During the school year it can sometimes feel as if you are in over your head. Most students have to juggle their life with school assignments, projects, and extracurricular activities. It can seem as if almost out of nowhere that a test is soon approaching. You know you need to do well on it, but with all of the other projects you have going on, how can you study efficiently and ace the test?
First of all, when you study for a test, you shouldn't be learning something completely new. It is faster and easier to recall something you have already learned than to learn something completely new. So, after each day of classes, it is a good idea to review everything you have learned. It doesn't have to be a long review either! Keep in mind that this is simply something to help you jog your memory about the day's topics. That way, you give your brain another chance to soak up the information. Hopefully, doing this review will make future studying less time consuming and less of a learning process.
Where you study is important. Find a place that's readily available with minimal distractions. A popular place for most students to study is at home. However, for some, home can be too distracting as it's easy to get side tracked. What may help is if you study in a place that's similar to the place where you're going to take the test. When you study, you might associate certain topics with the environment. So if you take the test in a similar environment, you can more easily retrieve these associations. For example, if you're going to write a test in a lecture room, it may help to study in a lecture room (if at all possible!)
Some people study well in a group since they can get help from others in areas in which they are lacking. They may also gain valuable insight from others on what they have overlooked and which critical areas to focus on for the test. On the other hand, some people study well alone. They already know what they have to study and find a group can be distracting (especially when they engage in off-topic conversation or try to do absolutely everything but study!) You're the one who knows yourself the best, so determine what works best for you and get to it!
There are various methods you can use when studying. For example, when studying for a test you may like to read through your textbook, read through course notes, answer textbook questions, re-do past assignments, review previous tests, research online, or just talk to friends or teachers about the topic. You can also use memory-improving techniques like mnemonics, visualization, and association to recall everything you need. Trying a combination of these different studying methods(and then tracking your results) will really assist you in doing well. When you study a large body of information, you should study from concept to detail, not the other way around. It will, in fact, be much easier to learn the details if you take the time to learn the concept and theory first. The least efficient approach to studying is to attempt to memorize your notes from beginning to end. It's not the words which are important - it's the ideas.
A method that works well for most people is studying in small pieces instead of large chunks of time. Studying in large chunks of time increases the chance that you will overwhelm your brain with information and start forgetting things. If you study in small pieces of time, you aren't absorbing all of this information at once and it gives you a chance to rest. Furthermore, you should rehearse what you study and do it in expanding time intervals. For example, if you study ten digits of PI, you could attempt to rehearse the ten digits in one minute, then two minutes, then four minutes, and so on.
First of all, when you study for a test, you shouldn't be learning something completely new. It is faster and easier to recall something you have already learned than to learn something completely new. So, after each day of classes, it is a good idea to review everything you have learned. It doesn't have to be a long review either! Keep in mind that this is simply something to help you jog your memory about the day's topics. That way, you give your brain another chance to soak up the information. Hopefully, doing this review will make future studying less time consuming and less of a learning process.
Where you study is important. Find a place that's readily available with minimal distractions. A popular place for most students to study is at home. However, for some, home can be too distracting as it's easy to get side tracked. What may help is if you study in a place that's similar to the place where you're going to take the test. When you study, you might associate certain topics with the environment. So if you take the test in a similar environment, you can more easily retrieve these associations. For example, if you're going to write a test in a lecture room, it may help to study in a lecture room (if at all possible!)
Some people study well in a group since they can get help from others in areas in which they are lacking. They may also gain valuable insight from others on what they have overlooked and which critical areas to focus on for the test. On the other hand, some people study well alone. They already know what they have to study and find a group can be distracting (especially when they engage in off-topic conversation or try to do absolutely everything but study!) You're the one who knows yourself the best, so determine what works best for you and get to it!
There are various methods you can use when studying. For example, when studying for a test you may like to read through your textbook, read through course notes, answer textbook questions, re-do past assignments, review previous tests, research online, or just talk to friends or teachers about the topic. You can also use memory-improving techniques like mnemonics, visualization, and association to recall everything you need. Trying a combination of these different studying methods(and then tracking your results) will really assist you in doing well. When you study a large body of information, you should study from concept to detail, not the other way around. It will, in fact, be much easier to learn the details if you take the time to learn the concept and theory first. The least efficient approach to studying is to attempt to memorize your notes from beginning to end. It's not the words which are important - it's the ideas.
A method that works well for most people is studying in small pieces instead of large chunks of time. Studying in large chunks of time increases the chance that you will overwhelm your brain with information and start forgetting things. If you study in small pieces of time, you aren't absorbing all of this information at once and it gives you a chance to rest. Furthermore, you should rehearse what you study and do it in expanding time intervals. For example, if you study ten digits of PI, you could attempt to rehearse the ten digits in one minute, then two minutes, then four minutes, and so on.
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