Want to ace your finals? Get top tips from some smart students

With the end of the semester not far away, high school students are gearing up for finals.

When I decided to seek out tips for studying for finals, my first instinct was to talk to teachers. But I realized the true experts are students who have a track record of acing finals. It didn’t take me long to settle on three high-achieving students, who were more than happy to offer suggestions to make your finals season a success.

My first expert is Matthew Arner, a junior at UC Berkeley who was a top student in the International Baccalaureate program at San Diego High School. He’s studying philosophy and plans to attend law school. He is the son of a Mark Arner, a friend and former colleague at The San Diego Union-Tribune.

My other experts, I am proud to say, are relatives whom I have watched grow into fine adults. My niece, Heather Biehl, is in the MBA program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison; and my nephew, Ken Biehl, is a graduate of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and just completed his residency in radiation oncology there.

The first five rules were mentioned by all three; the others were suggested by one or two. At the very end, I’m including Ken’s top 10 tips for finals preparation.

Here we go:

Rule 1. Do not wait until the last minute. These smart students said they start studying up to a month before the big tests.

Rule 2. If a teacher hands out a study guide, USE it, embrace it, make it your friend. Chances are the questions on the test will closely mirror questions on the study guide. (My sister, Sandra, teaches high school math and is the mother of Heather and Ken. She agrees: The study guide should be followed very closely.)

Rule 3. Find out the test format: essay questions, true or false and so on. Find out how many questions will be on the test, so you can plan your time accordingly.

Rule 4. Save old tests and assignments. They are another great study guide. If you missed questions on an earlier test, find out what you did wrong. Learn from your mistakes.

Rule 5. Start preparing from the first day of class. Do not fall behind. “It’s always best to start from Day 1,” Matthew said. Keep good notes and go over them.

Rule 6. Find study methods that work for you.

Heather and Matthew recommended creating a “cheat sheet” with key points covered in the class written on a single piece of paper. “Really distill it down,” Heather said. “This is the best way in the world to study.” Go over the contents closely. And right before the test, look it over one more time. Heather said some professors allow her to bring a cheat sheet to a final, but she finds she knows the information so well that she really doesn’t even need to look at it.

Rule 7. Use flashcards or perhaps a single sheet of paper to write vocabulary words, important terminology or math concepts over and over. Heather likes flashcards. Matthew, who tutors students through a program called Making Waves in San Francisco, said writing words and terms over and over works for him.

Rule 8. Study with others, but only if everyone is willing to carry their weight. “Sharing wisdom helps,” Heather said. She suggested limiting the group to no more than four people.

Rule 9. If you suffer from test anxiety, try these tips from Matthew. Have your parents give you a practice test that is timed and structured in the same format as other tests you have taken in the class. Get plenty of sleep and a good breakfast before the test.

Rule 10. If your teachers offer study sessions after school, go.

Here is Ken’s 10-point plan for getting great grades on finals:
1. Read the syllabus and know how the teacher grades. This is most important in terms of getting the grade you want.
2. Do the homework throughout the semester and have a good starting point from which to study for a final.
3. Evaluate how well you need to do in each class to get the grade you want. If there is a curve, you will have to evaluate your competition.
4. Start the process early. (You should know after your first test how well you need to do on your remaining tests to get the grade you want.)
5. Evaluate how much time you will need to spend on each final to achieve the grade you want.
6. Evaluate the best way to spend your time. Rank classes in terms of how much time you will have to spend to improve your overall GPA.
7. Get old tests and evaluate how teachers ask questions. This may decrease the amount of time you thought you needed to study to get the grade you want, so you may have to reevaluate steps 5 and 6.
8. Start finals studies a week before you think you should, but at least two weeks, preferably three weeks before the first final.
9. Cram as much as you can. Review the oddball things you will never remember the second you finish the test. Look at them right before you take the test, and write them down if you need to as soon as you receive the test, preferably on the cover.
10. Learn how to best approach standardized tests.