When you first sit down for your exam, you should already have the workbook that came with the course already opened in your hands. You will need to find a good study guide, and spend a good amount of time studying before sitting down at your desk. Before you even start studying you need to learn how to find your answers. This means that you need help to find the answer book, and then you need to practice finding the answer book. Then you need to get to a comfortable pace, and get to speed reading so that you can finish the book in a reasonable amount of time.
After you find the answer book you need you will want to read through it as much as you can. You need to understand each question and try to answer it as best as you can based on the type of answer book that you have. For example, if you have an example question you will need to know which example problem you will be using for your exam. In these cases you will most likely have the help of the graphing calculator you are using, although you may also use a table or even a board. Make sure that you understand each question completely before you try to answer it.
Before you leave your room, you should make sure that you have the calculators that you will need with you. This way you will be able to answer any questions that your classmates may have while you are in class. In fact, it is usually encouraged that you bring extra calculators, just in case one breaks. If you use the extra ones wisely, you may be surprised at just how good your grades actually are on this course. They may surprise you.
If you cannot attend a class you will need to take notes during class. In fact, you will probably be asked to write down everything that you do see and hear during the lecture. This will give you a chance to review what you heard and learned and to refresh yourself on what you learned. You will be able to answer more difficult problems when you have to review material at your disposal.
You will next need to write the problem down on a separate piece of paper before you begin your work. You will want to write it on a clean piece of paper so that you will not confuse it when you try to solve it. There will be multiple instances throughout the course where you will come across a difficult problem. However, you will not want to work through the problem thinking of how to answer it. You will instead want to pay attention to the problem and what you need to do to solve it.
At the end of each problem you will have to write a comment. This is basically a summary of what happened in the problem above. After you have written your comments, you will want to jot them down so that you can look back on them later. In the class there will be time limitations given for each problem. Therefore, you will want to make sure that you do not waste any of the time before this by working on a different problem.
Overall, the final exam will be a stressful time. However, you can work hard in class and prepare yourself for the final exam. Before the exam, it is a good idea to spend time reviewing what you learned in class. You can also practice any question or problems that you may have forgotten during your review time.