Very often, we see students taking pride in studying for eight hours straight for their upcoming exams. However, what happens when studying doesn’t translate into good grades? The funny thing is that everyone expects you to study efficiently, but you never take a course called, “How to Study Smart.” One is expected to pick up this vital skill on their own. For more than a century, the educational and cognitive psychologists have studied, developed and evaluated numerous studying strategies. Yet, this valuable information doesn’t make its way to students. Time to time, our education system fails to bridge the gap between pedagogical research and its implementation in the classroom.
Today, students are left feeling frustrated, stressed and disappointed when common strategies such as re-reading and highlighting important points fall short. However, it doesn’t have to be that way if you are endowed with research on effective studying strategies.
Here are a few tips on how to study smart for your upcoming exams.
Review Repeatedly
Make sure to review your notes every day after class. This will help you to minimize the study time before the exam. By studying every day you help the brain to store information in the long-term memory. And, those who cram the day before the exam forgets the information they study because the information is stored in the short term memory.
Test Yourself
Testing yourself helps you understand how well you know the concept. Often we feel we know the concept well; it is only when we try to answer a question we find the same concept challenging. One can use online worksheets to test oneself and refer to the solutions provided for it to validate the answers. Regarded as the holy grail of CBSE board exams and competitive exams like JEE, the HC Verma solutions comprises of solutions to the exercise problems provided in the textbook. This equips students with foundational knowledge and problem-solving skills good enough for tackling even the trickiest of questions with ease.
Understanding Is The Key
Most students memorise everything they read without really understanding. This puts them in a difficult place when exams are structured in a way that requires the application of knowledge. This is the reason why students fail in spite of studying hard. Understanding the topics will help you answer any questions that appear in the exam.
Teach someone else
When you teach, you are forced to express information in your own words. So, it becomes necessary to understand the concepts clearly. Teaching deepens our understanding of the subject.
Interactive Learning
You have to identify the kind of learner you are to study efficiently. If visual learning works the best for you, then incorporate diagrams and pictures to your study session. For students who get distracted easily, take breaks during the study session and re-energize. If you learn faster by listening to others, then joining a study group would help you learn better. For example, to understand the changes that occur in the density of water with respect to temperature, one can plot the graph using necessary formulas and fathom out the relationship between the density and temperature.
Take Breaks
Information is retained better when you take breaks during the study session. It is important to give the brain some time to absorb new information. Study for 30 minutes without any distraction and take a break for 10 minutes.
These were a few tips to help you study smarter. Hope this article helps you to study efficiently and score better. For a better understanding electric potential of the concepts with the help of videos, students can subscribe to the BYJU’S YouTube Channel
