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No doubt that even if you have screwed up somewhat during the quarter/semester, you still can get a better grade if you ace your final because it makes up the majority of your grade. And probably this is the last resort for you, but anyways, your finals are very important.

In the past, I have so many frustrations when it comes to finals, and it really tires me out every time it hits the end of the quarter/semester. And if the class is not your strong point, you need to read this, I'm going to show you a strategy that probably most students won't even think about.

Because most of their frustrations are the following

1) Don't know where to start

2) Too many materials to cover, very overwhelming

3) Not enough time

4) Mentally overwhelming by the fact that finally is coming

But fortunately, they have avoided procrastination because the idea of finals coming will push them to start studying right away, so we are on a good track here. What we want to do next is to use a very killer strategy that will help us study more effectively than we did before.

But first, let us analyze some of the data we got from the teacher/professor. It's usually the case that he/she will give you an outline of what will be on the test. This is good for you because you'll know how much material is going to be taken from each chapter and how many questions you can expect from them.

In this case, if you have past test and quiz, review them. Mostly likely either it will appear on the test or it will be in similar format. So this is pretty much no brainier. But look more closely, when it's accumulative, and the last few chapters haven't been tested yet. Most likely there will be more questions for the last few chapters, then study those first if you aren't familiar with them.

So you purpose is to figure out what is on the test instead of spending all the time reviewing everything you textbook have and read it word to word, it's just a waste of time if you don't have enough of it.

Also, a lot of students make the mistake of taking extensive notes when studying, and I can tell you it's useless for two reason.

1) Your notes won't make it to test because I doubt your teacher will let you take it in.

2) Even if you are lucky enough that your teacher allows that, you won't have enough time to dig through it in the exam because you will be wasting too much time doing that.

So now what? Maybe it's time for you to do a laser focus session with your textbook?

Now, get your pen and paper ready, let's do something digging. The first thing you want to do is to skim your textbook and found out what you absolutely need to go back to reference to, jot down the page number and the idea in a few words and then keep doing it.

Next is to set a time limit for yourself to understand those ideas or facts as quickly as possible. A 50 minutes session is a good time limit because your brain need some rest afterward. Take some rest and repeat the process until you have finished.

I'm pretty sure you will be dead tired afterward, it's good to take a rest and do the studying later in the week instead of jumping right into it. Your brain will need the time to process the information and store it.

So this pretty much my "hit and run" strategy, if you want to know more, visit my blog

Titus Cheng is an undergraduate student who currently is working on helping other people get better grades by teaching them how to study better and more effectively. His blog contains tips and secrets that students can use to achieve a better academic excellence by understanding what works and what not.