The methods in which someone studies is an extremely crucial factor towards the successes of one's future. In this article you will learn ways to effectively study!
In our entire school career, there has to be a point in our lives where we have to study. Studying helps us with retaining important information for an exam or future purposes. Usually, it would take hours, days, or even weeks for us to keep the right amount of information we need for our assessments. However, would it take that long? What studying method would be the most efficient? Based on my experiences with studying, I’m going to share my favorite methods of retaining information and staying productive!
The most well-known form of studying is reading through a textbook or a notebook in one sitting, trying to retain all the information in one night. I grew up with the idea that grades are a really important factor in my life. At a young age, the way I would study is looking at all the information right in front of me and reading all of it repeatedly. I would do this for around an hour or so. Afterward, I would let my mother test me to see if reading everything in one setting was worth it. Now, I wouldn’t recommend this form of studying. Yes, it may work for some people, however, it isn’t the best way in my opinion. An alternative way for this method is to do little study sessions a week or more before the assessment or quiz. It’s better to do smaller sessions since you won’t be exhausted looking through your textbook for an unnecessary amount of hours. Also, doing it throughout the week will help you memorize the material more than just doing it the day or night before.
There is an alternative and effective way of studying besides the method that I’ve previously mentioned. One of my favorite methods is the retrieval practice. It’s similar to studying flashcards, however, it involves a bit of writing in this. First, you would write down questions of important information about the topic that you are currently studying. For example, if I were studying a genetics test, an example of a question that I would write down would be “what does homozygous mean.” After writing a good amount of questions, have a separate sheet of the answers to those questions. The next step is where the studying comes into play. Grab an extra sheet of paper and write down the questions again. After doing so, write down the answers without looking at the answer sheet nor looking it up. This will help test your brain a bit more. After writing down the completed answers, check your answer sheet to see which ones you got right or wrong. If you get anything wrong, keep doing this method until all the answers are correct. For some extra practice, I recommend doing it a few more times, even if you get all of them right. Now, doing this in one setting won’t necessarily help; doing it throughout the week is ideal.
I started doing the retrieval practice a bit more than a year ago. My science teacher has shown the entire class this method and urged all of us to practice it whenever an upcoming test is closing in. Even though I managed to try to get all A’s during my school career, I admit that science isn’t my strongest suit. There are times where I do need a bit of help with it. This studying method helped me tremendously not only in science, but in all of my classes. Not only did it work for me, but it worked for my classmates as well. They mentioned how it became easier to retain information, rather than just going through a textbook for such a long time.
Out of these two study methods that I’ve mentioned, the retrieval practice is the best one in my opinion. It could help any student, no matter the education level or age. In the next article, I’ll mention more study tips that are more towards the fun part!
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