As the end of the semester continues to rapidly approach, finals are on every student’s mind. Evidently, this has proven to be a stressful time for students across the university, especially those who are involved in many other activities on and off-campus.
An example of these exemplary students would be Joseph Paradiso, a Senior in the Pforzheimer Honors College and Seidenberg School of CSIS, majoring in Computer Science, at Pace University. Joe is deeply immersed in the Pace University community, especially in Honors events. Throughout his last few years as an undergraduate student, he has always sought out to be a part of these major aspects of life at Pace.
Joe has been a Peer Tutor for other students to help them hone their understanding of various course topics, was Treasurer of the Cybersecurity Club, represented Seidenberg in Student Government Association as the Seidenberg President of the entity, and participated in Undergraduate Research as an underclassman. Currently, he is a Residential Assistant for the 15 Beekman dorm building in charge of the Freshmen Honors students and the Secretary for SGA. On top of this, Joe holds a part-time job off-campus, which he manages to balance with his responsibilities on-campus.
Many may wonder how students with such a large plate of commitments can manage to study effectively with their plethora of exams. Firstly, Joe places high importance on having an interactive to-do list. “Being able to physically cross off items that are completed, is something I find that makes me much more productive.” Google Calendar is one of the simplest and most organized platforms for such a task. Joe, additionally, comments about studying in groups with people who are in the same major or taking the same course, by utilizing flashcard and other memorization techniques. Taking notes during class and after class with a physical pen and paper, as opposed to digital notetaking, boosts one’s memory on the topic. Lastly, making use of the Learning Commons for tutoring if one subject seems to be more difficult than another and utilizing the various studying places on campus will help your studying process greatly.
Joe’s concluding tips are to optimize the online resources such as Khan Academy and YouTube for help on certain subjects that are tougher to comprehend. Joe mentions that he thinks there is something on these two platforms for almost any subject, especially for mathematics courses.
Through Joe’s extensive tips and tricks, anybody can conquer their finals no matter how great the task may seem. Overall, understanding the most optimal way to help you study for such a large exam will be the key to your success. By combining all these tactics, you will definitely be one step closer to conquering your finals this Spring semester.