• Highlight or underline your books?
• Test yourself with flash cards?
• Create notes?
• Make an outline of the key topics?
• Reread your books and/or notes?
These are all popular study strategies and exam revision techniques. But how effective are they? And could you do them better?
In their paper, cognitive psychology researchers Miyatsu et al (2018) examined how students can optimise the use of the following five study strategies:
1. Note-taking
2. Rereading
3. Marking (Underlining or highlighting)
4. Outlining
5. Flash cards
Do you have a tendency to write down word for word what the teacher says?
It’s best to summarise or paraphrase the information. Put it in your own words.
Do you prefer to take notes with pen and paper or on a laptop?
Taking notes by hand is best.
Why? Because you can’t write as fast as the teacher speaks, so you’re more likely to capture the information in your own words.
But when students take notes on a laptop they usually can type as fast as the teacher speaks. So what happens is you get a word for word script of what the teacher said. The problem is you don’t remember as much of the information when you take notes this way.
But regardless of whether you take notes by hand or on a laptop …
Don’t let your notes just sit there. Work with them. Transform them into pictures and flash cards. Scribble questions and other ideas all over them.
If I need to commit information to memory, I always do one or more of the following:
• Mind map out my linear style notes
• Put key points onto flash cards
• Transform them into practice tests
Miyatsu et al (2018) state:
“Reviewing is crucial in reaping the full benefits of note-taking.”
Remember, your notes are pretty much useless unless you review them.
I’m not a fan of reading passively.
If I’m reading complex information, I block out distractions (e.g. turn off music and put my phone in another room) and I draw pictures as I read. When I read this way, there’s usually no need to reread.
But if you reread passively (e.g. no drawing), try doing the following to make the ideas stick:
Space out the first and second reading by a few days. Research shows this produces more durable learning.
Before rereading, try doing retrieval practice. Retrieval practice is when you force yourself to bring information to mind (without looking at your books and notes).
Retrieval practice has been identified it as the number one study strategy. Use retrieval practice and you’ll dominate your subject areas.
1. Use a blank piece or paper or a whiteboard to write down all the things you can remember on the topic.
2. Try explaining to a friend, the wall or a pet what you can remember on the topic.
3. Use flash cards to test yourself.
Tip: It’s okay to retrieve the wrong information, just as long as you correct yourself.
So make sure you check to see that you are retrieving the correct information. It’s critical!
This isn’t a good study strategy to use. It gives you a false sense of confidence. You think the information has transferred from the page into your brain, but usually it hasn’t.
But if you really must highlight, you need to exercise some serious restraint with yours pens.
Read a section of the text first to get a sense of the important ideas (no pens allowed). Only after you have read the section are you allowed to underline the key ideas.
Personally, I think it’s more effective to draw pictures in the margins or on a blank sheet of paper as you read.
Please don’t make highlighting or underlining your only study strategy. As the Miyatsu et al (2018) state:
“Marking should not be students’ only preparation method for higher-order assessments.”
You know how your books have a contents page? Outlining is where you create a contents page for a subject.
Do you have a syllabus or unit outline for each of your subjects? If you do, check the unit content section. Boom! That’s your outline.
Don’t have an outline? Create one for a subject/topic. This will give you a sense of the key ideas and how they are structured.
Here’s another way you can do retrieval practice using an outline …
Use your outline to test yourself.
Go through each topic and see how much you can remember (“What do I know about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?”).
Get easily overwhelmed by a long list of topics? No problem!
Simply use a blank piece of paper to cover up the topics. Then proceed through the topics, one by one, shifting the paper down the page as you successfully bring to mind information on each point.
If you use flash cards correctly, this is a great way to do retrieval practice.
Use your flash cards to test yourself.
But here’s the thing: don’t just read the question and then flip and read the answer straight away. Try bringing the information to mind before you flip the card over.
It’s tempting to want to drop a card when you get the answer correct (“I know that!”). But hold onto that card. Keep it in your pile of flash cards. Only drop a card after you have successfully retrieved the correct information at least three times. Remember, the aim is to strengthen the information in your mind so you can easily recall it later on.
While you’re at it, space out your practice. Go through a pile of flash cards and then take a break before practicing them again (my recommendation is to wait at least 24 hours).
Continuously drilling your flash cards is not an effective way to study.
After completing a set of flash cards, go outside and get some fresh air, make yourself a smoothie, etc. Do something good for yourself. Your brain deserves a break.
Note: For learning more complex information, flash cards may not be the best strategy to use. I prefer drawing the information out first and then creating flash cards for key concepts on the mind map.
So there you have it! Various ways to optimise five popular study strategies.
Just remember, if you want to save time and elevate your studies, you are better off using strategies that have been found to be highly effective (click here to read more about highly effective study strategies).
But if you’re in the habit of using the popular strategies mentioned above, that’s okay! Why not make some small tweaks and try adding some more effective strategies into your study routine?
While they may not feel as good and easy as highlighting, they will certainly fast track your studies and boost your performance.
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But if you keep making the same mistakes over and over, it can be demoralising.
In this article, I share 12 common mistakes students make when preparing for exams, and what you can do to avoid making them.
But let me be clear, this article isn’t just for students and it’s not just about exams. It’s for anyone who is up to stuff in life. It’s for anyone who wants to keep learning and growing.
My advice is don’t read this article all in one sitting. Treat it like a practice exam: print it out, put your phone away, and work through 1-3 points at a time. Then, get up and take a fun rest break!
Are you ready to dive in? Let’s go!
Without a doubt, this is where most students go wrong with tests and exams. They don’t give themselves enough time to learn the content properly.
They leave studying until the last minute and try to cram as much information as possible.
First, there are a few things you need to understand about how you learn:
Based on this, start preparing for exams before you feel ready, while you can still think clearly (i.e., you’re not panicking and freaking out).
Not all stress is bad. Stress can be a source of fuel and energy. It can help you focus your mind and swing into action.
But too much stress – the freaking out kind – can mess with your ability to focus and learn. If you’ve reached that point, where you feel like bursting into tears or curling up into the foetal position, you’re experiencing bad stress. You need to stop whatever you’re doing and calm your nervous system.
Start preparing early. The more prepared you are, the calmer you’ll feel and the better you’ll do.
Other strategies you can use to decrease bad stress:
“Be calm and know that you can do this.”
Many students spend all their time leading up to their exams creating beautiful sets of notes. By the time they finish their notes, they’ve run out of time to do practice exams.
Notes can be super handy, but it’s what you do with your notes that really matters. Are you testing yourself with them? Do you create flashcards from your notes and test yourself with those cards?
The best way to ace any exam is to practise pulling information out of your brain. You need to test yourself (i.e., use active recall strategies).
Take it from me, this won’t feel as nice or easy as simply taking notes leading up to an exam. But at least you’ll be grounded in the reality of what you know and what you don’t know.
When your only exam preparation strategy is note taking, you go into the exam with a false sense of confidence (experts call this an ‘Illusion of Competence’).
Sitting tests and exams is also a skill. Whether you do well or not isn’t so much a reflection of your intelligence. It’s more a reflection of your exam technique and how well you have prepared.
Practise in the medium you’re going to be assessed in: do lots of past exam papers (ideally under timed conditions using pen and paper).
Treat it like you’re training for a marathon. At first, you might just do a 30-minute ‘exam’ workout. As you build your strength and stamina, work your way up to 45 minutes, then an hour. Eventually, be brave and attempt the full 2-3 hours.
After wrestling with some exam questions, make sure you check to see how you went (what you got right and wrong). Take note of any gaps in your knowledge, and give that content a bit more time and focused attention.
Distraction is the enemy when it comes to learning. When your attention shifts rapidly from one task to another, you destroy your ability to memorise information.
Multitasking also slows you down (i.e., it take you longer to do your work), whilst speeding up your thinking. Fast and frenetic thinking is the opposite of what you need for deep learning. To deeply understand information, you need slow and deliberate thinking.
Before you sit down to study, deal with distractions from the outset. Put your phone away from your body, on silent in another room. Install an Internet blocker app, such as Cold Turkey or Freedom.
If you use social media, get someone to change the password on your social media accounts so you can’t access them during the exam period.
Do what you need to do to focus your mind for a short, intense burst of study (25-45 minutes).
“Put your phone and other distractions away while studying as this will benefit you in the future … however phones will destroy your future.”
The complex terms, jargon and the text-heavy nature of your syllabus can make it scary to look at. But don’t let those things put you off looking at this document.
Your syllabus is too important to ignore. Referring to this document will help focus your mind and save you hours of time.
Bypass all the jargon and head straight to the unit content section. This section tells you exactly what you’ll be assessed on.
Print this section out so you can easily refer to it without having to go on your computer (and potentially get derailed).
When you start a study session, choose a syllabus point and use an effective study strategy to make it stick (e.g., active recall).
You spent hours re-reading your books, highlighting chunks of information and re-writing your notes before the exam. You can’t understand why you didn’t do better?
I’ll tell you why: you weren’t using effective study strategies.
Swap ineffective ways of studying (e.g., re-reading and highlighting) with effective study strategies, such as active recall.
You can practise active recall in different ways, including testing yourself with a deck of flashcards, doing past exam papers, and teaching a concept to a friend.
You’ve also got dual coding (i.e., using words and pictures to help you learn). I’m a big fan of mind mapping. In fact, I mind mapped my way through my undergraduate degrees in Law and Psychology, and my PhD.
Dual coding is a great way to understand new ideas and how those ideas are connected. But to make those ideas stick, make no mistake: you’ll also need to do active recall practise.
To learn more about how I combine mind mapping and active recall, check out my short online course, Let’s Mind Map!
Entering the exam room (or any important situation) in a chronically sleep deprived state is a terrible idea. Expect to have trouble recalling information and focusing your mind.
Bottom line is: Sleep matters. It matters a lot.
This study found that students who participated in an ‘Eight Hour Sleep Challenge’ and prioritised getting 8 hours of sleep each night leading up to their final exams outperformed those who didn’t take the sleep challenge.
Make getting 8-10 hours of quality sleep a non-negotiable part of your study plan. Plug your phone into charge at least one hour before bed and don’t touch it until you get up the next day.
Remember, sleep is the ultimate performance enhancer. Everything you do, you’ll do better after a good night’s sleep.
“Sleep the night before. Don’t cram.”
By the time you get to your final exam, you’re feeling over it. You’ve lost all motivation to study. You don’t really care how you go. So, you do the bare minimum to prepare. You go in with a plan to … wing it. But winging it isn’t an effective strategy.
If you’re running low in motivation and energy, do little activities to re-energise and feel normal again.
One student shared this piece of great advice that made me laugh:
“Study early, study late, and somewhere in the middle treat yourself to an $11 Medium meatbox from Kebab Lads.”
Perhaps an $11 meat box isn’t the best way for you to restore your energy. But that’s beside the point. The point is you must do things to keep your spirits up during exams.
You’re asking ChatGPT to give you summaries of different topics and create practice exams for you, which you then do on your computer. Perhaps you steer clear of AI, but you type up your notes on your laptop.
The problem is if you’re working at a computer, you’re more likely to get distracted. As soon as it gets boring or difficult, you’ll find yourself running to the fun stuff (e.g., YouTube).
But there’s another big problem that often gets overlooked by schools that invest heavily in EdTech: the Screen Inferiority Effect. Reading on a screen and taking notes using a keyboard are not as effective when it comes to learning as using pen and paper.
As Dr Jared Cooney Horvath writes in his brilliant book The Digital Delusion:
“Learning doesn’t arise from the brain alone, it emerges from the rhythms, movements, and sensations of our entire physical selves.”
Invest in a printer and a big box of A4 paper. Print out your readings, past exam papers, the unit content section of the syllabus, any important emails, and your exam timetable.
By printing out these documents, you’ll shift from passively skimming to active reading. This will allow you to form a deeper understanding and stronger memories of the content.
Students who study in only one location (e.g., at a desk in their bedroom) sometimes struggle to recall information once they get into the exam.
Why would this be?
It’s because information is context-dependent. That means when we study in the same place, our memories become tethered to that environment.
Mix up where you study. You don’t need to abandon your desk, but don’t make it the only place you study.
Do some flashcard practice at the kitchen table, a past exam paper in the library, and explain a concept to a friend outside under a tree. You get bonus points if you can do a past exam paper in the actual exam venue!
When you practise in different settings, you train your brain to be able to recall information anywhere.
Stress is contagious. If you’re hanging around people who are freaking out about exams (saying things like, “I hardly studied! I’m going to fail!”), don’t be surprised if you start to freak out, too.
Before the exam, keep away from people or anything else (e.g., caffeine, too much sugar, and social media) that triggers anxiety in you. It helps to feel calm, steady, and grounded as you walk into the exam room.
After the exam, don’t waste time ruminating about it with your friends. This is a total waste of your time and energy. You can’t change what just happened. What’s done is done!
Instead, shift your focus to what you can control (e.g., taking a fun rest break and preparing for the next exam).
“Get in, do it, and get out!”
I once met a law student who didn’t read the exam question properly. She was visibly distressed as she told me she missed reading the part that said you had to write only two of six essays.
What did she do?
She wrote six essays in three hours.
This may sound extreme, but mistakes like these are all too common.
Read the question carefully. Take your time. It will be time well spent.
As you read the question, look for clue words such as explain, discuss, and compare. These words have different meanings. They determine the approach you need to take to answering the question. Some students find it can help to rewrite the question in a way that makes sense to them.
Not sure what the difference is between the words discuss and explain?
Use effective study strategies, such as dual coding and active recall, to understand and remember the meaning of each clue word.
No one expects you to be perfect at preparing for and sitting exams. Like any skill, this takes practise.
So, what areas could you strengthen? My advice is to focus on just one area.
If you need more sleep, then make getting to bed at a reasonable hour your top priority. If you want to start using more effective study strategies, spend 20 minutes creating a mind map or doing a past exam paper.
A few simple tweaks to your lifestyle and study habits can dramatically improve your ability to focus and learn, as well as how confident you feel walking into your exams.
Before adopting any new technology, the Amish will carefully consider how the device or app could impact their values, community, and way of life.
In these times of rapid change, I believe this is a valuable practice for all of us.
I recently received an email from a company that had developed an AI mind-mapping tool.
The email included a special offer. If I blogged about this AI mind mapping tool, I’d receive a year’s free pro-subscription.
Look, I love free stuff. When I see the word ‘free’, something funny happens in my brain.
I come from a thrifty family who hate waste and excessive consumption. For as long as I can remember, we’ve always received free items from others. Old bikes, broken laptops, and fridges (you name it!): we’d take the stuff, fix it, and use it.
As a family friend used to joke, “If it’s too good to throw away, give it to the Genoveses!”
But as I looked at this offer of a free subscription to mind mapping software, the usual rush of dopamine I’d get when I saw the word ‘FREE’ just wasn’t happening.
I felt nervous and uneasy.
I took a closer look at the website. At first glance, the tool looked quite impressive. You could import text, PDFs, images, and books into it, and the tool would automatically generate a mind map for you within seconds.
The website claimed this was a tool “Empowering 100,000+ thinkers”. It said it could save me time. I could generate and seamlessly edit mind maps. All of this sounded good in theory.
So, why was I having such a strong negative reaction to this new AI tool?
I recently finished reading a book called The Extinction of Experience: Reclaiming Our Humanity in a Digital World.
In this book, author Christine Rosen argues that we are facing a human crisis caused by Big Tech. The widespread adoption of technologies, such as social media, dating apps, and smartphones, has fundamentally altered the human experience — and not for the better.
Interacting with screens all day long and living in virtual worlds that reward us for sharing our most private thoughts has diminished the human experience and left us feeling disconnected.
Rosen argues we run the risk of developing habits of mind and machine-like behaviours that lead us towards an impoverished experience of the world.
In one part of her book, Rosen discusses the decline of skills like handwriting. She states:
“Like species decline, skills decline gradually.”
This sentence made me stop in my tracks. It stood out to me. Why? Because I have felt some of my skills declining in recent years.
So, when I checked out this AI mind mapping tool, I put my Amish cap on and asked myself the following questions:
If I were new to the practice of mind mapping and had only just discovered mind mapping software, things might have been different. I would have had no awareness of what I was missing out on.
But I have been mind mapping by hand, with pen and paper, for over 20 years. I don’t use any fancy apps or software (I never have).
This has been a deliberate choice on my part to preserve and sustain a practice that helps me understand and learn new information in a highly effective way.
I worry that switching from pen and paper to keyboard, mouse, and computer will cause something fundamental to change (and be lost) about my current mind mapping experience and practice.
Before adopting any app or device, you need to get clear on what job you are hiring this piece of technology to do. I use mind mapping to learn and clarify my thinking. Could this mind mapping tool do this for me?
This mind mapping software could produce a mind map for me within seconds. As one student writes in a testimonial on the website:
“I post my own lecture notes to generate a very concentrated mind map for me. I don’t have to spend 3-6 hours writing my own mind maps, which I often can’t do very well.”
Another person leaves a five-star review, “No more messy brainstorming”.
However, all of this completely misses the point of mind mapping.
The process of mind mapping is just as important as the final, often messy, mind map.
When I mind map, I’m not concerned about creating a work of art or saving time (it takes as long as it takes to understand a topic). I want to take my time, settle into the process, and avoid feeling rushed. Mind mapping by hand allows me to do this.
Creating a mind map on a computer screen quickly and outsourcing the job to AI puts me in a speedy, turbocharged frame of mind, which is not conducive to deep learning.
Mind mapping is a practice that forces me to slow down.
This slowing down is super important because the world around me is sending me signals to speed up and go faster and faster! When I’m in turbocharge mode, I’m more likely to get distracted and feel overwhelmed.
I’m trying to resist this frantic pace because I want to do things thoroughly and at my own speed. Watching a mind map get created within seconds isn’t what I want or need. It shifts me into overdrive mode, which makes it much harder to learn.
Mind mapping by hand also allows me to think deeply about ideas and how they are connected. The only way I can see those connections and understand them is by reading through the information, thinking about how I would convey that information as a picture and in mind map form.
When you outsource the process to mind mapping software, you don’t get the same deep understanding as you would if you took the time to do it yourself by hand. It feels superficial. To me, it feels like the McDonald’s of Mind Mapping: fast, convenient, but ultimately, not particularly nourishing for my brain.
Using mind mapping software also bypasses something else that brings me joy and satisfaction: it feels really nice to work with my hands.
As Rosen says, “We have a human need to see, touch and make things with our hands”.
Making a mind map with your hands may not be quick, easy, or convenient, but it provides a very rewarding experience for your brain and soul. Personally, it makes me feel calm, grounded, and more connected to ideas, myself, and the world.
I don’t want to be ignorant or closed-minded. This is why I created a free account with this mind mapping AI tool and attempted to generate three mind maps.
The first mind map was on an article I’d read. The mind map focused on just a small section of the article (conspiracy theories). If I hadn’t read the entire article, I would have missed the important science on this topic.
The second mind map was on creating a meal plan for a trip away. Although the mind map provided some ideas, I was left feeling dissatisfied and uninspired. You can see my hand-drawn mind map on a meal plan, which I created for a family trip, compared to the AI-generated one below.
Which mind map do you prefer?
For the third and final mind map that I tried to create, I entered the following prompt:
“Create a mind map on the book ‘Die with Zero’ by Bill Perkins?”
I encountered this error message:
“System resources have been exhausted. Please try again later.”
Instead of feeling frustrated, I was grateful for this message as it highlighted another problem with using mind mapping software: when the tech goes down or power goes out, you are rendered helpless. It also reminded me of how energy-intensive AI is to run.
I went away and mind mapped this book by hand (I’d just finished reading it and had marked up several ideas). You can see the mind map I created below (it took me approximately 40 minutes to do).
I was curious to see if my mind map would resemble the one the mind mapping software generated. So the next day, I entered the same prompt again. Less than 3 seconds later, a mind map appeared on the screen (you can see it here). Was this a mind map on the same brilliant book I’d just read?
It seemed like AI slop.
I felt disconnected from the ideas. The spirit of the book just wasn’t there! I preferred my own mind map.
There is a freedom in mind mapping by hand, away from screens and without AI. The freedom comes not only from using your hands, brain, and creativity, but also from being able to focus on the task at hand.
It’s all too easy to get distracted when working on a computer. That’s why I have set up a dedicated space in my office, away from screens, where I do my mind mapping practice.
Mind mapping is a sacred practice for me. Doing it on a computer and outsourcing the process feels abstract and detached. I can see and feel what is being lost from the process.
Some tech enthusiasts may label me a “luddite”, but as Rosen says, “not every new thing is an improvement on the old”.
I say, stick with what works. Let’s not overcomplicate something that is simple but highly effective when it comes to learning. Put aside your fear of creating messy mind maps, step away from the screen, and enjoy the experience of making a mind map by hand.
This usually comes with shiny new pens, fresh notebooks and renewed hope and optimism. But I recently heard someone say:
“I can’t believe it’s already the end of January . . . so much has happened. I feel tired.”
Can you relate?
A lot has been happening in the world. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the news, let alone the tsunami of information we’re bombarded with online.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed and tired (like many people are), let’s try to make life a little easier for ourselves. In this article, I share a strategy you can use to make difficult things feel easier to do. I also share how you can apply the strategy to studying challenging subjects.
I remember having a brief conversation with a year 11 student at the start of the pandemic. It went something like this . . .
Me: How are you feeling given the situation (i.e., COVID-19)?
Year 11 Student: Some of us are stressed but not because of COVID. It’s because of what our teachers have just said to us.
Me: What have your teachers been saying to you?
Year 11 Student: They keep saying this year is going to be really hard. The subjects are going to be much, much harder.
Driving home from the talk, I couldn’t stop thinking about what this student had said as well as the worried look in her eyes.
Here’s what happened . . .
I was booked to deliver a presentation to 150 year 10 students. My talk was scheduled for the last period of the school day.
In case you’re not aware, the last period of the school day is not an ideal time slot for a guest speaker. It’s usually a tough gig, as students are tired and they just want to go home.
When I arrived at the venue to set up my gear, I spotted two teachers. I approached them and introduced myself to them as the guest presenter. One of them said in an alarmed, panicky tone:
“Oh! You’re the guest speaker? I need to warn you that these students are a horrible group. They do not warm to guest speakers!”
She continued. . .
“Does your talk have a structure to it? Do you know what you’re talking about? These year 10s are a really hard group to work with!”
I felt my stress levels begin to rise, and by accident, I knocked my glass of water off the stage, and it broke. Glass shattered everywhere. Instead of helping me pick up the glass, the teacher said:
“Look! It’s a sign of things to come!”
At this point, the young IT guy arrived to help connect my laptop to the AV system. He overheard this teacher talking about what a bunch of ratbags these students were. His expression was a combination of shock and horror. He said to her:
“Why are you saying this to our guest presenter? I don’t think it’s helpful.”
The teacher reacted defensively. She blurted out, “She needs to know! It’s important we tell her!” and then she left in a hurry.
I took some deep breaths and continued setting up my stuff.
The students arrived.
I delivered the talk.
The talk went really well. Phew!
It turns out these students weren’t horrible at all. They were a normal group of students who happened to be a bit tired and over it (it didn’t help that it was a boiling hot day).
That day, I learnt an important lesson: Worrying about how difficult something might be doesn’t help. It just uses up your precious brainpower and energy, which you could have spent doing something else (i.e., something more productive).
Whenever I fixate on how hard something will be, I’m filled with fear. Imposter syndrome and self doubt kick in (“Will I be able to do this? What if I fail and it turns out to be a total flop?”). This usually leads to a bad case of avoidance and procrastination.
In the book Make It Stick, Peter Brown explains:
“A fear of failure can poison learning by creating aversions to the kinds of experimentation and risk taking that characterize striving, or by diminishing performance under pressure, as in a test setting.”
If you feel worried that you’re not going to be able to perform well in a subject, this is going to use up a big part of your working memory capacity. Instead of thinking about the content, you’ll be thinking, “Am I going to be able to do this? What if I can’t? Should I drop the subject?”.
In short, you’ll have dramatically less brainpower available for learning.
There’s a simple question I ask myself when something feels hard. And it’s this . . .
How can I make this behaviour easier to do?
Professor BJ Fogg calls this the Breakthrough Question. According to Fogg, there are three ways you can make any behaviour easier to do:
In his book Tiny Habits, Fogg explains:
“Regardless of what your aspiration is, increasing your skills, getting tools and resources, and making the behaviour tiny are what makes things easier to do. . .
Sometimes all you’ll need is the right tool to make a new habit easier to do, like using skinny floss [for flossing teeth], and other times all you have to do is scale the behaviour back to its tiniest version, such as flossing just one tooth. Think of making something easy to do as a pond with three different ways to enter the water. Whether you jump off the dock, wade in at the beach, or drop in from a rope swing, you’ll soon be swimming in the same water.”
In other words, you have options!
There are many things you can do to make studying those ‘hard’ subjects a little easier.
With that in mind, here is a short list of behaviours and ideas that will help you get a better handle on your challenging subjects:
If you can focus better, you can learn and retain more information. If you constantly check your phone, put it on silent and away from your body before you sit down to study. My phone lives in pocket number 1 of a vertical wall hangar in my dining room (well away from my workspace).
Study strategies such as active recall (e.g., flashcards) and dual coding (e.g., mind mapping) are more effective than rereading and highlighting your notes. Like any new skill, they take a little time to get used to, but they’ll save you a lot of time in the long run.
Some textbooks explain ideas better than others. The textbook on your school booklist is not the only one or necessarily the best one out there. You don’t need to feel wedded to it. Check out other study guides and resources.
A good night’s sleep allows you to focus better in class, retain more information and feel better. Make sleep your top priority. Here are some behaviours I engage in to get more and better sleep:
In the evening, I put my phone away in another room to charge (and I don’t touch it until the next day)
I don’t look at any screens at least one hour before bed
I go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time everyday
Create a system to organise your notes, past exam papers and handout sheets. Over time, you may need to tweak and refine your system, but that’s okay. I’ve been tweaking and refining my system for years.
For example, I used to store all my mind maps in an A3 flip file (in no particular order). But when things started to get out of control, I switched to cataloguing them alphabetically.
If you’re confused, don’t suffer in silence. Ask your teacher for help. That’s their job. If you feel shy asking a question in front of the class, approach your teacher after class.
Make life easier for your future self by jotting down key ideas in class. If something is confusing, make a note (you can focus on that in a study session at home). Your memory has limits, and if you don’t write it down, chances are you won’t be able to remember it.
If you feel overwhelmed by the idea of doing several hours of study each day, start with just five minutes. Five minutes of study is infinitely better than doing nothing!
Once you’ve developed the habit of sitting down and studying for 5 minutes, you can ramp it up. But start small.
When you manage to sit down and do a little study, congratulate yourself. Say to yourself, “Good job!” This positive reinforcement makes us feel good, which helps us establish a study habit.
When your teachers say, “This subject is going to be really hard”, I think they’re trying to communicate to you, “You need to sit down and study. You can no longer wing it.” They may be afraid that you’re not taking things seriously.
Instead of worrying, be in action. Pick up some flashcards and start testing yourself. Tidy your desk. File away your notes from today. You’ll feel better and do better if you focus on doing the things that make studying that subject a little bit easier.
