In college, I recall pulling consecutive all-nighters. I studied and reread my class notes until 4 am. Unfortunately, this left me exhausted while also leaving me poorly prepared for my final exam. I didn't realise it at the time, but learning methods are more important than learning time. Reading and rereading my class notes was not a good way to study for the exam.
Are you in this situation right now? If so, what are the most effective learning methods? What are the best ways to work smarter and learn more effectively?
1. Practise tests
Practise testing is not like final examinations or state tests. It’s a formative assessment to see what learners know and don’t know.
Here are two ways to test yourself:
1. Hide the answer key and do it alone
or
2. Invite a buddy to quiz you on the topic
This will help you understand what you know and what you don't. In this manner, you may concentrate on what you don't know while practising and testing your way to full mastery of the content.
2. Distributed Practice
How you schedule your study sessions is important. Allow yourself some time to assimilate the knowledge between each study session if you want to truly learn something and keep it in long-term memory. Make sure you plan your study time correctly. Allow at least 24 hours between sessions of study.
3. Self-Explanation
When a learner is urged to explain the concept behind anything they're learning, this is known as self-explanation.
Explaining how something works is supposed to help students apply that principle to future problems.
4. Summarizing
Summarizing material—drawing out the important points—is only as effective as the accuracy and relevance of your summaries.
5. Mnemonics for Keywords
Mnemonics are when you develop a memory aid (such as abbreviations or acronyms) to help you recall a group of concepts. The most famous might be ROYGBIV to remember the colours of the rainbow.
Conclusion
Although rereading and underlining are simple to do, they do not offer the same study benefits as the more moderate and effective learning strategies.
You'll have to do better than rereading if you want to learn anything new and be able to integrate it into your schema and apply it to new situations.
For enhanced retention, try quizzing yourself and separating your study sessions. To gain a better understanding, ask why, explain your responses, and weave old and new content together.
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