ACADEMIC SUCCESS GUIDE RESIDENT LIFE | Spring 2022
Dear Terp, You have made it to the tailend of the semester and we are proud of you! This semester has been challenging for many people in a variety of ways. It is time to begin preparing for final exams season. It always sneaks up, but if you begin preparations now, you will be in amazing shape. Take a few moments to read this Academic Success Guide. Inside, you will find tips on how to prepare for the spring semester final exam season, a guide to reading productively, and a list of campus resources that you should utilize to ensure that you are performing at your highest level. In the Department of Resident Life, we are always here to support your academic ambitions and to be a promoter of your success, but the strength and forward propulsion comes from you.
Good luck on spring finals! You’ve got this!
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Tips for Success
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EXAM PREPARATION Preparing for final exams is a process that happens over time. You should be preparing for exams every day. Space out your studying and utilize different preparation techniques to achieve success. Try out the following techniques to improve your study skills and exam preparation game this semester. •
Create an exam season preparation plan. Include dates, times, and locations of exams along with the type of final (take-home, paper, multiple choice, essay, short answer, etc.). Note how much time and what materials you will need to successfully prepare for each final exam or assignment.
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Utilize spaced repetition. Spaced repetition is the practice of studying the same information, repeatedly, over time. The more times your brain sees specific information, especially if there is time in between touchpoints, the more likely you are to retain the information.
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Take notes by hand in class. Take 5 minutes directly after class to polish your notes, fill in gaps, and mark information that may be on a test or needed for an assignment. Use this information to build a practice exam or a flashcard deck.
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Do you procrastinate? Challenge yourself to do one small thing at a time. Start by putting your book on the desk, then challenge yourself to get your syllabus out of your bag. It might be overwhelming to think about your task as a whole, but give yourself little challenges and you will always be moving forward.
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Outline your papers early. Make sure that your outline includes your research and sources, not just topics and ideas. The more thorough you make your outline, the easier your paper will be to write.
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Quiz yourself! Use paper flashcards, quizlet, a friend, practice tests, and whatever/whoever else you can find to quiz yourself on information. Quizzing is one of the most effective forms of studying.
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Create a study group for your most difficult courses. Use these groups to review content that you are not feeling confident about and also to cement your own learning by teaching content to others.
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Between now and finals, you will need to carefully schedule your days to ensure that you have adequate time to prepare for exams. Set the expectation with family and friends that you will need to study hard and that you might not be able to come home on the weekends, chat on the phone for hours, or play host during a surprise visit.
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Set up personal accountability measures for yourself. Will you spend 90 minutes in the library each day? Will you complete non-final exam assignments by a certain date so you can get a jump-start on preparing for finals? Will you set up study dates with friends to ensure you get work done? Decide what will work best for you and make a commitment.
TIPS FOR COPING WITH TEST ANXIETY •
Begin preparing for your exams two to three weeks in advance.
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Simulate taking an exam by working through a practice test under similar environmental and time constraints to your actual exam.
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Read the instructions thoroughly and look over the entire exam before beginning.
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Answer the test questions that you know first and then go back to the harder questions
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Take time to outline essays before you begin writing. Read the prompt twice!
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Stay focused on your test. Don’t look at other students. If possible, seat yourself somewhere that you will not be distracted.
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If you think you are beginning to feel anxious, stop and give yourself one minute to simply breathe. Consciously relax your muscles one at a time. Then, resume taking your test with a more relaxed body and mind.
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Get sleep, eat healthful meals, and exercise. Handling stress and anxiety is easier if your body is healthy.
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Visit the UMD Counseling Center for assistance in coping with test related anxiety. Bonus Tip: Did you know that the Counseling Center offers video recordings of their Wellness Workshops on YouTube? You can view the workshop recordings available by visiting go.umd.edu/wellnessworkshops.
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READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS Reading for class can be hard and sometimes it can be downright frustrating! Do you spend a lot of time reading the same paragraph over and over and still don’t walk away with good information? When you are tested on material from course readings, do you find that you remember reading about the topic, but cannot remember the content? Well, you are not alone! Try out the following reading comprehension strategies to get more out of your course readings. •
Preview: Previewing is a strategy that helps you to be more engaged with the passages you are about to read by giving you context. Previewing a text could mean looking at chapter titles, section headings, bold or italicized words, graphs and charts, or a chapter summary. In a non-textbook, previewing could mean reading the first sentence of each paragraph.
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Curiosity Preview: Come up with questions to answer before you begin reading. When your curiosity is piqued, you are more likely to stay on task, be motivated to read, and not let your mind wander.
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Paraphrasing Like a College Student: Read paragraph 1. Write a summary. Read paragraph 2. Write a summary. Put the two summaries together into one. Do this with each paragraph. It is a slower way to read, but it is more efficient in the long run because you will have fewer false starts and less time spent going back to find information that has been forgotten when trying to complete assignments.
STUDY STRATEGIES Excerpt from Study Smarter, Not Harder1 •
Pay Attention: When studying, focus only on studying, minimizing distractions (extraneous noises, telephone calls and texts, email, crowds). You will get your studying and your socializing done much more efficiently if you set aside separate times to tackle each activity.
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Don’t Rote Memorize: Try to make sense of the information you are learning. Relate it to everyday life and to personal experiences. Make sure you understand what you are learning and how it all fits together. If you don’t understand it, ask your professor to explain it again during class or office hours.
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If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try Something Else: If you are not doing as well in a class as you would like, get help. Consult with the professor, utilize tutoring that is available, and find other students who are having greater success and ask them for tips. If you keep approaching the class in the same way, you will likely get the same result. Find another approach.
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Study A Little A Lot: Study every subject several times a week. Review your notes the evening after each class or the next day rather than waiting until just before a quiz or examination to review what you have learned. Studying for an exam will take much less time if you have reviewed your notes several times in the interim than if you wait and cram. You may want to create a study schedule that sets aside specific times during the week for reviewing your notes from each class.
Excerpt from Purging the Binge and Purge: A Student Workshop Designed to Increase Effective Study Habits. 2 •
Many textbooks will have good introductions to the chapters, or summaries. If you have limited time to prepare you might want to read the chapter summary–it will give you insight into what you should know when you’re done.
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Another strategy when you’re crunched for time is to start by reading through the figures. These will be used to support a large amount of the text. Go through each figure, looking for deep meaning.
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While taking notes, make sure to write down concepts that are still confusing, or connections to other material you don’t quite grasp. In class is often the best time to ask so that it can be put into context, but you should at least make a note if you decide to look it up on your own.
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Lineweaver, T., & Gingerich, M. (2010, September). Study Smarter, Not Harder. On the Road, Butler University Learning Resource Center.
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Nyland, R. L., & Sawarynski, K. E. (2017). Setting students up for success: a short interactive workshop designed to increase effective study habits.
MedEdPortal, 13, 10610.
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Everyone’s attention is lost at some point. The key is to find ways to monitor your engagement. Remember the importance of being mindful, not just taking notes. If you find that your mind has wandered, try to identify ways that work for you to get re-engaged.
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As you create your session reviews and summaries, begin to think about what other disciplines and content are connected. Make note of these connections, and try to describe in your own words how the topics are interrelated. Thinking about connections will only serve to increase your comprehension, and solidify the topics in your memory.
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Create your own questions. Consider writing your own questions for content. This will force you to think about the main concepts, as well as identify the fine distinguishing points between potential distractors and true answers.
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When reading, try to put important passages in your own words. If you can’t do this, you may only have a surface understanding and this will not be sufficient to solve complex problems. Always strive to think about the meaning behind what you are reading.
WELLNESS Please remember that wellness is also a large part of success in finals seasons. Make sure you are leaving time in your schedule to practice self-care and wellness. These activities can look like: •
Taking a break and not doing anything related to school
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Taking a long shower
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Going for a walk
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Attending a fitness class
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Having a movie night with friends
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Staying hydrated
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Eating your favorite foods (remember to incorporate healthy foods into your diet as well!)
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Calling a loved one
REFLECTION ACTIVITY Feeling indecisive and sure how to move forward? Feeling overwhelmed on tackling your assignments? Take a deep breath and work through the following questions. You can work through these questions aloud by yourself or journal your thoughts with these questions. Questions to Ask When You’re Stuck or Swamped •
What is the quickest solution?
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What is the easiest solution?
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Who can I ask for help?
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What progress can I make in one hour?
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Do I already have enough information to decide?
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Can I revise this to make it better?
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Do I need a snack?
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Will I be brave enough to press send/submit?
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How can I wake up to this moment? Reflection questions adapted from @karacut and mentioned in the UMD Center for Leadership & Organizational Change’s Food for Thought newsletter.
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RESOURCES
ACADEMIC SUCCESS & TUTORIAL SERVICES
As an initiative of the Academic Achievement Programs (AAP), the Academic Success and Tutorial Services program provides free peer tutoring to all UM students for over twenty 100- and 200-level general education courses. Additionally, tutoring is offered for historically difficult courses in areas such as biology, business, chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics/ statistics, and physics.
THE COUNSELING CENTER
The Counseling Service in the Counseling Center is the primary campus provider of free and confidential therapy to help UMD students manage personal, social, and academic challenges. The Counseling Center also offers wellness workshops and a variety of resources to help students with common student concerns.
GUIDED STUDY SESSIONS
The Guided Study Sessions (GSS) program offers FREE, regularly scheduled group review sessions for students in traditionally difficult courses. GSS Leaders have previously taken your course and earned an A, so they know what it takes to stay on track in lectures and prepare for exams. Go once, a few times, or attend every session—it’s never too late to start attending GSS. For the Spring 2022 semester, some Guided Study Sessions will be conducted in-person and others will be conducted virtually through Zoom. To access a specific virtual session, please contact your GSS Leader or email gss@umd.edu from a University email address. Visit the GSS Program Website to view the available sessions.
KEYSTONE CENTER
Located in Patterson, the Keystone Center is a place where you can go to work on homework or group projects, use the computer labs, or study for exams. It will be staffed with upper-level undergraduate and graduate students who can provide you with assistance in answering questions in fundamental engineering and STEM courses: CHEM135, MATH140, MATH141, MATH241, and MATH246.
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RESOURCES
LIBRARIES
The University Libraries offer plenty of resources including those for getting started on research as well as places to study. There are six libraries on campus and all have different hours. Click here to learn more about the various libraries’ hours. Bonus resource: Did you know that you can check out sports equipment such as frisbees, footballs, and hula hoops from the Terrapin Learning Commons (TLC)? See what else the TLC has to offer by visiting www.lib.umd.edu/tlc/other-equipment.
MATH LEARNING ASSISTANCE
Experiencing challenges in mathematics learning can be due to a variety of reasons and meeting with a Mathematics Learning Specialist can assist you in understanding these challenges and identifying effective strategies to overcome them. The Math Learning Specialist provides academic counseling to UMD students taking all levels of mathematics courses, helps them learn about UMD campus mathematics learning resources, develop efficient study strategies, and review their math skills. To schedule a time to meet with a Mathematics Learning Specialist, please send an email from your UMD email account to: learn@umd.edu.
MATH SUCCESS PROGRAM
The Math Success Program offers free, drop-in math coaching and tutoring services for all UMD undergraduate students. The program is open Sunday–Thursday from 6–9 p.m. in Oakland Hall. Visit the Math Success Program website to get more information and access the program.
MATH TEST BANK
Google drive of past exams from the Math Department for tons of classes. Great practice material for studying for final exams.
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RESOURCES
OFFICE OF MULTI-ETHNIC STUDENT EDUCATION (OMSE)
OMSE offers free, walk-in tutorial program that covers most key courses in Writing, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, and Economics, among other courses. Individual and small group tutoring consisting of 2-4 students per group is available each semester in most undergraduate courses. Check out the OMSE tutoring schedule to see if your course is available.
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS CENTER (OCC)
The OCC can provide: peer consulting for presentations, speeches, and other modes of oral communication; Speech planning and practice assistance; Interactive workshops on a variety of relevant communication skills; Special events and workshop series.
QUIET STUDY SPACES
These spaces offer some great opportunities to safely explore campus and find new places to get your work done. Please visit the Quiet Study Spaces list to view the spaces that are available, as well as the guidelines around using the spaces.
SPS TUTORING
The Society of Physics Students (SPS) offers a free online and in-person tutoring program for anyone taking an introductory physics course at UMD. Tutoring is available on a drop-in basis through Zoom from 4-6 p.m., Monday through Thursday. It is also available in Toll 1303 at the same time. In order to request the Zoom information, students must fill out the following brief form: https://forms.gle/M8FnJrEDgTkwSiUR8.
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RESOURCES
TUTORING & ACADEMIC SUCCESS RESOURCES
The University is committed to academic excellence, and provides a variety of tutoring and other academic resources to support student success — available on campus, from our peer institutions, and other non-university websites. To learn more about the available resources, visit tutoring.umd.edu. Also checkout these helpful resources to tackle some common academic concerns.
THE WRITING CENTER
The Writing Center provides opportunities for UMD’s diverse undergraduate student body to improve their writing, research, and critical thinking skills in preparation for successful academic, professional, and civic lives. In a supportive atmosphere, trained consultants from a variety of backgrounds and majors assist writers in-person and online throughout the writing process. Visit the Writing Center’s website to schedule an appointment.
*Some of this content has been adapted from various sources including but not limited to The Teaching and Learning Transformation Center, The Counseling Center, and The UMD Keep Learning website.
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Good luck on finals, Terps! Study hard, go to class, get enough sleep and ask for help when needed. You’ve got this!
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