How do you study?

0mega

I haven't really started much study myself yet, but generally my technique is just doing exam papers over and over.

In after school study, I see some people (mainly girls) basically re-writing the textbook into hardback copies, making it really neat and colourful with a load of different colour pens and I just can't see how that works at all? Why not just re-read the chapter in your book? :P

I find that the Essentials Unfolded books are great too as they have all the crucial material for the exam summarised in about a page and cuts out all the unnecessary filler.

LostBoy101

I haven't really started study efficiently yet. I just build up notes from the textbook and then use them for answers in exam papers (usually do this for Business).

spurious

No two people study in the same way. You have to find out what type of a learner you are - visual, aural, musical, visual/spatial, kinaesthetic etc., and tailor your studying to that.

If you are one type of learner trying to study using methods suited to another style of learner you will be going nowhere and getting frustrated.

0mega

spurious wrote: »

No two people study in the same way. You have to find out what type of a learner you are - visual, aural, musical, visual/spatial, kinaesthetic etc., and tailor your studying to that.

If you are one type of learner trying to study using methods suited to another style of learner you will be going nowhere and getting frustrated.

Interesting, how do you find out which one you are?

spurious

Allowing that this is a free online thing...there are much better, more in-depth ones available, but this will give an idea.

http://www.literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html

Chuchoter

Rewriting the textbook is not how you make notes, coloured pens or not. Neither is reading the chapter, thats also a waste of time unless you have some sort of photographic memory.

The best way to study for most people is make good, concise notes in any form you like (normal linear notes, brainstorms) and doing loads and loads of exam questions. After that you can get creative. I found making loads of colorful posters really helpful and I read all my essays/phrases/quotes out into my ipod and listened to them whenever I had a free moment.

spurious

You are ALWAYS better making your own notes than taking some readymade ones, no matter what the source.

ray2012

I find re-writing (the book basically) a far easier way to study instead of doing exam papers. It just clicks more with me and it kind of gets stuck in my head. I know I could just read the chapter, and it should be less time-consuming and just as good, but it doesn't work for me like that, I NEED to write it down (sometimes word for word) to remember it. And nah, I don't have a photographic memory!

dcam

I generally just read the chapter to get a feel for the material. Then I go back and highlight the bits I want to remember. Then I learn the highlighted bits and repeat them out loud or in my head to test myself. Only then do I turn to exam questions as I find it useless doing exam questions while getting all your answers from the textbook, I need to have them in my head.

D3luka

sit down get rid of your mobile and laptop, and open the books.

bobjimmy

Never mind all this crap of people writing out all these notes from the book with colourful writing. What you need to do is make a list of things to get done each night of the week instead of giving yourself a time for each subject e.g English - Poetry of Slyvia Plath
Maths - 3 Differentiation Qs, Geography - Waterfall Essay etc. What i find works best is going over a topic of a subject and then doing exam questions. You wont get these perfectly right the first time but with practice you,ll find yourself becoming more and more exam prepared. By constantly taking seperate topics and doing questions from them really helps because in most subjects these questions are quite repeittive. Hope this helps.

Eurovisionmad

I find it's a mixture of notes, yeah I do like them somewhat colour coordinated, but only if these notes were condensing down what I had to learn, like for example the Chemistry book is filled with awful waffle and not on the course information, so by boiling it down to a clean readable set of notes I think there are benefits, but I tend to do that way further away from what ever exam I'm writing them for. When it gets down to it, I mostly do exam questions and questions from the book.

But as they say "Different strokes for different folks."

spurious

If you are a visual learner the different colours make a huge difference. Just because one person don't get it doesn't mean noone will.

BobbyPropane

I learn off essays in my head. Thats really how I study. Maths is doing questions though

life after school

As has been said setting yourself things to complete in a given session can be a very effective way of studying.

Make your study plan for a particular session SMART.

S Specific - whether it is a specific chapter or a set of questions - know what you are trying to do.
M Measurable - by making it specific you will know if you did what you set out to do.
A Attainable - no point in asking more of yourself than can be given. That just will leave you demotivated.
R Relevant - no point in covering stuff you don't need to or that you know inside out already.
T Timely - plan has to take account of the time you've available. If you have an hour one day then work with that in mind.


Determining how you best learn ie what type of learner you are is important too as has already been said.

Furthermore, don't forget to evaluate the work you have done every couple of days and assess how a study session went, think about what seemed to work and what did not.

Lastly reward yourself appropriately for the work you put in. Just beware of over indulging and losing track of your goals.

Good luck