There are several tricks that can help you study for a midterm. For example, the index at the back of the book is your best friend. If you are writing a midterm online, and you have access to the book, make sure that you use the index as much as possible. Let’s say that the multiple choice question asks you about marketing. But there are a lot of entries on marketing in the index so you are not sure which one is relevant to the question you are being asked—and you don’t have that much time. What should you do? Keep in mind the chapters that you are being tested on. Let’s say that you are responsible for what is in the first 6 chapters of the book for this particular test. So you should focus on the marketing entries in the index that are represented by the page numbers for those six chapters. So in the index, anything which the page number starting with chapter 7 is not necessary for you to look at. Let’s say the first 6 chapters cover the first 200 pages. In the index, look under marketing. And just look up the entries that occur within the first 200 pages. Then you will have a much better chance of finding the answer to your question.

Another strong online midterm tip is if you want a general overview of what is going on in the book, make sure that you write down or type on a Word document the headings of what is in the different chapters. And put the relevant page number, also. This is especially good for a midterm where there are short answer or essay questions. These will require broader knowledge than mutliple choice questions, of course. So what you do is if you have e-marketing on page 19, put e-marketing, page 19 on a separate Word document so that you can quickly see where the section on e-marketing is when you need it. This will save you a lot of time.

Here is another tip for writing essays in class or online when you are doing a midterm or final. A good strategy is to really take a good look at the course outline. Here is where the professor has given you a lot of ideas for what the course is about overall. So if you write an essay, use the subjects that are listed in the course outline. If the professor talks about how the course is going to teach you about advertising, for example, you can use that in your essay. The advantage to this is not only does it give you a broad idea for your essay, but you can use your professor’s own ideas. A professor who reads their own words paraphrased back to them, or put a slightly different way, is going to be impressed with what you are writing, and they are obviously going to agree with what you write. Also, another advantage to this approach is that they are going to see that you understand the main principles or points of the course. This will get you many marks that you might otherwise not get. It is also useful to use the course outline for subject headings so that you can efficiently divide up your essay if you are confused about how to organize it.

If you have any questions about midterms, finals, or writing papers, you should contact me at jaclynhollandstrauss@hotmail.com or at the bottom of this page or any page on this site where there will be a contact form.