Thursday 7 August 2014

Study Tips on How to Study Effectively and Pass Your Exams

Over the years I have seen students struggle with their exams because they do not know how to study effectively. It's not that they are in any way less intelligent than another student that achieves higher grades than them. The only reason is that they do not have effective study strategies. Effective study strategies not only will let you study less but will also help you learn more.

The problem with traditional memorization techniques is that you are focusing on memorizing new information without making any connective between the new information going in and the old information - the stuff you already know!

Wouldn't you like an easier faster more efficient way to study for your exams and to get better grades?
Yes!

Well stay tuned. I'll guide you through the best study tips and revision strategies that I have learned over the years. 

An old student of mine - Terry Scott - put my study techniques to good use and he's wrote a very detailed a comprehensive series on how to study effectively. I highly recommend that you get it. It's called Learn More - Study Less.
how to study effetively learn more

Before You begin to Study Tips

However, as the saying goes "Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail!" - before you can learn how to study effectively you have to be prepared.

Step One - Go Talk!: Go talk to your professor or teacher. Ask them for their advice on what topics you should be studying for your exams. You might find out that what you thought you should be studying or concentrating on might not be that important after all. Ensure you book your professors or teachers time in advance with them, as they may have prior engagements. If it's a large end of year exam, you should bring a notepad and pen with you to note anything they may have to tell you, otherwise you may forget important points they told you later.

Step Two - Time Plan: Now that you have been given the expert opinion by your professor, find somewhere quiet to sit down with a pen and paper, your diary or planning calendar. Hopefully you are not reading this the day before the exam and you have some time left to study. Calculate how many days you have left until the exam. For those days block out study hours on each day. Keep in mind that you cannot study all day every day and that you need to leave time for eating, sleeping, school / college, sports etc. Never block out more than 3 hours at a time, and always leave a gap of 10 minutes for each hour. That means that each study block is no more than 3.5 hours long. The 10 minute gaps are for rest, toilet and refreshment breaks between each hour. A total study day will have no more than 7 hours in it - 2 maximum study blocks. Try to leave 1 hour between these blocks for a meal. I'll have more about creating your detailed study plan and a nutrition guide in a later post or newsletter.

Step Three - Agenda Plan: From what you already know and from what your teacher or professor has told you, you need to now make an agenda for what you are going to study. For each subject make a list of chapters etc that you to know. Now match this agenda to your time plan. This can be tricky if you do not have enough time to cover everything, but it also forces you to consider what are the most important topics that you are going to learn, memorize and revise.
The matched Time & Agenda Plan is the most important thing preparation material you now have. Do not let distractions creep into it. Again I'll have more tips at a later date about getting rid of those pesky distractions - such a Facebook, phone calls, friends, pets etc.....

Step Four - Clear your mind: Don't think about what grade you are going to achieve, do not worry about what other people are studying or how they are studying, they may be telling you they are studying all night long and not sleeping ... DO NOT take this approach, it doesn't work.

Step Five - Find a Quiet Spot: Find the right spot with little or no distractions. A well lit room with plenty of ventilation is ideal.

Step Six - Begin: Begin to study. Enjoy it. Eat well, drink plenty of water (not coffee or redbull!) . As I said before in the Time Plan, take breaks and keep your body active. If all has gone well at the end of the day, you can reward yourself by going to your favorite restaurant or to the cinema.... stay tuned for more effective study techniques that go into memorization details. If you can't wait, as I said I highly recommend that you take a look at Scott Young's  - Learn More, Study Less - The Holistic Learning Ninja edition.






4 comments:

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  3. Thanks a lot for sharing these study tips on how to study effectively and pass the Exams. Indeed all these tips will be quite useful for me as I am going to take LSAT soon and was not able to start studying in proper way. Now I am definitely going to follow all these tips.

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