While there is no single simple solution, you can do a few things to help ensure success on your final exam.
Before you take your first exam
- Ideally, work your way through the complete course, taking careful notes on terms, major concepts, etc. Pay special attention to the course and unit learning outcomes -- you should feel comfortable with each of them.
- If you don't have time to complete your course in full, we recommend at least working through unit quizzes and exploring the unit outcomes -- pay special attention to areas where you feel less confident and use the learning materials in those parts of the course to study.
Studying for your next attempt
- Find any unfamiliar topics or terms in your exam attempt(s), especially for questions that you have missed.
- Research these topics and terms in the course materials and/or through a web search. Research both the questions AND the answer choices -- the incorrect answer choice for a question on one exam might show up as the question topic on another exam. We have a search engine at www.saylor.org/search that will help you find answers within the course materials.
- Look through the learning outcomes for each unit -- each final exam question should connect to at least one of these learning outcomes.
Preparing for a Saylor Direct Credit exam
If you will be taking a credit exam, we encourage you to take the regular course final exam at least once. We suggest taking the regular exam once early on in your study and at least once again before you take your credit exam. Be sure to leave time for review and study, as needed.
Keep in mind, though, that our regular exams and credit exams, while similar to each other, use different banks of questions -- just memorizing as many answers as you can on one exam won't help you much on the other! Use the suggestions in the sections above to make sure you've mastered the topics in the course.