I've been doing this for 3 years now: 6 semesters and 2 terms.
Unlike previous semesters, I have been crawling to the finish line this year. (Senioritis.) Seriously, yesterday I told myself that I did NOT care AT ALL about my finals.
Well, I found a good (but of course, not the BEST) motivator: money. Even though I have been accepted into pharmacy school, I still need a scholarship for spring term next year. That's an extra $1,200. It'd be nice to get that through an academic scholarship, so I can still save for pharmacy school.
What does my GPA need to be to get a Spring scholarship? 3.77
My GPA is 3.79 right now.
How much does one semester (mine right now is 16 credits) change that GPA? Well, including this semester, I will have 110 credits. So, 16 credits of 110 is about 14.5% of that. Based on the weight of this semester's GPA, I need to get at least a 3.65 this semester to qualify for a full-tuition spring scholarship.
Calculation: 3.79 (Cumulative GPA) x 0.8545 (Weight of Cumulative GPA) + A x 0.14545 (Weight of this semester's GPA) = 3.77
A=3.65
(Just in case finals go terribly wrong, I would need to get a 2.49 to get a half-tuition scholarship. A 2.49 would be B- in all of my classes. In this case, next semester I would need to earn an extra $600 to pay for spring classes).
Okay, so then I calculate the likelihood of the grades in my classes. There's a lot more to this, but here are some tips...
(1) Guess you are going to do either the same as you did on your midterms or worse on the final. I'm sorry, this is probably discouraging, but it's realistic. Trust me, I even studied 18 hours for a Chem final my freshman year and this theory still held true.
(2) Don't forget to add in predicted scores for other assignments. Don't give yourself 100% on these assignments, even if they're easy points. Usually I take off at least 2 points, because hey, I'm not perfect. Plus it covers picky TAs and/or teachers.
With all of these calculations, here's what I have...
For an A in Com Nut, I need to get a 91% on the final. This is what I got on the midterm, so it's doable. I studied approx. 5-6 hours for it. I'll probably study 6-7 hours.
For an A in Biochem, I need to get an 88.5% on the final. I did better than this on most midterms, so it's doable. I usually study about 9 hours for each Biochem test, so I'll study about that much for the final.
For an A- in Nut Biochem, I need to get an 88.5% on the final. This one could be trickier because I'm not as familiar with the material (I missed classes for interviews and work). I'm going to need to study about 10-12 hours for this one.
For an A- in Physics, I need to get at least a 77% on the final. This could be really difficult or really easy, since the final is entirely conceptual. I tend to do better on the math problems, not conceptual. This is my least priority class because it's not required for Regis University or my major. Haha.
For a B+ in Philosophy, I need to get an 88% on the final. Likelihood? Medium. I would need to study quite a bit though. About 10 hours.
Then to plan finals week, I am going to prioritize the finals that are scheduled and/or require the most studying. Because by the end of the week, I do not want to be studying 12 hours for one test.
And this is how I do finals.
People say I'm smart. I always tell them it's because I can plan well. This is an example of my planning.
And now, I am a lot more motivated to study for finals because (a) I know it will make my future financially easier, (b) the hours of studying are doable and (c) there's room for error.
