6 days left until the English Honors Exam and counting =_=’

Yep. The beginning of my semester has been consumed by the honors exam. Reviewing, or better yet, cramming everything I’ve learned about English and American literature into a few weeks is a painful experience (one that you will hopefully never have to experience)… But then again, there’s something really awesome about having an almost “panoramic” view of everything I’ve learned as an English major (even though the material on the exam is likely to be concentrated on dead, white male authors… they just fall into the “must know” category haha).

Studying for the honors exam has also made me realize how useful it is to organize study groups, especially for tests that cover such an extensive amount of material. We were lucky enough to have Professor McCoy highlight various periods and authors from English and American literature that needed to be researched. Then, we each selected one of the sections and composed study guides for the other members of the class. Divide and conquer was our motto and it was definitely the way to go for this exam. The study guides really helped me identify the major works I needed to review… like Beowulf, Moby Dick and a long list of others.

But perhaps the most useful part of this process (in addition to reading the study guides) was discussing what we read with each other. I discovered that just getting together with a few classmates to go over topics for the exam really helped me remember the works and authors better. Even if you don’t write anything down, listening and talking about the subject will still help things stick.

So, my tip for this post will be to organize study groups with a few friends for any major exam. Rather than being antisocial and hiding away in the library (which I am too often guilty of), you should invite some classmates to go with you. Informal study groups can also help you meet new people and hopefully develop lasting friendships at QC… a little corny but definitely true.