In a month and a half, the school year will be over. With the end approaching, it’s time to start prepping for what we spend the whole tri stressing over: testing. AP testing starts in early May for the juniors and seniors and finals start for everyone at the end of May. With such a short time left, it’s a good idea to start preparing now, especially for the harder classes and the ones that carry more weight, like APs and dual credits. Here are several tips to help you stay calm and pass your classes.

1. Sleep

It’s recommended that teenagers get eight to nine hours a night. While this isn’t always possible, it’s something to aim for. Turn in early, even if it means not watching a show or even getting less time in studying. The worst thing you can do is pull an all-nighter. Sleep is when your brain processes all the information it has taken in during the day. Without sleep, you’ll learn even less than you would have had you gone to bed at a reasonable time and missed some review. No one passes a class with the desired grade if they slept through it. Get as much sleep as you can. It’ll be crucial if you want to study right and remember what you studied.

2. Don’t Skip Meals

Eating is critical for the brain to work at full power. Your brain needs a lot of energy to remember the difference between derivatives and integrals and what happened during the Korean War, so don’t deprive it. You can’t focus if you’re hungry, and if you’re unfocused, you can’t learn. If you want to know what happened in fifth period, eat lunch. Want to be awake in second? Eat breakfast. Don’t skip meals to save time, it will backfire on you in the long run.

3. Exercise

Exercise it really good for the brain and for the body. Even just a short walk can help you focus and destress. Exercise releases positive chemicals in the brain that relieves stress and help you feel happier. Go out and enjoy the weather. Go to the gym and sweat if that’s more your speed. And for the athletes, show up to practice. You’re exercise it built in to your days. Try to relax more. Exercise can also help combat the junk food you’ll be tempted to eat while you’re studying and will help you fight the urge to eat junk food.  It can also help you get those hour of sleep at night. So make sure to get some activity into your days as well as your school work.

4. Start Reviewing Early

Start reviewing now, for all classes. A lot would have been covered over the tri and especially over the three trimesters. Now is a good time to start looking over past topics and past assignments, familiarize yourself with it. Study your weak points and practice problems. You want to spend a little time on classes every week, and your harder classes daily. Don’t start studying the week before tests, you won’t get through it all and you won’t remember what you went over as well as you’d like.

5. Pay Attention In Class, Ask Questions

Class is a great resource use it. You got an allotted seventy minutes to all your classes. If you’re class it reviewing, pay attention. If you’re going over new information, pay attention. Class time is the best time for your classes. Ask your teachers questions, don’t study confused. It won’t help you. And chance are, if you’re lost on something, there are others in the class who are just as lost.

6. Go Over Your Notes and Assignments

You’re notes and previous classwork are great resources. Your work goes over the entire class. If you’ve been paying attention, you got all of your topics in hand. Do some practice problems from every section. If you’re taking a math class, this is particularly important. Math is something that needs to be practiced. Practice problems from every section of every chapter. Go over sections you struggled on most. For any of your class, you’ll want to have an idea of what’s gone on. Go over notes before bed. Right before sleep is when your brain is most susceptible to new information. It’s more likely your brain will work through it and remember during the night. Don’t wait for bed to go over everything though. Do your studying during the day, only look over the most confusing or difficult material before bed.

Hope these tips help you in preparing for all the testing that awaits you in May. Keep calm, enjoy your day, stay healthy, and work on. Good luck.