This is something that many students dread. They work hard, they put in the effort, but yet still aren’t able to push the bar pass a course.

I checked my grades today and I found out I failed Cognitive Science. I picked up a pair of C’s in Criminology and English. There’s one more grade coming up that has not been released yet.
It’s an incredibly different feeling when you’re on the other side of the fence. Usually it’s my friends who are stressing and worrying about failing exams. I’m the one that tries to cheer them up and encourage them. They’re not going to fail the course because they’re just absolutely brilliant in many ways. The only reason they’re going to fail a course is if the prof makes a typo on your grade. Is it not ironic then that the person who is the most calm and collected about school ends up being the one who doesn’t make the cut and fails a course?

It’s not often that I don’t know what to do. First, I’m going to lie down and think.

Okay, I’m finished wallowing in my self pity. I just sat and laid on my bed for about an hour just closing my eyes and thinking. After that, I got up and walked over to my computer and started talking with some people.

What Worked

I know I did well on my assignments as a whole. I pulled a B on my paper for CRIM and a C+ for English. Obviously not the greatest marks, but not terrible either. I got an A+ on my presentation.

The course readings I kept up with as best I could. At worse, I would have only been behind one chapter (during midterm weeks).

Where I Choked

Exams. If there’s one thing that was consistent across all my courses this semester, it would be in finals and midterms. I failed my Crim midterm early on. I must’ve done poorly in my Cogs final exam (which was worth 50%).

An important lesson I learned in World of Warcraft is that when you have a problem, find out what it is and what you can do to fix it. It’s stupid to fight a boss doing the same things that got you killed in the first place. What’s the point of running into a brick wall when you know you can’t break through it, right?

Problem: Choking on exams.

Solution: I have no freakin’ idea.

Let’s see if I can devise one.

Environment:

There’s no way I can study at home. There’s a computer and a bed in my room. The kitchen table has food. There’s always a game being played on TV.

So what do I do?

I go the library. I like the downtown Vancouver library since there’s a Blenz conveniently close by. I’d sit there and read and write.

Study Buddies:

I’m very glad I met Alicia last year. Without her help and support, I doubt I would still be enrolled in SFU this semester. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t have any classes together this semester. But that’s beside the point because I cannot continue relying on others to help me do well in school. That’s a problem there that I’m trying to address. Friends are an incredible asset when you’re studying. They can help you focus and stay on track. If they’re not, then why are you studying with them? I’m used to having a friend around to study with that I may have inadvertently started relying on them for help all the time.

However, I still think you should make friends with the smartest person in class. You start picking up on their habits and studying regimens. You learn different techniques and you can help each other when there’s a topic you don’t understand. Instant messaging is no subsitute for face to face studying.

Flash Cards:

I’m going to try making extensive use of them when studying. Writing a term on one side and the definition on the other should help. I remember borrowing a friend’s set of flash cards during the summer for 220 and that worked well. I can’t believe I didn’t utilize them myself this year.

Ask Questions:

Asking questions is not a problem for me. It’s asking questions in front of 300 other students that gives me pause. Profs always encourage you to ask and speak up, but it’s still a little nerve wracking either way. What I’m going to do is set a time each week to visit a TA or a Prof and ask questions. If I don’t have any, I’ll come up with some on the spot to help clarify my understanding. The important thing is to come in there with the mindset that it’s part of the schedule and not optional. If I can force myself to do that, then I should perform a little better.

Highlighting

Have you ever seen textbooks where all your friends would do is highlight a whole page? What’s the point of that?

Alicia took it a step further and suggested that I start color coding my highlights.

• Green for formulas
• Yellow for terms
• Blue for concepts
• Pencil underlining for definitions

There’s a slight problem. I don’t have a set of highlighters to use. If I only had a set of highlighters then I’d be able to use them! As such, the only highlighting I’ve done is with this blue pen I got on career day. Christmas is coming up in under a week. I wonder if someone will get me a set of highlighters for Christmas.

My Own Study Guide

I’m going to make my own study guide leading up to the exam. I just saw an example of one and it looked nice. It’s a collection of notes from lectures and textbooks all combined into one neat pdf that can be printed out. It’s a way of reinforcing everything you learn because:

1. You’re compiling it from source information in your own words
2. You’re reading it again to make sure it’s neat and makes sense
3. You’re reading it one more time to study off of it
4. It includes information that you think is relevant to the exam

Whew

I’ve got my goals all set for next semester. I’m below the 2.0 mark for my cumulative GPA. If I stay below that for another semester, I get kicked out of the University. One semester is all I have now and it’s literally going to make or break me.

It’s the holiday season and Christmas is almost here.

All of a sudden I’ve lost the desire to celebrate and go out partying.

And I’m putting it here for the record that I promised Alicia that I will focus and work harder.

I could have skipped my English class on Wednesday. Without wireless, I had nothing to do. Nicky (the Prof) covered what my TA talked about last week in regards to exam questions.

Towards the end of the lecture, however, she made some great points that I will echo here. Remember them when you’re sitting in the exam hall.

Health

• Maintain Posture: I’m guilty of this one most of all. I frequently ask my friends to politely remind me when I slouch (they seem to think poking is polite). So when you sit down in those uncomfortable chairs, sit in an upright position. If you hunch over, there isn’t enough oxygen flowing through the system (due to organ compression, my dad likes to remind me). That does’t mean you should lean the other way and slouch backwards in the chair either. People tend to fall asleep like that. Just remember, your brain needs oxygen to function. If you sit in a position that might restrict the passage of oxygen, you’re not going to be able to think very well.

• Eat: I have no problem with this one at all. That being said, there’s a few people I know who do not eat breakfast in the morning. Exam days should be an exception.Do the rest of us a favor and please eat something! Nothing makes us lose our train of thought more than hearing the sound of a person’s stomach growling from the other side of the room!

• Drink: No, not alcohol. That comes after the exam. It helps to keep water with you throughout the exam. If you’ve been atschool for a while, you’ll be like me and favor coffee (or some form of caffeine). Either of them are fine, but for cryin’ out loud keep the coffee lid on okay? I hate walking through sticky floors. It ruins my boots.

• Sleep: Sleep an hour early. Normally for me, that would be 2 AM. I’ll need to alter that come exam time. But honestly, sleep early. Coffee works wonders, but it is no substitute for sleep.

Courtesy

• Bring Kleenex: December exams suck because it’s the time of year when many students get sick. Our immune systems are usually on high alert, but sometimes those little buggers get through. Nothing sucks more than having to write an exam with a runny nose. It feels gross. I had to do that during my Crim exam and it was not fun at all.

• Liquid White Out Please: Nicky mentioned this one and I’m inclined to agree. This pisses me off, too. Don’t use white out where you have to shake it 5000 times to get it to function properly. Okay, so you made a mistake. We get the point. Use liquid white out please. Or even better: Cross it out with a pen!

• Turn Off Your Cellphones: I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard cell phones go off. Please turn it off. Don’t set it on vibrate. We can still hear it buzzing in your pocket. Your classmates want to be able to write the exam without any disruptions. Believe me when I say that vibrating cellphones can be heard from a distance. Do you know how quiet lecture halls are during an exam? They make tombs sound noisy.

The Exam

• Answer the Question: Know what the exam is asking you for specifically, especially if it’s an essay question. You don’t have time to list everything you know about the subject. If the question says to summarize the turning points conducted by the Allies during WW2, then do a summary (IE, America enters the war, ASW techniques, Chuck Norris). If it says compare and contrast Churchill and Hitler, it’s asking you to list similarities and differences. It took me 4 years to figure out what the heck those two words meant. Example would be the fact that both leaders were great speakers, but were polar opposites in terms of ideologies. Or something.

• Time Management: I can’t stress this part enough. Most exams have an indication of how much questions are worth. Allocate your time accordingly. Don’t spend a majority of your time working on questions that aren’t worth as much. For example, your exam composes of an essay question that’s worth 50%, short answer questions worth 35%, and multiple choice worth 15%. If you have 3 hours to work with, don’t spend half of your exam time on the multiple choice.

• Check Your Work: This relates to time management. Leave yourself a few minutes at the end of the exam to go through it mentally. I know that at this point you’re anxious to turn it in and be done with it. But you should at the very least check over the multiple choice and ensure that you did bubble all the answers in. I lost two marks because I left two questions blank when I told myself I was going to check it again after and guess.

• Educated Guess: So you’re truly stuck on this one multiple choice question. There’s four options to choose from and you’re not sure which one is correct. Usually you can figure out which answers are wrong. I find myself able to knock off two answers right off the bat because I know they’re the right answers to different questions. You are now left with two choices. This means you have a 50% chance of getting it right instead of a 3 in 4 chance of getting it wrong.

Classes conclude this week. Finals begin next week. This is the time of year where you can break or make the grades that you need. I know of a friend who did poorly in a mid term and came out the final guns blazing to score a B. Now there’s no way I can guarantee you an A. Only you can do that. But follow these steps and you’ll get a better shot at the grade that you want as well as not pissing off the people around you when you do it.