I was always one of those kids at school who worked hard and studied hard. Learning different concepts and content came quite easy to me if I was interested in the topic. The important thing is working out a study routine for you that works, and it will often be very different to what works for someone else.
Not everyone is the same when it comes to ways to retain information. It is where the school system lets their students down. Paper and pen is usually the only form of learning. They need to make a better effort to help their student understand the best learning methods for them.
I always achieved very good results with little study. I maximized my time, focused on the important aspects and for the big exams learnt every single little aspect of a module.
At University I learned pretty quickly that having 11 exams in the first semester was a lot to handle. I needed to take on new methods of studying in order to retain the amount of knowledge I needed to pass all those exams.
My starting course numbers had 50 students, by the time I graduated I graduated with 4 other students from my original year course members who started at the same time I did.
How did I do it? And what did I do?
1. Know Where The Marks Are
There is a time to study, a time to rest and a time to go absolutely all-in. When you have 11 exams you have to go all-in. You don’t have another choice. The first thing I did was weigh up all the subjects and how much the exams were worth.
I put the majority of my effort into the subjects where the exams were worth 70% of the overall mark. The exams worth 30% of the overall mark got moved way down the priority list. I still needed 50% in that exam to pass but 50% of 30% is 15% of my total mark and 50% of 70% is 35%. That 50% pass rate was worth 20% more in subjects that were heavily weight towards to exam. Hence they took priority.
2. Learn The Fastest Ways To Retain Knowledge That Works For You
Everyone retains knowledge differently. The most effective way for me was to create my own audio files running through the notes and listening to them on the train to and from University.
I also had a standard highlighting system I used across all my subjects. Pink was for headings, Green was for major subheadings, Orange was for keywords within those subheadings, yellow was for important snippets of general text and blue was for definitions.
Keeping this system standard I could take one look at a piece of paper and know exactly what I was looking at and where I needed to go to find the information I was looking for.
Find the method that works for you, whether it is posters around the house, using different scents for every subject (strange but smell is one of the strongest memory triggers)
3. If You Don’t Know It Now, You’re Never Going To Know It
I heard this countless times before I walked into an exam and I can tell you straight out it is bullshit and often some generic crap assessors say to their students as general chit chat before going into an exam.
You can retain anything you learn outside an examination room in your short term memory. I can’t tell you how many times I read something by chance outside an examination room that I could apply directly to an exam question.
As soon as you get the all clear to start writing, put that answer in first and rely on your stored knowledge from studying for the other questions. Anything you are relying on your short term memory for initially write it down first!
4. Don’t Memorize The Text Book
You are wasting your time if you are trying to learn huge amounts of text and trying to recall it all. Instead of trying to memorize huge chunks of information you need to be able to understand the concept that is trying to be taught and explain it in a different way to what you are reading. Once you understand how something works you are recalling your understand of a concept rather than individual words you have attempted to memorize.
5. Study With One Person Smarter Than You And Another Who Isn’t As Smart As You
Studying with someone smarter than you give you the opportunity to be explained difficult concepts from their point of view and will help you get a better understanding of the problem. Don’t waste huge amounts of time on a problem you can’t work out. Write it down and get help from a lecturer or fellow student at a later time.
Why would you study with someone not as smart as you? If makes YOU explain the situation, if you can teach someone else a concept or problem you are going to remember it better yourself. Don’t waste your time explaining everything to them though. Be smart about it, the concepts that you have absolutely down pat try to avoid going over those. The subjects that you are 50/50 on try to target those together and this will reinforce that knowledge.
Studying smarter is all about utilizing your time and coming up with the best ways to retain as much knowledge as possible in a short amount of time. If possible avoid cramming but as I found out if you have 11 exams you will often be cramming for the ones you have put at the bottom of the priority list.
Be smart! Work hard! Get those results.
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