Are you ready for your final exams?

BY HAIDY HAITHAM
@HaidyHaitham5

The bane of every student’s scholastic experience – finals week – is upon us.

Cumbersome and stressful for many, final exams and projects send students scurrying to find means to be well prepared to tackle head on the heavy workload.

The Caravan has learned some of the secrets AUC students use to get better grades.

Lara Sabry, an anthropology student, said it helps to not think of studying as a burden, but rather as knowledge to be gained.

Creating a study schedule ahead of time and planning which subject to study for everyday is important, she advises.

Nour El Malt, a psychology sophomore, agrees.

“Making a schedule is something I always do because it helps in finishing studying on time,” she says.

Some students break down their days by looking at where their productivity peaks.

But most students agree that starting studying as early as possible and taking notes throughout is a surefire way to do well.

“I advise all the students to prepare ahead of time because it is impossible to remember all the information in the exam when you squeeze all the material in a short time, ” said Nour Khalil, political science junior.

All students who spoke with The Caravan agreed that procrastination is “evil” and gets them in trouble as they rush to get everything done last-minute.

They end up cramming, which El Malt says can ultimately be counterproductive as it leads to the tiring of the brain and its disability to understand and memorize new information. Studying in intervals is much more conducive to retaining information; students should take 15 minutes break between every hour of studying.

“This small break helps me to function again and helps me to calm down when I’m stressed,” said Elmalt.

She says she may take a quick walk, have a snack or listen to music in between studying intervals.

Getting sufficient rest is also crucial, some of the more experienced students say.

Sleeping improves memory formation and retention.

“I advise students to try to sleep after finishing studying as it is proven psychologically that sleeping actually helps in making things stick in better,” said Yasmine Mahana Psychology student.

While that seems like sound advice, many students told us they end up staying up all night, walking into campus with bloodshot eyes, waddling like zombies. That strange moaning sound you hear may be their hunger pangs as many tend to either forget to eat adequately or skip meals altogether.

“Eating well gives you the energy to study, not eating before studying will make it difficult to focus or concentrate,” said Mirna Elbanawy, an economics junior.

All this advice may sound confusing; which is best to follow?

Communication media arts sophomore Shahd Khalil resorts to tested scientific methods, which have proven to be effective for her.

Psychologist E.Bruce Goldstein in his book Cognitive Psychology refers to a technique called elaboration – when someone memorizes something by relating it to himself or by using chunking techniques such as songs.

“Khalil says she composes small songs to memorize the material for the exam.

Goldstein also says that writing notes while studying helps in “encoding” the information. This means that information goes from the short term memory to the long term memory.