What Studying Looks Like
You know you need to study, and you try; you sit down and spend the time, but when it comes to testing, it is as if you didn't study at all. Teachers, parents, and even friends tell you, "You just have to study more" or say, "Maybe you aren't a good test taker." Though those thoughts may be true, what is more likely is that you never learned or put into practice good study habits.
Eventually, all students have to study at some point in their careers if they want to do well at school. Unfortunately, what happens a lot is that students do ineffective study strategies such as rereading the course material or meeting their friends in Starbucks. To no one's surprise, they don't really progress through the material. It's no surprise that many bright students become overwhelmed with school and drop out.
The sad part is that studying doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't have to be so time-consuming and so ineffective. This is what studying should look like:
- Figure out what the test is going to look like and then test yourself in that way
I have often had math students who complete multiple-choice problems to prepare for the test, but if the test isn't multiple choice, this is not going to be very much help. If the test is computational, you need to practice doing the computations.
If you are studying a language and the goal is to be able to speak to people, then you need to practice the phrases and responses out loud. Just doing grammar exercises or watching Netflix isn't going to get your prepared for that conversation.
2. Prepare study materials as you attend or work through the class
This means that you need to read the course material and handouts and make yourself a study guide as you learn the information. When it comes time to study for the test, you should have notes, notecards, Quizlets, or any other way you have decided to condense the information.
This condensed information is what you will use to stave off the forgetting curve.
3. Don't rely on other people's study materials.
Though you might not want to spend the time making flashcards when you can just get a set from the Internet, the act of making these study materials is not wasted. You are studying as you are creating them.
It's even better if you can handwrite them. But please, don't get caught up in rewriting your notes to be aesthetically pleasing. You can always convert your handwritten notes to text very quickly to make them searchable and editable later.
3. Don't reread your textbook
Rereading everything is the least effective way to study. By rereading the material, you will be spending a lot of time with not a lot to show for it. You may feel confident when you go into the test, but coming out of it will be depressing. You will be upset that you spent all of that time studying, yet the exam did not go well. You may even feel like you aren't good enough. This is a cycle of doom.
Once you have read the material once, you should have condensed it into a more manageable form. These condensed notes, study guides, or flashcards are what you should study from. But it is essential that you don't just read them again and again either. You will use them to test yourself on the information.
4. Finally, actually test yourself.
Don't check your notes whenever you are unsure of the answer or what to do next. You should try before checking if you are correct.
For practice problems, it is also crucial that if you solve them wrong, you do 2-3 more problems correctly to make sure that your mistakes are out of your muscle memory.
Want to be a master? Teach someone else. Though you might think that if you are unsure about the material, how you could possibly teach, but actually teaching is a great way to cement the learning. By having to explain it to someone else, you not only need to make sure that you understand, but you will find creative ways to think about the topic.