Study Routines

I have to handwrite my notes or I won't pay any attention to them. And with certain things I'll also make flashcards. Especially when it's vocab, concepts, or even people.

As for my one math class? I just kinda go thru the book and do practice problems as well as go through the study guide she provides us.

 

Handwriting notes is always good to do. Even if you don't review them later, you're more likely to remember things if you write them out by hand. For me, it's always worked best if I write out a lot of notes right before a test or something, like the day before. One year I took a summer class that was at night, so I would wake up around noon (I would stay up literally all night, it was just more convenient at the time) and just spend all afternoon writing out notes from the textbook.

 

When I was in school, I preferred the flash card method and occasional YouTube videos. At first I tried re-reading the textbook pages tons of times but couldn't retain anything that way. /: I remember things more by doing rather than reading so it wasn't an effective method at all. YT helps a lot in these cases!

 

I'm really terrible at studying in general. But when I do, one of the most helpful strategies for me is mnemonic devices, especially when I have to do a lot of memorization. Weekly quizzes in Latin mean I need to be able to memorize vocabulary, conjugations, and declensions quickly, and I do that by associating it to English and Spanish. Reviewing after class and going over content with my friends also helps a lot.

 

I never actually studied, when I was in education. I mean, I did the prep work for lessons when it was required, took extensive notes in classes, but otherwise my time was my own. I never did anything extra. School was done in school.

...no, I didn't fail. I actually wound up with a First Class Honours and later a Postgraduate with Merit (I admit I probably could have gotten a Distinction if I'd worked harder as I wasn't that far off one, but then, maybe not) because, I think, of the way I structured my revision. I only studied when it mattered: before exams that would determine my final grade.

When I revised at College and University by myself, I'd start about a month before the exam, and I'd re-write my notes for the entire year over the course of about a week first off...my notes were generally very messy, and the earlier stuff I'd generally forgotten by then. Then I'd condense the neat, re-written notes onto flash cards, which I took with me everywhere. I tended to re-read those four or five times a day and let my mind wander where it would from the key points, then refer to my notes to see if I'd forgotten anything...which I then added to the flash cards, so I could read it over and over. Identifying what I could easily remember and what I couldn't was the first step for me...there's not much point in looking over what you already know, after all. At least, not as often.

Asides from that...practice questions. Over, and over, and OVER. I did Accounting degrees, and with accounting there are layouts and formula to learn, and generally there is only one right answer. That made my life substantially easier in many ways, because I had certainty in my knowledge: this was how it was done, and if I was doing it right, I was doing it right. If I could remember the layout and *generally* where the figures went, I'd won half the battle...I shudder to think, looking back on it, how many questions I probably bluffed my way through. Especially with written questions. Fortunately you could choose which questions you were going to tackle from a selection of them, and more often than not there were practical-type questions with a few short essay questions, or massive multi-part essay questions. I always chose the former because they were easier to get more marks on. xD

That said, I never actively revised after 1pm. One thing I learned is that you can't force yourself to do these things: if you're not interested or not in the mood, your mind wanders and you're basically just staring at the page and doing nothing, because even if you write it down it won't sink in. I am very much a morning person, so I did all my revision in the morning, and just read my flash cards in the afternoon and before bed in between playing video games, posting on forums, and doing the stuff I enjoyed doing. Just to keep it fresh in my mind.

I wasn't going to make myself miserable doing it, even though I was under immense amounts of pressure - my exams were 3 hours long, and on more than one occasion I had two in one day, sometimes back to back, on completely different subjects...this was fortunately not the case in my third year (third years get priority when it comes to timetabling) but my second year was HELL for this. I just tried to be consistent and make what I did actually count, rather than do what I felt I SHOULD be doing and what other people around me were doing.

I did do some group revision in my third year, although I'm not sure how helpful this was...there was a lot of distraction, although going over the harder topics with others - and being a teacher of sorts, as I generally understood a lot of things other people didn't grasp so readily too - helped me to grasp them quicker. The issue I had with that was timetabling...my peers spent the whole day revising, and I was only there for a maximum of 5 hours. More than one pulled an all-nighter the day before the exam in some desperate attempt to cram stuff in.

tl;dr mindful practice, I guess. Like most things, studying cannot be forced, and quality is more important than quantity...an hour of focused studying is better than three hours of sitting there with a book open wishing you were doing something else.

 

I write it down. And then again. And again. Until I'm half dead.
^
The above only applies to Chinese.

Usually, I like to put down facts, and then force myself to remember them using little gimmicks or random relations that I can use to pair facts up or anything else.

 

I only write stuff down if it's something that I think I'll forget. Generally though I think I learn better by listening to something, especially if I can do a puzzle or draw while listening to the lecture or video or whatever. Videos are also really helpful, especially for the American History class that I'm currently taking.

 

If I have the time, I type notes in google docs, then go back and hand write them with a slightly modified corneal notes style. Don't do the summery but when there is information I know I am struggling with, I create questions to go with it

I rarely study though, I never really learned how to and its more difficult with a broader source of info, like SATs

I did not study for my SAT test at all, and it screwed me over in the math portion but otherwise I did pretty decent, somehow

 

My study routine when I was in school was... to not study at all...
I failed a lot of my classes obviously, but I hated school so much that I honestly didn't care.

 

I study best when I write all my notes down and then open up a document and type all my notes. Somehow doing it twice makes it stick better and to really have it ingrained. Using the find tool to instantly go to key terms when I have several pages of notes is also a godsend.