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Super
Study Skills
The
Ultimate Guide to Tests and Studying.
You
can pick up a much cheaper 'used' copy of this book at Amazon
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Developing
your studying method (cont.)
<< Back to start of
article
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Try to study at the same time every time you study. We are all
creatures of habit, and it helps to settle your mind and focus
on the task at hand if you can schedule your study periods to
be around the same time, each time. Trying to fit in an hour
here, and an hour there just won’t add up to effective
study time.
- When
taking notes or highlighting, only underline the most important
sentence in each paragraph – by reading the material and
deciding which is the most important sentence in itself helps
you to learn the material.
- Try
to cap off each study period with a review of what you have
learnt during that period. It will help to reinforce the new
information in your mind and that information will be more readily
available the next time you have a study session.
- Don’t
cram for exams. Firstly you’re more likely to forget the
information in the long run. Secondly, it might induce panic
during the exam if you suddenly can’t remember the answer
to a question. This in turn can cause problems for the rest
of the exam. And if you’ve pulled an ‘all-nighter’
to cram for the exam you may be too tired to concentrate effectively
the next day.
- Do
as many practice exams as you can. When you get a question wrong
during a practice exam try to find the answer out on your own
using your own resources. Don’t just take the right answer
from the exam’s summary and accept it. By researching
incorrect answers you’re helping yourself to remember
that answer in the future. Obviously some practice exams are
better than others (I use Transcender),
but irrespective of that, the more questions you do, the better
off you’ll be.
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When you’re doing the practice questions don’t guess
at the right answer. So what if you don’t know the answer?
This isn’t the real exam, so if you come across a question
that you don’t know the answer to, leave it as unanswered.
Sure, it will come back as a wrong answer, but at least you’ll
be able to identify areas that you need to study more. If you
had guessed and got it right, you wouldn’t know that you’d
have to go back and learn that topic more. And you might not
be so lucky during the exam.
- You
will forget things. It’s natural. It’s part of the
way that we learn. Make a part of your study routine to have
a review session every so often. Don’t undertake to study
any new material during this session – just use it to
recap on the information learned over the last few sessions.
Think of it as taking one step back to go a further three forward.
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Don’t get frustrated if things aren’t going to plan.
It certainly won’t help matters, and frustration leads
to stress. If you find yourself getting frustrated or stressed,
take a small break and try to formulate a plan for dealing with
the issue that’s causing the frustration. Sitting there
staring at your books and getting more and more wound up is
not the answer. If necessary move on to another subject and
come back to that one later.
-
Make studying a habit. Habits take a while to develop, and even
longer to break.
<< back
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Good
luck with your studies!
DOC
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