how i (kinda) studied for finals by Aiden H. '28
brought to you by "a PNR mindset"
If you are reading this, it means I am successfully on my way out of Boston after surviving my first MIT finals season. The verdict? Lukewarm.
As has been explained a million times and will be a million more, MIT freshman have ~PNR~ their first semester. This means all classes are reported as either Pass (for what would be an A, B, or C01 yes, this means getting a 100% and a 70% in a class will show up exactly the same on your transcript. hence, don't try to get a 100 ) or No Record, implying that it isn’t reported on your transcript at all (for what would be a D or F).
There are a few existing camps of advice on how to abuse your PNR experience:
- Go AWOL all semester and then just try to pass the exams
- Show up and do the psets but don’t study at all for the exams
- Use this as a time to experiment with different study techniques without the risk of failure
Above all us, every upperclassman has one piece of advice: enjoy it.
Naturally, a mental battle began the first week of classes. Will my laziness and desire to have fun allow me to fully utilize PNR, or will my need for academic validation win? As with everything, it was somewhere in the middle, and that couldn’t be more clearly shown than my entirely sporadic and vibes-based02 vibes here meaning anxiety study schedule for finals.
***
THE LAST WEEK OF CLASSES
Monday – Calculate the Scores I Need to Pass
So far, I haven’t really locked in with the full PNR mindset. I did every pset for every class and never skipped lecture unless I had a genuine conflict03 IMPORTANT lecture ≠ recitation lmao . My exam scores had been fine and getting better, but nothing so cracked that I didn’t have to take my finals.
Like every master procrastinator, instead of just starting to study and trying to do well, I immediately decided it would be best to spend an hour doing phone-app math to find my current grades in classes and decide what I would need to NR a class.
The situation (aka scores needed to pass):
5.11104
Intro Chemistry
– 40.16%
8.0105 Mechanical Physics – like a 50? no one knows
17.4106 Intro to International Relations – 9.17%
18.0207 Multivariable calculus – 29.63%
8.01 has a policy where your have exams have to pass an undecided “exam average”. I assumed the worst it would be was a 70 (since I think that’s the lowest they can make passing?) and moved on.
From these I decided I was chilling and ended up not worrying for days until the anxiety eventually crept up.
Tuesday & Wednesday – Procrastinate
To be fair, these were the last two days of classes so it’s not as if I did nothing, I just didn’t do anything except go to class for like two hours (oops!).
I did print out the 8.01 exam equation sheet to try and convince myself to study, but using a printer is hard so I decided that was enough mental effort towards physics for one afternoon.
Thursday – Begin to Freak Out
Thursday was the first day we didn’t have classes, so I aptly decided it was time to begin the cram for 8.01. The professors released a disgusting amount of practice problems, so I started by doing 5 that they released specifically as “past exam problems”.
At a certain point I can’t stand to sit at my desk chair in my dorm anymore, so I search for an empty classroom across campus to study in instead.
my chalkboards from rotting in building 4
These problems were, to say the least, not reassuring in my ability to pass the final! I ended up having to look at the solutions for help on all problems to varying degrees, so I starred the problems as ones I needed to redo later.
I after I left the classroom, I went back to my room for a “break”, which meant I accidentally watched nothing on YouTube for 3 hours, went to dinner, and then went to bed!
Friday – 8.01 Review
After my Thursday-night failure, I decided to get up early08 9:00 is early to some people to go into Boston and escape campus. I went to the Tatte at Copley Square,09 A national treasure (a coffee shop chain across Boston and D.C.) bought the most delicious, obnoxious looking salad you’ve ever seen, and started watching the four hour review video for 8.01.
After about two hours in Tatte, I went to the Boston Public Library reading room in hopes that the pretty architecture and 200 students suffering with me would better my spirits. I finished the review video and started doing the rest of the practice problems.
As we can see, I did not do all of the practice problems
Once I got back to Maseeh,10 my dorm, aka rat kingdom I ended up on the phone calling random people I know all night, so I spent another evening not studying 👍.
Saturday – Remember You Have Other Classes
Saturday was a fever dream. This was the day I fell victim to rotting at my desk doing practice problems all day. I begrudgingly opened MITx11 The website all of the 8.01 content is posted through, because why use Canvas when you can make yet another link! and did more physics practice problems.
You would think that the last weekend of the semester would be crazy and fun and exciting, but instead it was desk and physics and more desk.
“what does MIT look like?”
I of course grew bored and angered at physics after a couple hours, so I decided I would start studying for the other exams I had not even 24 hours after the 8.01 exam. Quizlet dropped a beta version of their new game, so I played Blocks™ to review the ~150 terms I needed for my 17.41 exam. 5.111 also posted the review video for the session I did not go to, so I opened the tab, said I was going to watch it, and then didn’t watch it.
Sunday – Give Up
I mean can you blame me? Sunday I was unmotivated and tired, so I glanced over equations for a while, but I pretty much just read and went to be early. I even exercised as a form of procrastination, which demonstrates how dire the situation was. My roommates were on the grind, but I sent all my energy to them and wished them luck.
FINALS WEEK
Monday – 8.01
I woke up at the ass-crack of dawn (8:00 A.M.) and frantically scrolled through all my notes before trekking over to the Johnson Track12 A large indoor track in the Z recreation center where the largest finals are held .
The exam was 1) not fun 2) not easy 3) not there to help my grade, so I had a crisis in my dorm before laying down for 3 hours and watching The Substance with Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley.
Eventually I realized that I had two more exams the next day, one of which I hadn’t started studying for, so the grind restarted, but this time with 5.111.
I went through the same process I did for 5.111, just a lot faster. Watch the review video, look over notes, do practice problems. I felt a lot more confident in chemistry anyway, so I wasn’t tweaking going into the final. I also needed a lot lower of a grade to pass, so I let Jesus take the wheel.
Tuesday – 5.111 and 17.41
Oh look, I’m back on Johnson Track for 3 more hours!!!🎉🎉🎉❤️❤️❤️
The chemistry test was one of the thickest packets that you have ever seen (25+ pages), but I managed to conquer through it in time to go to a UROP meeting, and then straight to my 17.41 final. After four hours of testing, I decided I didn’t really care about my grade at that point, so I wrapped up my essays early to go collapse in bed.
Side quest: Freaking out over my 8.01 grade! Our beloved 8.01 professor Mohammed was both optimistic and depleting all my hope on Piazza13 An online student-professor Q&A forum .
Wednesday – Start Studying for 18.02
I was lucky enough to have a day without finals in the middle of the week, so I started reviewing material for 18.02 24 hours before the exam yet again. I went back to a classroom in building 4 and redid all of the midterms on the chalkboards while blasting the Wicked soundtrack, Doechii, and SZA.
I spent the rest of the night at my desk doing the practice midterm, and clonking out early enough for my required 8 hours of sleep before the exam.
Thursday – 18.02
I woke up yet again way too early, got nauseated by the crisp morning air, and walked to 10-25014 One of the main lecture halls on campus. . Overall it felt fine? Talking to my roommate after I definitely made some stupid mistakes,15 see: x = 0 is a possibility and does not make the entire question a trick question but there’s not way I failed.16 I still don't have my grade so watch me actually fail
I went to Newbury Street and spend a not-good amount of money on new clothes, and then packed for my 5:00 A.M. flight out of there.
***
I still don’t know half of my exam scores, so I can’t say whether or not my lack of studying technique was a success, but there are still a few lessons from PNR I need to remember next semester:
- Do the readings before class – This is what every upperclassman told me and I still refused to do it. My classes this semester weren’t incredibly difficult, but once classes get harder17 I'm looking at you 5.12 and more foreign, I’ll have to utilize this so I’m being proactive instead of playing catchup on material.
- Study less for longer – Cramming is definitely not my style, especially considering the exam content was more conceptual than plug-and-chug with equations to memorize.
- C’s get degrees – It’s really not that serious. Yes GPA matters, but if I’m fine getting a C now, I’m fine getting a C later. Not that they are the goal, but if it’s a hard class I hate, there’s no reason I should be a master of the content!
tl;dr I could study more, but couldn’t we all?
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