Oakland University’s Academic Success Center (ASC) hosted an event on April 2, 2024, about upcoming exams, the common issues when taking exams and how to avoid those issues.
The Academic Success Center is a place at OU where students can get the academic help that they need. Whether it be tutoring, support groups, workshops or easy-access resources for instruction, it is a safe place to learn how to be a better academic student.
Michelle Applebee, an assistant director for residential academic support, hosted the event for the ASC.
Many students in the workshop had very different classes they had to prepare for, including classes ranging from psychology to general chemistry, to journalism.
Despite the different subjects these students had, this workshop covered ways to study and be confident in the exam being taken, no matter what subject it could be.
In the workshop, Applebee’s main idea was to go over the common issues when taking an exam and some solutions to help overcome the common issues.
“As you can see, 45% of college students experience more than average stress during exams, 33% experience average stress and 12.7% are saying they have tremendous stress,” Applebee said.
It is very common for college students to feel very overwhelmed when it comes to exams.
“Also knowing you are going to go in and do your best and that’s all we can expect,” Applebee said.
Some common problems with taking exams are test anxiety and time management with preparing for the test.
“There are people with test anxiety,” Applebee said. “One of the things is you can always go to counseling in the counseling center. They work a lot with severe test anxiety. Nobody teaches us how to study in high school, we learn our own.”
One of the best ways to evaluate time management is to constantly check back on your schedule by using a planner or sticky notes. Google Calendar is also a good resource to time everything out when studying for exams.
“All of us are also going to have subjects that don’t come easy to us. Maybe it’s kind of our first time really being exposed to it [said subject] or a different area of a subject,” Applebee said. “Time management can help with that.”
People who struggle the most in a specific subject tend to focus more on that subject so that they can do well when taking the exams. Connecting with someone on campus who is good at a subject that one is not strong at is a huge help. Tutoring at the ASC could help the chances of students succeeding.
For more information on the Academic Success Center, please visit their office in Wilson Hall suite 1100, or contact them at [email protected].
