How to Study for Midyears
As we hit the middle of our school year, one of our two favorite tests comes along…midyears. Midyears can be tough and stressful, so today I am going to be taking you through everything I do to help me feel prepared for my midyears with less stress.
Organize – Organization is key here! Make sure you have located ALL of your notes and keep them stored in a safe place (a binder or folder is a great option!) I also recommend having your notes in chronological order to easily access everything when needed. Create folders on your computer to access online files quickly and make sure you have specific things you want printed out printed! Be organized to allow yourself to take a GOOD break – rather than taking 20 1 minute breaks because you had to grab more items to study.
Plan and Prepare – The 2 Ps are so important in your studying! Plan out everything you need to do, to help minimize stress. I like to use the Calendar app my Mac gives me, but I also love using Canva to create my own personal and aesthetically pleasing calendar or simply just writing it out on a piece of paper. I currently have a list of everything I want to do for the week by the following Friday and keep changing it as the weeks progress. Prepare everything you will need at the beginning of your study session to minimize getting up to grab something every 5 minutes. You need to concentrate on your work, so make sure everything you need and prepared and out on your study space! No excuses to keep you from sitting down and doing the hard work!
Start ahead of time! – You will not be able to absorb all of the information you have learned over the past 4 months in just 4 days. You need to give yourself time to relearn and study the information. I started gathering all the notes, tests, and key homework assignments for each class about 3-4 weeks in advance and on a day I had little to no work (I did mine during winter break). This helped me feel like I could start studying and creating study guides whenever I had enough free time around 2-3 weeks in advanced. I would also recommend exploring which type of learner you are (there are plenty of quizzes on the internet). For example, I am mostly a combination of a reading/writing and visual learner.
I create my study guides in 3 different ways:
Word Doc – I gather up all of the important notes and form a study guide in my OWN WORDS. This is separate from the guide my teacher may give out. Typing doesn’t help me maintain the information fully, but it helps me relearn the material and recall everything you need to know in one packet, created by you. Typing is also faster than writing, takes less time, and allows me to access it wherever I go.
Flashcards – they can be a pain, but flashcards are the only way I truly retain information. Writing out the information I need to know truly helps my brain understand and memorize the material much faster. It is a proven fact that handwriting helps your brain absorb and retain information better.
One-Pagers – this may be a new idea to some of you, but a useful one! Try taking a piece printer/blank paper and writing out all the information you need to know and/or can remember on a piece of paper. You can choose if you want to use your notes or not, but it helps to memorize the material! You can make it fun and aesthetically pleasing too with colored pencils or thin markers – a very relaxing way to study! You could also simply rewrite your notes if you don’t like this idea.
Quizlet – If I feel there are a lot of vocabulary words, but not worth it to write them all out on a flashcard (like an English or foreign language vocab test) I will use Quizlet. I will also use Quizlet as a resource when I am not at home. However, I don’t use Quizlet as my only study source because typing the material doesn’t help me maintain the information.
Put in the time – I can’t set a specific amount of time you specifically need to study your information, but you definitely need to put in hours of work to receive a top grade. Use some of the free time you have to study 15-60+ minutes each night. As you get closer to the exam date, you can determine how much you actually need to study. My teachers usually set a specific day to review for my midyears and I like to use this time to make sure I know the topic inside and out. It’s a great way for me to test my knowledge of the material and gives me an idea of what the teacher might ask on the test. I like when the teacher’s review sessions are just that, review, not new information. Go into review sessions as if you are walking into your actual exam; hopefully the review session will only bring up 1-2 bits of new things to nail down rather than make you panic about what you don’t know!
There you have it, my inside scoop on how you can study everything for your midyears! You can also check out my Instagram to find a Reels with more information outlining all of these steps! Feel free to DM or email me with any questions or further help!