Hello Math Majors,
I hope that you are doing well and that you are staying healthy. This week is the 11th week of the Fall 2021 semester, so we only have 5 weeks left before final exams weeks. I know that the semester has gone by quickly for me, and I expect that the semester has been moving quickly for you too. This means that talking about test preparation is going to be important for the remaining of the semester.
Test preparation is going to vary from test to test and class to class since not all tests are created equally. You should try to review all of the material covered in a class at the end of the week, and then you should review the course materials on the test for a number of days equal to the number of weeks of class covered by the exam. So if it has been 5 weeks since your last exam in the class, you should spend about 5 days studying the past 5 weeks of course material. You don't have to spend the whole day studying, but you should budget enough time to review the most important topics for the exam. This amount of time is also going to vary from student to student. I think of the above as a pretty good starting point for most students and most exams, and it is much better than cramming for an exam the night before.
In addition to the suggested amount of study time, there are many strategies that you can employ to help you when taking exams. The Center for Academic Success and Transition (CAST) has an entire workshop about test preparation and test taking, and they have put together a test preparation and test taking strategies handout available here. CAST also has a short, imaginary exam that allows you to implement the test taking strategies available here.
CAST has academic success coaches to help you with test preparation and test taking strategies, and you can schedule a meeting with them using MyPlan. I would also be glad to help if you have any questions or concerns.
Best wishes, Doug
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