While excitement builds for the end of the semester, it also means that exams are drawing closer and closer. Fortunately, your students already wrote exams in the fall, so they have a much better idea of what to expect. In case you didn’t read the first blog post on exams, you can find it here: \\http://studentlife.uoguelph.ca/parents/getting-ready-exams. All of the information is still relevant so I would highly recommend reading the article if you haven’t already.

For the Winter 2011 semester, exams begin on Monday, April  11th and will conclude on Monday, April 25th. Easter weekend happens to fall at the end of exams and on Friday, April 22nd and Saturday, April 23rd there are not any exams scheduled. For those of you who are hoping for your students to be home on Easter weekend, please be aware of this for scheduling purposes.

Despite the fact that your students survived the first round of exams of the year, they might still be a little bit nervous. If they’re calling you stressing out about what they need to study, you can remind them of some of the following tips:

-    Study what the professor spent the most time on. It can be really helpful to review lectures thoroughly and then add to that knowledge by referring back to the textbook or other written material.

-    Plan time realistically; if you have 10 free hours in a day, remember that you need to have time to wash up, eat, take mental breaks and anything else necessary. Don’t plan to study 10 hours worth of material, because you will ultimately not be able to finish it all.

-    Be as healthy as possible; energy drinks, coffee, junk food and little sleep don’t actually make you do better on exams.

-    Schedule some time in to relax; depending on what articles you refer to, different amounts of work/relaxation are recommended. While I don’t pretend to know the right combination, it’s usually pretty obvious when a student is ready to put down the books for a little while. As the exam period progresses, students tend to leave one by one as they finish exams so planning to be available to say goodbye to friends can be a great way to schedule study breaks.

-    Ask for help; if you don’t understand a particular concept, talk to your professor, TA, or other students to try and clarify the issue. There’s no need to go into an exam feeling like you couldn’t figure out the material.

I hope these tips help! In advance, best wishes to your students on their exams!

Alexandra