SUMMARYA brief description of the finite element method to be used is given. It is then shown how various finite difference schemes for the wave and Burgers' equations can be achieved, in particular the predictorcorrector method of MacCormack. By the finite element method a more efficient predictor-corrector scheme is also obtained. Furthermore, the study tends to show that terms of the general form a(uvw)/dx should be discretized by considering u, v and w as separate variables instead of taking the product uuw as a single variable as is often done with equations written in conservative (divergence law) form.