So the obvious statement everyone tells you is to start studying early. But no one every really tells you how to start early. So here are two possible plans you can use.

• One week in advance
  • Start by creating index cards, study guides, cheat sheets, etc.
    • This serves the double purpose of getting material ready for later when you do the serious studying and the opportunity to go to the TA or Professor to ask about material you do not understand.
  • About 4 days before the exam start studying the material seriously. Seek to understand not memorize.
    • This is especially useful if there is a lot of material to cover. Break it up into two days of studying.
  • 2 days before if a practice exam is available take it without looking at your notes. If there is no practice exam still quiz yourself. Then check your answers and try to understand why your wrong answers are wrong. Learning from mistakes is very useful.
    • This also gives you a final chance to go get help the day before the exam.
  • The day before review everything, especially your trouble spots.
• Three Day Plan
  • This plan is basically the one-week plan condensed. Use this only if you know what you are doing, you have more time to devote to this than usual, the material is not extremely hard, or there is not a whole lot of material
  • Day 1 - Create your study guide or equivalent. (The entire thing)
  • Day 2 - Review your entire study guide and then take any practice exams or quiz yourself without looking at your notes. Afterwards study what you got wrong more.
  • Day 3 - Review everything again, especially your trouble spots.
• As a final note it is a good idea to create a “quick” sheet of main points and things you have trouble with. This is a single page of material that you can glance over right before the exam.