Ways to effectively study for finals

Aurora High School is finally reaching the end of the 2018/2019 school year. And even though there are still 19 days left, most students are feeling the anticipation for summer right around the corner. However, the only thing that’s closer to summer vacation is finals. Yes, dreaded finals. Most students have the mentality that testing should have been finished after the strenuous state testing in April. Finals are the last thing that students have to do before we’re allowed to leave for summer vacation, but leading up until that point are a few stressful, restless weeks.

Before the sheer panic starts to sink in from the realization that you haven’t studied at all, remember to calm down. There is still time to study for your classes before the end of the year test are taken. Now, there are a variety of methods that can be used and there are plenty of high school students that are fairly confident with their own study methods and that’s great. However, for the people that aren’t here’s a few solutions that should be able to help and are scientifically proven effective.

High School students that are prone to procrastinating often end up cramming. That’s actually way less helpful than you expected. Studying in long sessions in a short period of time is not only a fairly stressful way to study but it doesn’t give your brain enough time to retain the information as much as it would if you study in intervals.

It’s best if you study for 20 to 50-minute intervals allowing yourself to have 5 to 10-minute breaks in between. Also, exercising can do a lot for a study session as well. Just allowing yourself to have 20 minutes of any type of cardio can help improve your memory so you can feel like you’ve had a successful time studying.

Speaking in the aspect of time a few things should be fairly obvious. One of those things is pulling an all-nighter. Frankly, studying all night and having to take a test working on 0 hours of sleep doesn’t sound good to anyone. So don’t do it. While you sleep your brain will mull over all the information you just gave it, and overall you’ll perform better on a test.

And believe it or not, the type of food that you eat can be beneficial to maintaining optimal brain health to studying. Relying on heavily on too much of one certain type of food while studying can lead to loss of attentiveness.

So having a balanced meal for a few weeks leading up to your test should help your brain hone in more to the material that you’re working on. And while you’re studying, your brain actually consumes glucose. That’s why consuming healthy like yogurt or tree nuts and other stuff that is rich in antioxidants can prove to be a smart snack to eat.

There are still plenty of more tips and methods that can be used to help study, but these are the most basic and easier to commit to methods. There is still time before we have to worry about taking finals and plenty of studying time ahead. Students that have to take an AP test, well, good luck. Testing dates are still approaching so don’t procrastinate! With these tips, you’ve now got a few tricks up your sleeve.