With the upcoming finals, it may be in your best interest to study. However, sitting in a room staring at your notes for an hour can get boring and the most common advice given is get a good breakfast, get good sleep, but that doesn’t really have anything to do with studying. So what is the best way to study?
One way is simply writing down things. Taking note of things that may be interesting or hard to remember. A study actually proved this to be true, not only that, but the study had proven that it had enhanced the students’ memory, language, and imaginary visualization.
As such, another very effective studying method is playing games having to do with what you’re studying. Through the means of Blooket, Quizizz, or Quizlet, simply looking up the topic, or creating your own. A trial had been done with students who received positive scores after doing games in order to study.
If nothing seems to be working, another option may be getting into a study group. A test had been run where 85% of these students had said that this method benefitted their grades. In addition, there is the protégé effect, which means that people learn from teaching others. Though, if you know that talking with others may push you from the goal, this may not be for you.
Similarly is the Feynman Technique, which consists of taking a topic, and teaching it to a young child. A quick method that you can push your younger siblings into. Or there’s the mnemonics method, which is repeating something three times, so it’s engraved in your thinking.
The Leitner System, a complex method that primarily focuses on flashcards. The flashcards are all put into one box and if someone gets them correct, they’d move on to the next box that would be labeled something along the lines of ‘this week’, or ‘this year’. However, the downside is that the Leitner System is widely dispersed throughout time, and isn’t made particularly for a one or two day study.
What can help while studying? Chewing gum has been proven to help. Chewing gum has been said to increase relaxation and attention. Avoid interval studying, or studying a topic without break. Find a way to make it interesting for yourself, if possible space it out.
Taking breaks can be beneficial. They can be short or long, it all depends on what is efficient to said person. As long as the study is efficient, taking an hour break, then studying for ten minutes and never going back may not be the greatest course of action. The breaks can be as simple as watching TV, eating, and so on, and if you’re scared you’ll be off track you may want to set timers.
Another essential thing is the environment. If the environment is terrible, all the bad will be associated with studying, and you won’t want to do it again. Whereas, a calm environment lets you concentrate on what you need to do.
Lastly, distractions are not going to help. Distractions don’t have to be phones, they could be books, or the people around you. Though electronics are a common distraction. Getting away from the distractions or pushing them away is incredibly important in order to focus.