STUDY METHODS
Take notes from the textbook
Keep in mind that the main purpose of notes is to summarize the information so that you don't have to read the entire textbook when you want to study.
However this can be an effective study technique if you're reading actively, so, summarise the information and put it in your own words, analyse the concepts, identify key ideas and make connections between topics. These are all examples of active reading.
Reorganise your class notes
Class notes tend to be rushed and all the information is written together in a big jumble. You can restructure this information in a logical order, or put it into charts and diagrams. This will help you identify what is important, organize the information in your head and make connections between the information and the topic.
It's also a great way to make your notes easier to understand for when you're studying later.
Go through previous exam papers
Go through all past exam papers that you hopefully have organized somewhere and check the wrong answers that you got. This way, you can review the material by looking over it, and you can focus on fixing the mistakes that you made before.
Make a study guide
With a study guide, you'll be looking over all of the material, and you identify what's important. This also helps you connect topics to each other and connect information within a topic.
Looking over the material isn't quite as effective as active learning techniques, continue reading for more.
Use flashcards
This is considered active learning because you're practicing remembering the information, because that's what you're going to be doing on tests. You'll be prompted to remember the information.
Use repetition
Research shows that we tend to forget information in certain increments of time as shown in this curve of forgetting, so, in order to cement the information into your long-term memory, you'll want to study the information at certain intervals and continually repeat.
Do practice exam papers
Actually completing an exam paper encourages you to put what you've learnt into practice. We recommend doing this at least a couple of days before your actual exam so that you have enough time to review and correct mistakes.
Revise with friends
Everyone should write their own questions and then each person gets a chance to ask their questions. This way you speak about the questions at hand and you might learn something you didn't pick up yourself.
It's also a lot more fun to work with friends. Just be careful of procrastinating and wasting time.
Teach other people, also known as the feynman technique
This study method helps you identify what you don't know because the other person will be asking questions. You also have to really organise the information into a lesson structure, and you have to truly understand the information in order to teach another person, especially if they don't understand it as well as you do.
It's best to teach an actual person since they can ask you questions back, but if you don't have anyone available, you can always make a fake lesson and teach it to your pillow, or a wall.
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