time over the course of a week is much more helpful than rushing to memorize everything in a 4 hour chunk. Do 1 subject for a few days; just 15 minute flashcards or self quizzes,” Phillippe Riopel, an AP student, said. 

5. Quiz with friends! Use flashcards, kahoots, or notes with your friends to quiz one another. This can make studying more fun and go by faster while still keeping that session just as beneficial regarding memorizing information.

“I study with my friends and we do questionnaires. Someone asks a question and there’s three of us trying to answer it. We [answer], ‘Oh yeah, this happened because of this, and then which led to that, and then which led to this,” and all that. If you can explain it to someone well, then you’re teaching yourself, and you’re teaching someone else, it’ll help a lot,” Rubi Mendez, a Dual Credit student, said.