There are some strategies that can’t be taught, like finding balance in school, work and life. And there are habits only formed with age and experience, like time management and getting enough sleep.
If you want to ace your exams, you can’t just take B12 supplements and ask your barista for an extra shot of espresso. To enhance your concentration, alertness, memory and intelligence, you don’t have to be awake longer, or study more, you just need to study better.
Outline lecture notes in your own words. Anybody can read and remember definitions, but “chunking” – that is, arranging information in a unique way – helps the brain process and store information as one fluid concept.
Instead of memorizing your professor’s PowerPoint slides and phrases from the textbook, write your own definitions. Translate ideas into your own language. As useful as flashcards may be for remembering vocabulary and historical dates, they can limit the level of depth you reach on more conceptual subjects, like theories and complex processes.
When you study, use any many senses as possible. Information is more effectively stored and readily accessible when your body uses more than one sense to learn something, according to a learning theory developed by Whitman College.
Re-writing is good, but take it further. Highlight words and phrases, draw pictures and diagrams. Make it visual. And talk to yourself – it’s finals season, anything goes. Even just mouthing the words as you write helps.
Research also shows that chewing gum improves study and test performance, possibly because it increases heart rate and therefore blood flow in the brain.
Include your auditory senses, too, by discussing concepts with someone else. In your own words, summarize ideas and listen to your voice while you test your knowledge on a topic. Above all, engage your senses, and make sure you’re comfortable when you study.
Take breaks. Having self-discipline is good, but setting limits is healthy.
Don’t hurt your back and strain your eyes hunched over your desk for seven hours straight. Instead, divide your study time into shorter, more manageable sessions and commit to a set amount of reading or writing.
Just keep track of the time, stretch every so often and eat a good snack.
And remember to blink – when staring at a book or computer screen, people tend to blink less than usual, which causes dryness, irritation and ultimately, headaches.
Practice may not always make perfect, but it certainly helps. At the end of each chapter, most textbooks provide practice tests, or at least offer thought-provoking questions that summarize the section’s main ideas.
If the final is cumulative, review past assignments and quizzes, but remember not to get too attached because professors don’t have to recycle material. And if your instructor gives you a study guide, you do that study guide. That is a gift denied to many students.
Don’t wait until the last minute. I mean it. During the first few hours of sleep, memories are consolidated, or encoded, as a way of tracing particular memories back to their original source.
This is a normal, albeit important, process. However, according to the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, in order to establish long-term memories – in this case, gaining knowledge and information – they must be consolidated multiple times.
Beyond that, they must be retrieved through reflection or recall – like re-reading and re-writing – over a period of time in what’s called “spaced repetition.”
Without sufficient consolidation, you’re just creating short-term, easily forgettable thoughts. That being said: start studying for finals now, get as much sleep as possible and don’t cram for a test the night before.
Approach studying like it’s an opportunity to learn, not just another ‘thing’ you have to do. Unless you’re still taking general education classes or outside electives, this is your major, your experience.
Yes, it takes up a lot of time. Yes, it can be difficult. No, you probably don’t have time for it. But you signed up for this and you are in this to graduate.
When you look down at your notes, ask yourself why the information is important. Even if it’s complicated or disinterests you, will it be useful in your future career, or help you understand concepts in another class?
It may sound simplistic, but actually wanting to learn a subject, or even just one theory or definition, impacts how quickly you learn information and how well you retain it. So when people say “mind over matter,” it isn’t just an overused cliché. The brain reacts much better when the search to understand something is sincere, not forced.
