I’m still awaiting word from my proctor that he has received
my Semester One final exam package so I can schedule a date to take my
exams. I was notified by a student
service representative that it take about three weeks to ship the exam package,
which means he should have received it yesterday. Perhaps I am just being impatient, but I know
that “exam day” is coming up soon.
I have not yet taken final exams with Penn
Foster College,
but I have chatted with a few students who have. I have taken their advice, and developed a
few of my own methods, for studying for Penn
Foster College
final exams. If you are also preparing
for proctored exams with PFC, you may find these tips useful.
The proctored semester final exams must be scheduled within
three weeks of the proctor receiving the exam package. If you do not take and return the exams
within that three week time period the exam is considered expired, so don’t
delay in setting your exam date. The
exam for each course you took during the semester is about one hour, so if you
took six courses during the semester you are in for a six hour exam
period. The exams are open-book, so you
are allowed to have your text books and your own personal notes with you when
you take the exams.
The text books can be pretty involved, and one hour is not
nearly enough time to look up all of the relevant information if you need to
refer to your text. I have marked my
textbooks with post-it notes so the notes are stuck to pages I think will touch
upon questions that may be on the exam.
Each post-it note contains key words referring to the page it is
attached to. I think this will make
things much easier than constantly referring to the text book’s index
pages.
Take detailed notes for each course that highlight the major
portions you think will be covered in the exam.
Look through the study guide for that course to help you determine the
main point of each reading assignment, and take notes on the main points
covered in the lesson. Not only will
this help you review the material you have covered, but it will be another
resource you can refer to during your exam.
Re-read your study guides.
The text books are great, but the study guides condense the main point
of what you should have learned from reading the text books. Let the study guides be your…well, guide…to
each lesson and what it is you should have learned from that particular
course.
If you had a math course during the semester and math isn’t
your strong suit…practice, practice, practice until you have a decent grasp of
the formulas covered in the text books. There
are also some great web sites which can help you do this. Purplemath.com is a great resource.
I have read different sources which indicate the exams are
about 15 questions in length. Unlike the
online exams, they are not multiple choice (from what I hear). They are essay type questions in which you
must write out your answers. This may
have changed recently. I hope it has. I’m pretty good at multiple choice
exams.
Most of all…relax, get plenty of rest the night before the
exam, and go into test day fresh and prepared.
This is the moment you have been preparing for all semester, so make it
count!