Midterm and final exams are both stressful times for Ohio University students, especially since they are determining factors of how well students are doing in a class.
These exams can be quite heavy for students, considering they have to balance other classes and course loads. Learning to balance effective ways to study, without getting too stressed, is crucial to success on assignments and exams.
With finals coming up soon, several students have already started studying in preparation for the last grade they will receive in their courses.
Clay Lewis, a sophomore studying chemistry pre-medicine, changed his entire schedule this semester to improve his study habits, compared to his freshman year.
“My freshman year, I didn't have the best study techniques … I was just waiting (until the) last minute,” Lewis said. “But this year, I've been changing up a lot more. I've been getting up at about 5:45 a.m. every morning and going to the gym then go straight from there to get a bite to eat and then probably study before all my classes. I get the majority of my studying done in the morning now. It's just a lot more productive for me to do that.”
Lewis said losing motivation will happen at times, but he believes persistence is how personal goals are reached.
‘’It gets hard at times to be able to stay focused, but the biggest thing that just helps me stay focused is the goal of being a doctor,” Lewis said. “You have to be in a mindset when you're trying to study for these things because you will lose motivation. You just have to remember why you're doing it.’’
For undergraduate students like Lewis, the majority of the course load is learning how to develop the skills in class that would then apply to their selected career field. However, many of the applied skills aren't taught in the classroom or the lecture hall but rather learned hands-on.
Laura Davis, a graduate student studying public administration, said her studying process has differed from her undergraduate years because of applied learning.
“I would say that passion leads my focus,” Davis said. “A lot of my courses are very, very applied. We're talking about real-world case studies, and everything is real time, whereas in undergrad, a lot of times it was reading theory and history from a book and something that happened 80 years ago. Specifically, in my master’s in public administration program, we fuel off of one another … It's like we take our experiences, and we apply it to theory we've learned or however the professor's guiding us.”
Davis also emphasized the importance of using campus resources, making connections with professors and developing mentorships.
“My undergrad to me wasn't necessarily about getting straight As. It was about learning what I wanted to do or what I didn't want to do,” Davis said. “In classes that I struggled (with) or I wanted to gain more skills, (I) definitely utilized the office hours, the writing center, computer labs. In a way, I did put myself more out there in undergrad … I facilitated a lot of very meaningful mentorships and relationships with professors.‘’
In terms of utilizing campus resources at OU, there are multiple centers through which students can get the help they need with studying or tutoring. The Academic Achievement Center, or AAC, is one of the biggest resources for students who are struggling in their classes.
Ellery Pollard, a senior studying creative writing, is a writing commons tutor at the AAC and offers some writing tips she often shares with students who are having difficulties with their writing abilities.
”After you've written something, read it out loud, just so that you can tell it makes sense,” Pollard said. “If you're stuck on where to even start writing, make an outline and focus on that first. Annotating and taking notes on the text that you're writing about is also incredibly helpful. Also, if you just keep getting stuck because you're not confident in your writing abilities, just write out all of your thoughts, and don't look back until you've gotten a solid amount of information on the page.”
The AAC houses numerous types of tutors who can help every major on campus improve their studying habits and stay focused ahead of the upcoming finals week.
