Usually talk about preparing for exams begins two or three weeks before midterms or finals. But the best time to begin preparing for exams is right now! Here are some time-tested methods:

• Organize a weekly review schedule from the beginning of the term. Don't wait for a review sheet from your instructor. Try choosing a day of the week to review each subject you're studying.

• During your weekly review, go over all vocabulary and other terms. It is important to be able to see the terms or the definitions but not both. You want to force your mind to make the connection. Talk through the terms aloud or write them as you review. Just looking will not work.

• When reviewing more complex material, separate the material into questions and answers. Look through your reading and lecture notes and write up a quiz, as if you were the instructor. Then make an answer key on a separate sheet of paper. Each week review all of the material for that class by taking all of the quizzes you've written so far.

• If creating your own quiz takes too long, try using small Post-Its to cover up the answers to who, what, when, where, and why questions - so you can quiz yourself without having to write out actual questions.

• Make math "cheat sheets." For math and math-related subjects, you will notice that there are usually only perhaps 5-8 different kinds of problems in each chapter. On separate, full sheets of paper work out in detail one or two examples of each kind of problem. Be sure to provide a running commentary - in words - that explains why and how to do each step of the calculation.  Keep your cheat sheets in a separate notebook - separate even from your other math notes - for easy access. Because the explanations will be in your own words, they will be much easier for you to understand than the textbook.

If you keep up a weekly review of all of your subjects, when it comes time to review for exams, you'll have only to do another weekly review to be ready. No more stressful all-nighters!