There’s an upcoming test tomorrow so you settle down your thinking chair, a mug of coffee as you plan to pull an all-nighter. So you carefully get your book, and turn it the coverage of the exam and you read the first few lines.
After a few sips of powerful coffee, and reading the same chapter over and over again, you find yourself dozing off, and decide to shut your eyes for a few minutes.
But to your horror, you wake up and see that you’ve slept for the whole night and you didn’t even made progress with that chapter you kept on reading.
Ah, fret not! You’re never alone in this kind of situation. Other students have worst dilemma like not being able to concentrate, or can’t effectively cram things inside their head. There are plenty other of issues, it’s horrendous!
But of course, there is always a way to make things better, and things would definitely change for you once you try these things out:
1. Never Cram
There is no such thing as an effective cramming. Sure you get to know a few things or so, but after that it all goes blah. So what’s the point of it anyway?
It’s sure is a short cut, but you tend to get and you will get lost when you forget how the short cut looks like.
2. Manage your time
Why do you cram? Well, there are plenty of reasons, that’s for sure, but one thing is very certain, it all boils down to one thing, Time Management, it’s an essential life skill, learn it and you’ll certainly go far.
3. Practice Interlinking Ideas
Impossible you say? Think about this, every little thing around us is related. Different concepts are like a strand in a web, and the web, well it’s that interlinked concepts that you know about, working in unison to fulfill a purpose, to get your goal.
4. Make Diagrams
It’s always to put ideas and concepts in Diagrams, it makes it all the easier to understand, especially if you’re no fan of reading lots of words.
5. Set up your own Mnemonics
Everybody have their own sort of way of memorizing things, so try to make one of yours.
6. Learn to Visualize
This is very effective in reading processes and concepts, the more you get how things work in a visual level, the better it is to remember.
7. Retell the Story
If you can’t retell how things happen, then you don’t understand it. Focus on the main ideas, then branch out to the specific details.
8. Take notes
Taking down notes is probably one of the best ways to remember what your teachers taught you. If you don’t like taking down notes, doodle them.
9. Put ‘em in a song
If you’re memorizing something, then why not put the tune of your favorite song to it? Songs invades our mind easily, so why not make use of that?
10. Chunking
Don’t just keep on studying large chunks of material in a short time. Give your brain some time to process all the knowledge before you input another one.
11. Always go back to you notes
The more you keep seeing the same things, the more it sticks into your head. Practice on re-reading your notes once in a while, and see the magic unfold.
12. Focus
During your allotted time to study, keep your phones away for the moment, shy away from SNN sites and be more focused on what you need to be reading. It’s hard, but it’s needed.
13. Know your brain’s peak hours
We know ourselves better than anyone, so surely, we also know when our brain is at its most receptive state, make use of that knowledge!
14. Skim and Scan
Look for what you don’t know in your notes and try to review them again and again.
15. Make things Simple
If there’s a complicated idea, chop it down into bits and try to look at every simple aspect that it has.
16. Organize your thoughts
Not everyone is good at organizing, but if you do know how, then use it to categorize all the things you know.
17. Have someone help you
It’s never so bad to get someone tutor you, by admitting your flaws, you get to open yourselves to entirely new things.
18. Pinpoint the cause
Ask yourself why you are having such a hard time. Is it the difficulty in comprehension? Lack of time? Lack of focus?
Pinpoint the source of your misery and find a way to fix it.
19. Improve your study habit
Learn how to have your own style in learning, adjust to your needs and know what time and how long you need to study.
20. Don’t stress on it
Stress could do a lot of damage, and you can avoid stress by following all of the steps above.
21. Sleep!
Our brain needs sleep for it to function properly especially in retrieving memories that you have about that chapter you read.
22. Love what you do
Love what you do, and it’ll love you back, if it doesn’t work, find ways to make it fall for you.
23. Study in Groups
Haven’t you heard that there’s strength in numbers? While studying with someone, or with a group of students may not be every one’s cup of tea.
It still worth a try, you get to brainstorm and share some ideas that you may not be able to think about when you’re alone.
24. Teach others what you know
There’s nothing more effective that sharing what you know about. It gives you a chance to practice the thoughts in your head, but also a way to integrate ideas into one big concept.
25. Gauge your Learning
Yup, since no one knows you better than yourself, then why not test yourself of what you know? Answer tests online, or ask yourself about the things you know about.
