Saturday, April 6, 2013

It’s never too early to start planning an effective review session!

As the end of the spring term is only a few weeks away, now is a great time to start preparing final exam review sessions!  After all, it is not only your students that have to revisit all of that content that has been covered in the past few months.  Though this task can seem daunting there are ways to streamline your prep for review sessions.  In this blog post, you will find some tips for preparing and running review sessions that will be rewarding for both you and your students. 


Gather information about the exam
Know where, when and how long the final exam will be.  Be sure that you have an idea of the content that will be covered and the format of the exam.  Being familiar with the themes covered in the exam will provide a scaffold around which to structure your review session.  The idea is not to give students hints about specific exam questions but to frame a review session around material that the students will need to know.


Gather information about your students
Your students’ past performances on midterms or problem sets will reveal what topics will need to be covered in more depth during the review session.  Make sure to have an idea of the students’ schedule when you are choosing a time for the review session.  Be aware of when classes end, what the reading days are and the exam date.  You want to time the review session in a way that students will have already begun studying, but will still have time to address any areas of weakness they might become aware of in the review session.  If you wish to make an effort to get as many students to attend the review session as possible, I would recommend trying a user-friendly free online tool found at www.doodle.com that makes scheduling easier!


Make sure you master the material
Given your role in the course, you are expected to have a good grasp of the content.  This can cause you to feel quite a bit of pressure.  To alleviate some of this, put the burden back on your students and require that they e-mail you questions before the review session.  Though you should still be familiar with the course material that students do not specifically ask about, this exercise will help to orient you to the topics that may be the most discussed during the review session. 


Have a plan for the review session-and stick to it!
Make an outline for what you plan to cover in the review session.  Prepare some sample questions and answers that you can use during the review session or give to your students for use when they are studying.  Using sample answers provides a great chance to demonstrate what constitutes a good answer.  This will serve as an example of what you will be looking for when you are grading their exams.  Let your students know what to expect before coming to the review session so that they are able to prepare.  There are many options for the format of the review session.  Rather than using only a lecture format to cover the material, it can be fun to try some alternative styles.  A few examples are: a question and answer session, making a group outline on the board, playing a game of Jeopardy that covers all the themes on the exam, working through practice problems and giving an overview presentation on how the topics of the course relate to each other.  Feel free to try different things in the review session and find what works for you!
 


It is important to remember that exam time, though stressful for teachers, is also a major source of angst for your students.  Being nervous around exam time can be helpful for students and provide an extra source of adrenaline, but if students become too stressed this heightened state can become an impediment to their performance. To help with stress management encourage students to adequately prepare for the exam, recognize what they DO know about the content and take care of themselves by eating well and sleeping enough.  Be aware of resources offered through the counseling center for extreme cases of stress. 
Hopefully these tips on running review sessions have alleviated some of the anxiety you might feel about preparing a review session

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