With midterms right around the corner, students and faculty at the University of Miami are working hard to perform at their best. Even though these tests come well before final exams in May they lack a schedule and reading days. This can leave students to juggle studying, homework, and extracurriculars all at once.
Between whiteboards, workshops, tutors and professors themselves, the university is equipped to help students succeed this midterm season.
There are multiple ways to study for exams, but not every method works for everyone. First-year business student Isabella Bomnin counts on the “whiteboard method.”
“When studying for an exam, I like to write everything down on a whiteboard and kind of go through it as if I’m teaching someone,” Bomnin said. “Going through it and explaining it helps me remember everything better.”
No whiteboard? No problem. There are plenty of free-to-use whiteboards around campus, whether they be in residential college study spaces or in Richter Library.
“In the library, they have like five whiteboards there. There are also study rooms and stuff like that around campus,” she said.
Another first-year, Ananya Uttamchandani, frequently attends the chemistry connections workshops. Living in Centennial Village, where some workshops are held, makes it more convenient to utilize this resource.
“They have other [workshops] that are in Cox, the science building, that are at 5 and 6 p.m., and if I’m already in my room, I don’t want to go all the way over there,” she said. “So it is convenient that it’s right in the same building, and I just have to go down to the second floor.”
These workshops led by graduate students allow for one last review session before the exam.
“The workshop leader gives you questions that are similar to what is going to be on the exam, so if there is something I don’t know or that confuses me, or just need help on, then I have the rest of the night and most of Friday to work on that specifically,” Uttamchandani said.
Some professors feel responsible for preparing students for success in midterm exams. Professor Kylie Walkine, a journalism teacher in the School of Communication, prides himself on not being a tough lecturer.
“I always say as a lecturer or professor, how students perform is a reflection of how you taught them the material and how you prepare them,” Walkine said.
He takes multiple steps to ensure that students have the right tools to succeed.
“I always give my students a study guide,” he said. “And then I think it’s the class before the midterm or the final, we always grow through the study guide together. I may give them one or two questions from the actual exam, but it’s always an easy layup for everyone to get at least an A or a B on the exam.”
Dr. Roy, a geographic information system professor, also offers study guides and review sessions for her students. She uses her midterms as building blocks.
“The first midterm has the lowest weight and the final has the highest weight,” Dr. Roy said.
Her reasoning is, “Students don’t do well on the first test. They’re getting used to the course material and the professor. So when you take the first test, you start getting used to the material, and by the final exam, you’re very well prepared.”
However, arguably the best resource the university offers is free tutoring. The Camner Center for Academic Resources offers tutoring for over 70 subjects.
Olivia Hoy, a first-year pre-med student, highly suggests that all students go to Camner even if they are not struggling in a class. “When I have questions, it is helpful to talk to people who have already experienced the class and know what to expect on exams,” she said.
She also shared that it was surprisingly easy to book a session. To book a session, open Navigate (the student success and resource portal found on the canelink homepage), click “make an appointment” on the upper right hand side, and select “Camner Tutoring” under the appointment type.
According to Rebecca Mirabent, the senior program coordinator of the Camner Center for Tutoring, “there are some classes where they might not see it on Navigate, just make a request through Navigate or through email and we’ll try to find some tutor to help them in some way.”
If you want to take advantage of this resource, do so in advance. Zane Mamman, a lead tutor at Camner, noted that they are busiest before big exams.
“I tutor the chemistries, like general chemistry and organic chemistry, so definitely before an exam, I will be overbooked,” he said.“I find that during midterms, it gets pretty busy, and then it’ll kind of stay pretty stagnant, and then during finals, it gets really busy again.”