reflecting on my first semester finals
Safe to say it went to shit. I didn't feel confident in ANY subjects other than Linear Algebra and that's because I studied for like 4 days before that finals exam. Other than that? Nil confidence LOL. I think I'm more confident in my midterm than in this finals. Anyway, even though it went to shit, this is my first finals in uni. I learnt a lot of stuff that is more local at my uni since the advice I've read online focuses more on how finals is in general. I guess here are some of my takeaways from my finals.
Head note: The list is not of order of importance, it's more order of "whichever I remember I wanna write first"; "you" can refer to both the possible readers or me the author. I write for myself.
it only covers the second half of the semester
I know this might seem obvious in hindsight, but I genuinely used to believe (or is the case for me, but I forgot from where) that finals exam cover, as the name suggests, every material we have for that class from beginning to end, and if the teacher is kind enough they will only give us questions with a 25-75 ratio, with 25% coming from the first half and the 75% from the second half. But no, actually, in my uni's finals exam, its all just from the second half of the semester.
make notes, please
It doesn't even have to be a super extremely detailed note. It could just be an outline of what you study in that subject, and most importantly, at every lecture. I'm underlining 'at every lecture' because at one point, I did have a plan to write an outline of every lecture but fell through like two weeks into the plan. And it all came crashing down at me. Before finals begun, I have already lost the war (That is why I'm not upset that I can't do the finals. Not that I'm not, but I was prepared to lose). The weeks leading to finals week was supposed to be review and a little bit of study I think but you know what I did for the better part of 3 working studying days? Scrambling to research what I should study, not actually studying. While this doesn't look bad, the act of sailing though notes aimlessly breaks you. It does. All that's left of my psyche after this experience is just defeat. So again, let me emphasize, please, you reading this and especially me, write your damn note.
some exams are open book, some are closed book
Open book means I can look at my notes, while closed book is just like an ordinary exam. From what I could gather, only two subjects are open book though. That is measuring electricity lab (no exact translation, more description), and discrete mathematics. Both these subjects are what I consider lower difficulty subjects (though the difference between higher/lower difficulty subject is so razor thin it's more perception than substance, or in simple terms, I give it less study time). Though even if there is a possibility open an open book exam, you should study it as if it's all a closed book exam.
But if you're like me and that level of intensity doesn't suit you, you could always ask the professors teaching if the exam will be open/closed book. Schedule is important if you want to do this, though. Don't be me. I have this one professor that doesn't stay at the EE-only professors office and finding him outside of class is practically impossible without just camping outside of his next class or the class he's going to finish teaching. I know I could've emailed the professor, but I don't know, I don't want to inconvenience him. He's already well known for his temper even first-year students (probably because he did teach us though) know about it. Tangent aside, plan ahead. Ask your professor about the exam at least 3 weeks before the exam. This of course applies to any exam not just finals. Or you could email them if you're not me.
schedule
Speaking of scheduling, here is a generally great advice for any situation, whether it's planning semester-wide group projects or buying instant ramen. Though for studying, I would focus more on time-blocking, in which you give quotas for subjects you're going to study and do them religiously. I want to do this next semester. But writing on scheduling reminded me about scheduling paralysis. A good rule of thumb to follow is to schedule on weekends only! That way, you won't waste precious study time to Google Calendar.
spaced repetition
I know this might seem cliche if you're from the productivity circle, but the reason I included this point is because while at my finals, when I can't do my questions, all I could think about is how "this feels like a second interval topic" on a question about for example partial derivatives. (I know, how could you not understand partial derivatives but!! my reason is I didn't study this in high school!!). Anyway, the effect of spaced repetition has been proven countless times by others and even accidentally by me so do it religiously. This ties into planning/scheduling too, as if you can't plan out a when or at what time to study, you can use this as a studying schedule. Spaced repetition perfectly creates an organic schedule you could follow and have a reason to follow. Also, the schedule given by spaced repetition is very flexible. You can malloc how long you want to study and even at what time you study.
Anyway, that's all from past me to you and the readers. Have fun and remember, if you stare into the void, the void stares back at you.