Reinforce Ideas You’ve Already Learned by Teaching them to Your Classmates

As long as you are at least a little bit self-aware, it should be easy to know if you have NOT studied enough before an exam, but how can you be sure you have studied enough? Lots of people just stop studying when they run out of time. Most of us honestly know what that feels like. (Last time I felt this most acutely was during the early AM hours of Tuesday, December 7, 2009, ahead of my personal income tax exam at 9 in the morning.) Others stop studying when they feel confident that they’re well prepared for whatever their professors could possible throw at them.  But what should you do when you’ve already reviewed everything you can think of, yet you lack this kind of confidence?

I suggest that you get together (in person, on the phone, via Skype) with some of your classmates, who are perhaps less prepared, to teach them the pertinent material. This is a win-win solution because verbalizing the important concepts in your course will help you remember them, and your classmates will be focused on you, unless they’re rude, for it’s easier to ignore a notebook, than a kind person. Naturally this strategy assumes the risk of disseminating incorrect information, but on the other hand, say if your student partners are more-than-less prepared, you might clear up your own misunderstandings.

This probably isn’t good advice for everyone, as everyone’s habits differ, but if you’re unsure about what more you could do next time you think you’ve finished studying, try out this technique. On the other hand, if you can’t imagine being this prepared so shortly before your test, check out my post about “How to cram for an exam:  5 Tips”.

Photo by Alan Levine (CC BY)