Perhaps you have felt as though all your courses have simultaneously scheduled exams and quizzes for the same day or week, or perhaps you have found that there are some classes that are just harder to prepare for. Below I will write about some of the ways I study for my exams and quizzes.
My first advice may seem obvious, but it is one of the most helpful tools to study with, and that is to do the homework for your classes. Even if your professors don’t grade the homework or officially assign it, I find that by doing homework I am better prepared ahead of class and get to ask specific questions and clear any doubts during class or office hours. The homework problems will give you practice ahead of any quiz or exam, and my favorite tool to study is going over the problems I struggle with along with a professor and repeating the homework ahead of the exam/quiz. There are professors that will take homework problems and place them in the quizzes/exams, and by doing the homework I have knowledge of how to tackle the problem, and if I have gone over the homework fairly recently before the exam I remember the steps I need to take to solve the problem.
My second advice, which is mentioned in the first one, is to take advantage of office hours and tutoring services. You can find your professor’s office hours in their syllabus, and NIU has multiple places that provide academic help, such as the CEET tutoring center or the physics help room, where you can go and ask for help on a variety of classes and assignments. What I tend to do is to do the homework, and any problem I struggled with or got incorrect I will take with me and ask how to correctly do the problems. I encourage you to take any homework or study problem with you, not just the ones you struggle with.
My third piece of advice, which is mostly exclusive for exams, is to ask and complete the study guides, mock exams, and exams from previous semesters. Some professors provide such extra practice without needing to ask them, but there are some that do not and I advise you to ask for them. If your professor does not have any of these to provide, you may be able to find some if you google “NIU …”, the name of your class (for example math 336), and exams, this may looks like “NIU math 232 exams”, and you will find exams from previous semester that you can use as practice. Also, you can use these extra problems in addition to office hours ahead of exams to be sure you know how to correctly finish the problems.
Another tip worth mentioning that varies on the person and class is studying with a group. Finally, Those are my main methods of studying for any exams or quizzes I have.
-Maria Corzo
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