As itsmodernlitfam told me on tumblr, “good study tips are worth their weight in gold”. If you switch up your study methods even a little bit, you can significantly increase your productivity (and decrease the amount of time you spend studying!) Here are a couple of study tips to act as quick-fixes for your revision!
- Make flashcards – immediately
- Shake up your studying
- Understand “why”
- Have an example ready
- Stop reading your notes!
- Do practice tests strategically
- Take breaks regularly
Make flashcards – immediately
When you finish learning a topic at school, the first thing you should do when you get home is to make flashcards about the topic. Not only is this a great way to summarise the content, but flashcards are also one of the best ways to incorporate active recall in your learning! If you don’t want to make flashcards, you’ll probably be able to find pre-made sets on quizlet.
Shake up your studying
Although it’s important to focus on only one concept when you first learn a concept, you shouldn’t study one unit at a time when you revise. This is because exams tend to ask you about all the units jumbled together rather than a unit at a time. As well as this, focusing on a singular topic for hours at a time can be very boring, thereby decreasing your attention span! Try do a little of each topic everyday.
Understand “why”
Personally, understanding why things happen helps me so much in exams, especially for science exams. By understanding why something happens in a specific way, you don’t have to memorise a bunch of information. Instead, you’ll know the mechanism, therefore you’ll be able to logic your way through any question!
Have an example ready
Knowing a specific example of a concept is good for a few reasons. First of all, it helps you visualise and better understand the topic, therefore making it stick in your memory better. As well as this, having a specific example ready can be incredibly helpful for when you have to describe or explain an example during a test! I always have flashcards of specific examples for each concept for economics. Finally, having an example ready can help you apply your knowledge to new situations (like the ones they give you in exams!)
Stop reading your notes!
By now, you probably know that passive recall is ineffective. This is because you don’t have to actively retrieve information. Instead, the information is handed to you, and you just passively consume it. Try to avoid strategies such as re-reading the textbook or your notes, highlighting information, and copying down the entire textbook while taking notes.
Do practice tests strategically
This is seriously one of the smartest study tips anyone has every given me, and it comes from one of the smartest people I know (also the founder of the Studyology discord server!) Essentially, what he does, is he does past papers without actually writing them, Open the test in one tab and the mark scheme in another, and answer the questions. After each question, check the mark scheme to see if you were correct. Because you don’t actually write the answers, you save time so that you can do more practice questions!
Take breaks regularly
Not only does taking breaks help prevent burnout, but it can actually improve your memory! This is because your brain strengthens connections between neurons when you take a break. Take short but frequent breaks so you have time to relax and so you stay in the productive mindset!
