Teacher's Advice for Finals
With finals just around the corner, students are beginning to study for finals. Taking place between Jan. 17 - 20, students have a few more weeks to prepare.
From world languages to units on biology, five teachers from CHS bring advice to students.
Laurel Landrum: Spanish 2 & 3
Laurel Landrum encourages students to listen to their language ahead of time so that they’re ready to hear and understand it. To prepare for writing, Landrum thinks students should sit down, try writing, see where they have holes in their knowledge, and patch them before they have to come in to do the exam.
However, for her reading and listening sections, Landrum believes it's difficult to study interpretive skills because that's something that students have been preparing for all semester.
“It's like practicing for the big game,” Landrum said. “You can't cram the night before.”
“I think communication with your teachers is really important. I would prepare to get the rest of your grades in order before going into the exams.”
Sean Eldon: American, Film & Philo. Lit
Sean Eldon thinks a good final encourages students to think deeply about the coursework from beginning to end and encourages them to apply concepts and processes they learned in the course.
Eldon feels notes are an important part of studying and students should review them to help fill in gaps in their knowledge; he believes it’s important that students gather all their notes either digitally or in paper form.
“There's nothing that gets in the way of studying more than trying to find things that you need,” Eldon said. “If you're studying for [a class] by looking at some of your old notes, and you can't find your old notes, then you're not studying anymore. You're just looking for notes.”
Eldon advises students to spend some time before exams to understand the purpose and why materials are going to be useful to them, then organize all their materials.
"Be honest about how much time you really have to commit to your finals, and then organizing your materials and time so that you can do the best that you can.”
Marcy McCormick: FOS 2 & 3
McCormick advises students to look over previous unit tests and use them as a guide to go back and review content starting with the oldest stuff first.
Within her FOS classes, each unit builds upon one another, so McCormick believes it's especially important to understand the foundational material.
McCormick thinks the best way to start is with the tests and looking at the content students did well on and where they could improve.
“Go back and review that foundational information and mak[e] sure you understand how it builds starting with the tests.”
Joslyn Hunscher-Young: World History and Geography
Joslyn Hunscher-Young always recommends students sleep well. For her, preparation is a matter of making sure that students do well on their finals and for that, getting enough sleep and eating a good breakfast is really important.
Outside of that, if students have been paying attention in her class, then they’ve been developing the skills needed for the finals. For her exam, students will need to create an argument about reliable sources.
“[Building an argument] is a skill that you can build whether you're writing or if you're just communicating, even if it's just like with your parents or your friends,” Hunsher-Young said. “Even if you're like: ‘we need to go to No Thai for lunch.’ That's a claim that you're making.”
“An important factor is communicating with your teachers beforehand so you know what to expect on the final.”
Maneesha Mankad: Algebra 2 & Calculus
Maneesha Mankad recommends students get into a study group so that they can help each other recall concepts.
“Your peers are your best resource — someone may remember one kind of thing, somebody else may remember another,” Mankad said. “So if you're working on some review work together, then you can make it more efficient, rather than trying to do it all by yourself.”
Mankad feels also being aware and asking your teachers about all the possible ways that you can finish strong in the semester and really look at what are the ways that you can improve your understanding and score in the class.
“Make sure you're going back, reviewing and practicing to prepare for the final because it's a lot of content that you are expected to know going into the final.”