Guides › For students

How to study for a math final (a two-week plan)

A final covers months of work, so you can't relearn all of it. You don't need to. Most of the points are in a handful of problem types you already half-know. Two weeks of short sessions is enough to find and fix them.

Day 1: collect the right material (30 minutes)

Gather every test and quiz from the semester, plus any review packet. Old tests are the best study material you have: they're your teacher's own questions, in your teacher's own style. Then make a list of the kinds of problem for each unit: "solve a quadratic by factoring", "find the equation of a line from two points", "exponential growth word problem". A semester is usually 20 to 40 kinds.

Days 2 to 4: find out what you can do

Do one problem of each kind on blank paper, notes closed. Mark each:

• Can: right, without hesitating.
• Shaky: right, but slow or with a guess.
• Can't: stuck or wrong.

This feels slower than rereading notes. It's much faster in the end, because it tells you exactly where to spend the next ten days instead of studying everything evenly.

Days 5 to 10: fix the "can't" pile

Two or three kinds a day, 30 to 45 minutes. For each one:

1. Find a worked example in your notes or the textbook and read it until you can say why each line follows from the one above.
2. Close it and do a different problem of the same kind.
3. Stuck? Look back only at the step you're stuck on, then close it again.
4. Move on once you've done two in a row without looking.

If a kind keeps falling apart at the same step, the problem is often a skill from earlier: fractions, negative numbers, or distributing. Fix that skill and the whole kind usually comes back.

Days 11 to 13: mixed practice

On the final, nobody tells you which unit a question is from. Practise that. Pick problems from different units in random order, time yourself, and check each answer as soon as you finish. Redo an old test start to finish under time. Anything you miss goes back on the "shaky" list for tomorrow.

Make one formula sheet

Even if you can't take it in, write one page of the formulas and rules you keep forgetting. Writing it is studying. Read it once a day in the last week.

The night before

Keep it light: one or two problems from your weakest kinds, a read of your formula sheet, and bed at a normal time. Sleep is when practice sticks. If you only have one night, see how to study for a math test in one night.

In the exam

• Skim the whole paper first and do the questions you're sure of to bank those points.
• Don't get stuck: mark a hard one, move on, come back.
• Leave five minutes to check your answers.

Where theoremEd fits

When you're stuck on a practice problem and nobody's around, theoremEd looks at your working, points at the line that went wrong and asks you a question, instead of showing you a finished solution. It can also quiz you on a unit. It never gives the answer. Works in Chrome, on a Mac, or on the homepage, free, no account.