By R. Brady
Ever find yourself still awake in the early hours in the morning, trying to cram the last bit of information into your head a few short hours before a big test? These five study tips might fix the problem. Applying these methods to your studying routine might just help those pesky B’s rise to A’s.
- Rewriting your notes. Although this may seem useless and overly time-consuming, making the extra effort to handwrite notes can boost your memory and make retaining information easier. Writing by hand will help you memorize material more than typing can. Another tip is to organize notes by color when handwriting the information; this is especially helpful for visual learners. My favorite method is creating organized study guides that give overviews of the information I need to study for a test. Writing drills the information into my brain, making the studying ultimately faster. Even though creating study guides is a lot of preparation before studying, it pays off when going back through information.
- Flashcards. If notes are too messy or disorganized for you to understand, try making flashcards. Going through flashcards, whether they be online or physical, will reinforce the information. Try quizzing yourself with definition sideup to learn the terms, then flip the cards and quiz yourself with terms sideup. Notecards are especially useful for definitions or translating words in a language class.
- Repeating definitions out loud. This tip sounds silly, but repeating phrases over and over can help you memorize the words. For those who are musically inclined, try setting the words to a beat or song. Again, reading out loud is better than just typing information. This may not work for memorizing all of the information, but choose a few tricky definitions to repeat and memorize.
- Reviewing quizzes and worksheets. If your teacher gives you back previous quizzes before a test, definitely use those quizzes to study. Many of my teachers have used prior test questions on finals in the past, so looking through these quizzes and tests is a great way to review information. Also, looking back through these resources might uncover some details that were forgotten in the many pages of notes. If you don’t have access to quizzes or tests, look through classwork or homework assignments as resources.
- Creating tricks to memorize words. This is especially helpful for memorization, and this method has helped me persevere through many geography tests. I would always use the names or shapes of countries to create tricks to remember on tests. For example, say a country started with the letter G. I might notice that the country resembles the shape of a giraffe. With that, I would remember that the “G” country is the “giraffe” shape, and I would match those up on a test. My friend loves puns, so she always memorizes words by coming up with puns that match the definition. These easy word tricks are fun, simple, and will definitely help you remember words and definitions.
Don’t forget that you can use these five tips in your own creative ways to study. Once, I created a Kahoot quiz using worksheets and notes and then quizzed my friends with it. My go-to study method is writing notes by hand and study guides because it helps me remember information. Studying is different for everyone, however. Try a different hack each time you study and see what works best. By the time finals roll around, you will be a studying genius.
