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<p>How did I?</p>
<p>If I have a midterm coming up in a class I’ll want the day before to be free of any other large commitments (this means get your other psets doneeeee), depending on the material covered I might not need the whole day to study but it’s there for peace of mind. Finals I devote at least 2 days for the more serious classes. I usually wouldn’t cram too much before then but if there’s a review session sometimes its held way in advance it’s a good idea to start looking over some topics that you want discussed. In actuality, I was never any good at that, and instead I just got panicky seeing how well everyone else was prepared already 5 days before the test. </p>
<p>My procedure for studying? Reading over notes and material, re-doing the harder problems on the problem sets, emailing TAs and profs with questions then taking a practice test or two. That’s how I usually do it. </p>
<p>What’s the best method for you?</p>
<p>There’s no way to know beforehand, it’s up to you to figure it out first semester freshman year. One thing for certain though, most of the “studying” for the big comprehensive tests that you’ll be taking in college is done continuously. More specifically, it’s done weekly through the psets. You shouldn’t really be learning anything new when you’re studying for a test. I found out halfway through freshman year that I didn’t actually need a study group to complete problem sets, it was just a shortcut to make things easier. So I did away with working in a group, and this forced me to actually find a way through each problem as opposed to feeling satisfied that I could convince myself of the answer. Also, doing this kinda thing does wonders for your confidence; I assured myself that I learned everything on each problem set, and tests stopped being intimidating.</p>