Concord Graduates Discuss Study Tips for Upcoming Finals

Graduate share their advice on how to get through finals.
Photo By theodysseyonlincomthe-five-stages-of-finals-week

As the semester draws to an end, finals are just around the corner. This means countless hours of studying, tireless flashcard making, and losing valuable sleep hours. No student can escape them, whether you are a science major, a business major, an education major or any major. A whole semester’s worth of knowledge will be condensed to a single test in which students must recall everything from the beginning. This can be stressful for students and is termed “Hell Week.” Concord graduates are no strangers to “Hell Week” and discuss some of the study tips they have utilized while at the university. 

    Jayden Shephard, business major graduate, gives insight on some study tips that helped him succeed in obtaining his degree. “Something helpful for me was probably marking out on a planner what time I would be doing what homework and giving myself a period to do it in,” he states. He also said that reading specific chapters while taking frequent breaks to make sure he understood it was valuable. He says study guides and doing the homework are keys to success in graduation. 

    Dominick D’Angelo is also a business major graduate and he gives his tips on studying for finals. “Sitting down with notecards with important points and topics helped tremendously. I also looked them over time and time again. Repetitiveness is key,” he stated. 

    Chelsea Hollifield, sociology graduate, agrees that finals can be stressful and has a good studying regimen to help. “I have to color coordinate my notes and just try to make a study guide according to what the professor talked about most in the semester. I usually have to print off everything and have it right in front of me,” she stated. 

    Brittany Strother, communications graduate, weighed in on “Hell Week” and decided to share her study tips for future graduates. She says, “What I always did was write everything down I needed to know and make a sort of ‘master study guide.’ Writing things down always helped me remember things, and then I would just work on memorizing until I got to a point where I could recite the whole thing without looking; kind of like trying to memorize a speech.” 

    Jonathan Collins, computer science graduate, says that finals are very stressful. Due to the fact that they are stressful, students shouldn’t pile more work on themselves if they don’t have to. This led him to discuss procrastination. “Don’t procrastinate on any big projects as tempting as it is; you’ll get into Finals Week a lot less stressed and will often have more time to focus,” he says. 

    Studying for finals can be very rewarding once you receive that “A+.” These graduates all seem to have something in common by saying you need good study guides and good notecards. Concord has a very good academic reputation. A recent article confirmed Concord’s status as being the toughest college in West Virginia to get accepted to. Concord’s curriculum is a successful one and pushes students to do their best. Concord has also been called “Mini Harvard.” Its reputation precedes itself and it is best to buckle down and utilize these valuable study tips so you can reach success during Finals Week. After all, finals usually account for a big chunk of credit for a class and it is best not to procrastinate when studying.