How to Study for Finals: Your Plan Based on Time Left

The right way to study for finals depends mostly on one number: how many days you have left. A month gives you time to learn; three days only gives you time to choose what you save.

And if your lectures have already gone through Hekko, you start with a study sheet and quizzes ready for each one: all that's left is testing yourself.

In short

• Your plan changes with the time left: the shorter it is, the more you cut.
• Prioritize with grade weight and past exams, not the order of the syllabus.
• Test yourself instead of rereading: that's what makes things stick.
• Keep your nights. An all-nighter costs more than it gives back.

How long before finals should you start studying?

Ideally three to four weeks before your first final. That's the time you need to go through every class at least twice, with a few days between passes.

With less time, it still works, but you have to cut instead of covering everything.

If you'd rather spread your studying over the whole semester, read our guide to building a study schedule.

What should you do depending on how much time you have?

A month is for learning then consolidating, two weeks for seeing everything once and testing the core, one week for testing yourself on the heaviest classes, three days for triage. Here's the plan for each case.

Finals spread over two weeks? Plan backwards from each exam date. For short study sheets, follow our method for making revision flashcards.

Which class should you start with when you can't study everything?

Start with the classes where the final weighs the most and where you're shaky. A small class you already know goes last.

Take thirty minutes to rank each class:

• Weight: what percentage of your grade the final counts for, and whether it's cumulative.
• Your current grade: a class where the final decides pass or fail deserves more hours.
• Format: multiple choice, short answers, problem sets or essays aren't studied the same way.
• Your level per chapter: green (I can explain it), orange (I recognize it), red (never understood it).

The orange chapters of high-weight classes are where your hours pay off most. With three days, pick one or two red ones and accept leaving the rest.

Why test yourself instead of rereading?

Because it's the effort of recalling an answer that makes you remember, not rereading. Students who practiced recalling a text remembered more of it a week later than those who reread it (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006).

Past exams are the best place to start: they show you what your professor asks and how. Look on the course page, check the study guide, or ask in office hours (in the UK, ask for past papers). Do one early, even badly: you'll see your gaps right away.

For the rest, you need questions on your lectures. With Hekko, the quizzes and study sheet are generated from your own classes, recorded in the lecture hall or imported: you test yourself on what your professor actually said, not on generic questions.

Write every mistake on a "to fix" list: that's what you work on at the end.

Should you study one class at a time or mix them?

Mix them. Alternating classes and question types within a day feels harder, but usually gives better results than working one topic in a single block.

• Two or three classes a day.
• Blocks of 45 to 90 minutes before switching.
• The heaviest class in the morning.

It also forces you to tell similar concepts apart. For essay-based finals in history or law, practice outlining answers to past questions from memory: you can do three or four outlines in the time it takes to write one full answer.

How many hours a day should you study for finals?

Plan on four to eight hours of focused work a day, depending on how many days you need to keep that pace. Beyond that, each hour is worth less.

• With a month: four to six hours, with one lighter day a week.
• With a week or less: up to seven or eight hours, with breaks.
• Only count focused hours, phone in another room.

Sleep isn't the part you cut. It consolidates what you learned during the day. Stop studying an hour before bed and protect your last night. For the final evening, read our article on studying the night before an exam.

To reach finals with clean notes and quizzes ready, try Hekko: 2 full lectures a month for free, no credit card needed.