Alright, let’s assume worst comes to worst. You’ve got 3 days till your final exam and you don’t really know a thing about the subject.
In this case, I’d recommend studying in a ‘breadth-first’ rather than a ‘depth-first’ fashion. Make sure you know a bit about everything, rather than a lot about one thing). If you concentrate on just one thing, you’ll only ever get a chance to apply your knowledge on a fraction of the exam. YMMV, but I’ve found that in general, the first few marks of each part of the exam are relatively easy to get. You don’t want to throw away easy marks just because you didn’t study for that particular part!
Of course, if this does happen to you, take it as a lesson to start studying earlier in the future!
Ethically? Nothing. You could get a crack team of lean mean cheatin’ machines together and hack into the professor’s computer for the final exam answers and get them tattooed onto intimate portions of your anatomy.
My suggestion is that you do the reading, attend class every time if it kills you, show up to office hours with questions, and in general study well. None of these things are unknown to you, college professors (for the most part) want you to have a chance at sucess. Use all of them, even though it sounds like work.
My main problem with studying is that I have a very small ability to be bored. If I’m not interested, its nearly impossible for me to force myself to do anything relating to the topic. I take toys (quiet, but amusing) to lectures so that I actually go. I write notes in various colors of sparkly gel pen. I bribe myself to go to office hours. If treating myself like a reluctant four year old is the only way I’m going to ace Statistics, well then that’s my plan. (This is coming from a person who bought gummie bears, lined them up on her computer monitor, and ate one for every sentence written in a truly atrocious essay.)
Sir Doris, thanks so much for the advice! Thats very helpful.
I think I sit on a certain topic too long, rather than going over all the material. I have been going to every lecture, and I think I would be stuck if I didn’t go. Another thing I find, is that if I sit closer to the front I find it a lot easier to concentrate on what the proffeseur is saying and less on the other 100 people in my class are doing.