Dear ’19,
I write with some end-of-term tips in the hopes that they make this next couple of weeks a bit easier. As the term comes to a close, please remember to take care of yourselves, be considerate (you might not have anything due until Thursday, but the person who lives next door might have something due in three hours, etc.), and try to plan out your time in a semi-structured way so as to avoid doing too little or too much.
I therefore offer some words of advice:
Part One: Exams and Final Papers as Life Experiences
1. Keep perspective: The term will soon be over. Have confidence. Repeat to
yourself often: “I can do it.” “I will destroy that test.” “I will write a paper that will blind my instructor with its dazzling brilliance.” “This course will soon be behind me and I will be sleeping late/seeing the new Star Wars movie/on my way to Europe, San Francisco, New Jersey, etc.”
2. Find the way and place you study best and the way that works for you. If that means blaring music (preferably with earbuds/beats) while you read over your notes, so be it. If that means you must find a sensory deprivation tank to write the paper, that’s okay, too. Do not compare yourself to others.
3. Take a break every day, and know when and what it will be. Get a venti half-caf soy iced caramel macchiato with whipped cream and truffle shavings. Call home.
4. Get some sleep. The number one reason for poor exam performance is
lack of sleep (which is not to say that you should sleep for the 22 hours prior to the exam).
5. Don’t instagram, facebook, snapchat, pinterest, etc. These are great ways to waste huge amounts of time, as we all know all too well.
Part Two: How to Study Well
1. Study with a purpose, particularly when reviewing a particular book or lecture notes. Study in digestible amounts. Schedule your time accordingly.
2. Be an active, engaged learner. Try to predict what the instructor will ask on the exam and spend time with your classmates discussing the material; research indicates that you can absorb (and apply) material in a deeper way by actively discussing it.
3. Eat fruits and vegetables, avoid scurvy.
4. Keep in mind the big picture of the course, its major themes. Exams
are the occasion for you to pull together in a coherent way what you have
learned.
5. Look again at the syllabus to get a sense of the larger goals of the course. Be sure you did not miss any assigned reading or small print.
6. Sometimes changing study places can help. Avoid studying in your room—this is where you sleep, hang out, etc. It can a time management disaster waiting to happen if you study there as well.
7. Find someone to study with you who will not distract you the entire time but will keep you motivated.
Part Three: At the Exam
1. Read the exam all the way through before you start it. Read the
directions carefully. You don’t want to forget to do “Section Three,” for
instance.
2. When I was in college (in the prehistoric era), I would try to predict what I’d need to know, study the concepts/formulas and then scribble them all on the test paper before actually starting the exam so that I’d have a roadmap, as it were, to refer back to throughout the test.
3. Try to follow the time suggestions for each question or part. Pass over
questions that are too difficult or stump you; first answer the ones you
can readily answer; return to the others later with restored confidence.
4. Make an outline for long essay questions and give them a title so that you can remember to focus. Write legibly–it matters! If a professor can’t read it all that well, they can’t grade it all that well either.
5. Try to remember that this process can be hard. This does not
mean that you are doing it wrong. Tests are meant to be challenging. If you feel
you are being punished, take a deep breath. You are at Wesleyan. You are very
smart. You cannot know everything. Just try hard.
Part Four: You’re in this together
1. Be thoughtful of the stress of others and their study needs (i.e., don’t play death metal at 4 a.m. on a Tuesday).
2. Know if your roommate should be awake. Help each other remember when exams are and use multiple alarms. I also recommend the clocky, the alarm clock with wheels (http://www.nandahome.com) that will literally run away from you and hide.
Get up an hour or more before the exam starts to wake up sufficiently, eat breakfast (or lunch/dinner) and gather your thoughts.
Part Five: Papers
1. Make an outline.
2. Say what you’re going to say, say it, then say what you said. Start
with an argument, argue it with evidence, and then wrap it up. Don’t cobble together secondary quotes. Stake your own claim using your own voice.
3. If you’re going to hand the paper in after you’ve left campus, be sure
that you a) be sure to ask the professor if he or she has received it if you’ve emailed it, or b) send it certified mail to a designated place to a designated person. You don’t want your paper to be sitting in an unused mailbox or worse, lost forever, so be sure to work out these details with your instructor in advance.
4. Seek out our amazing writing tutors.
5. Give yourself a false deadline, usually a few days before the actual deadline, so that you’re have time to proofread (which makes a real difference in the quality of the paper), edit, read it aloud (this will help you catch awkward phrasing or grammar), have someone else read it, etc.
Part Six: Last thoughts
1. When you are running on little sleep, make no big decisions and draw no
big conclusions (especially about your abilities and character). Your judgment
and studying efficiency are impaired when you have too little sleep. Exams
are a test of your knowledge, not of your identity and personal worth.
2. When an exam is done, it is done. No need to dwell on it. Move on to the
next task.
And last: You belong here. It is difficult, but you will be fine. A demanding college demands hard work. You will discover resources within you that you did not know you had. Resilience is an invaluable ability to possess.
So, believe in yourself, and know that I believe in you, too.
You can do it. Onward, class of 2019!
Best wishes,
Dean Wood