At the beginning of the year, most students say something along the lines of: “I’m going to work harder this year”, or “I’m going to set a goal and improve my grades”. As the first tests approach, they stay true to their words and study twice as much as they used to do, only to score the same grade. Why? Because even though they worked twice as hard, they used inefficient study methods. As Michael Jordan puts it, “You can practice shooting eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way.” Mid-term quizzes are just around the corner, and many students are already beginning to stress about studying well and getting good grades. The key to achieving top grades is effective studying, and this applies to all kinds of tests, from an English mini quiz to the SAT. Here are the top five tips you should keep in mind in order to study efficiently for your exams:
Self-discipline, self-motivation, and resilience
First and foremost, you must have self-discipline, self-motivation, and resilience in order to study effectively. Self-discipline enables you to cut off all distractions that detriment your concentration and allows you to force yourself to sit down and study, essentially preventing procrastination. Self-motivation pushes you to study in order to achieve your dreams, and makes the studying process much more tolerable and enjoyable. Resilience is the ability to accept failure and imperfection. Everyone makes mistakes now and then, but what’s important is not to let those failures take over your life and deter your progress.
Practice
Most students have the misconception that exams test their knowledge, so they spend most of their study time on memory-based activities, repeating or re-reading information over and over until they’ve memorized it. However, exams test how you apply the information you’ve learnt, not whether you remember it or not. This is where practice comes in. Studies done by Douglas Barton and his colleagues show that student performance on a test can be accurately determined through the amount of practice tests they’ve done. That is, the more practice tests you do, the higher you score. If you are not provided with practice tests by your teacher, you can easily search for exercises on your lessons online. Moreover, making mistakes on practice tests help you identify gaps in your knowledge so that you can know which areas to focus on.
Spaced Studying
While it might seem much more convenient and time-saving, cramming all your lessons into one sitting is actually way less effective than spreading out the lessons over a few sessions, even if you study for the same amount of time. For example, a five-hour study session yields worse results than a one-hour study session each day for five days. The latter method is called spaced studying, and research shows that it’s effective because your brain processes and stores information better in short, repeated training sessions.
Study schedule
It’s easy to create a study schedule, but most students can’t stick to it for longer than a few days. The problem lies in how you organize your schedule. Naturally, you would fill it with study sessions for specific subjects, then, after a week or so, you would get bored and throw it away. However, Barton’s research shows that students who achieve top grades actually begin organizing their study timetable by assigning some time every day for their non-academic activities, such as a hobby or a sport, then filling the gaps with study sessions. That way, they’re motivated to study because they also get to do something they love and enjoy.
Imagine yourself explaining to others
John Nestojko, a researcher in psychology, conducted a study where half the participants were told they would be tested on reading material, and the other half were told they will teach it to others. In the end, all the participants were tested, and the results showed that the participants who expected to teach others understood the material better and scored higher on the test. This is because your mindset changes and your brain organizes information in a more “coherent structure” when you’re expecting to teach.