Study Techniques:
I would bet that you are not studying anywhere nearly as effectively as you could be. And why should you care? Well, if you study more effectively, you can learn more and retain more in less time. That translates to less time studying, better grades, and more time doing the things you actually enjoy. Let's get to it.
First: active versus passive learning.
The default studying pattern we all employis passive learning. It’s easier, requires less effort, and overallis just more comfortable. Active learning is more challenging, it'sless comfortable, but is ultimately much more effective. There are 4 Steps we must address to actuallyuse active learning. Steps 1 and 2 are about obtaining theinformation, and Steps 3 and 4 are about reviewing and reinforcing the information.
The first Step is to identify what is important. Not all information is created equal. To employ active learning, you must constantly be sorting information and assessing its relative importance.
Second: organize the information.
in a way that you understand. Again, as an active process, this isn't going to be just copying and regurgitating information, instead you are going to be doing the difficult task of synthesizing the information in your own words, in diagrams or in other study aids. For example, I loved creating tables and charts. Let’s say I was comparing macro-minerals, like sodium, potassium and chloride in the GI system. I would take the extra time and effort to extract the relevant information and organize it in a chart format. The process of creating this chart was enough to improve my understanding of the concepts and now I also had an excellent study tool to review at a later date.
Number three: Memorize
You need to memorize the information in inactive way. I'll get to how to do that later. And lastly, apply the information. You can do practice questions from the textbook or online services. Old practice tests or practice quizzes from your professor are also fantastic resources. Next, let's talk about your studying environment. This is an area requiring more personalization, so it's key that you figure out what works best for you. First, the location. Do you prefer coffee shops and libraries, or studying at home? If you’ve seen the video of my workspace, then you understand why I love working at home. Many people do however get easily distracted at home and that is why they prefer the coffee shop or library since helps them focus on the work at hand.
Next, group versus solo studying.
Are you studying by yourself or with other people? My split varied but it was roughly 50/50. Maybe a little bit more time studying solo. In group study the rate of reviewing materialism slower but the main benefit is working through and reinforcing difficult concepts while also keeping you motivated and sane. That being said, groups need to be small. Study with only one or two other people. Groups larger than this have severely diminishing returns because you are going to get distracted and your productivity will plummet. One of the biggest advantages to group study is the ability to teach what you have learned. This teaching reinforces the material for yourself and you also help out your friends and classmates. Now, there is a trade-off between novel stimuli and maintaining a routine. Novel stimuli such as varying your study location.
The routine of waking up at the same time, studying in the same place, etcetera, may facilitate productivity and fight off procrastination. The novel stimuli of studying in new locations and with new people may impede your ability to get into the groove and maintain productivity long term. I found myself studying in usually the same spaces. Either I was in my med school in the empty classrooms, which is when I usually did group study, or I was at home studying solo with my optimal setup.
Now, in terms of timing and pacing, one of my all-time favorite study hacks is the Pomodoro Technique.
Essentially, you focus on one task, study in these 25-minute blocks, take five minute breaks and it sounds very simple but it actually is super effective at fighting procrastination, improving your focus and maintaining endurance.
Let's talk about obtaining the information.
Generally, you're going to be obtaining information in one of two ways either lecture or textbooks. During lecture, most of us follow along withour own copy of the Powerpoint and we just take notes in the comments section. This is a very passive way of learning.
Here are some other options to improve your methods of obtaining information.
First, consider writing versus typing your notes.
Each, of course, has its pros and cons. Typing is faster which sounds great initially, but if you type faster you are able to transcribe what the professor is saying verbatim. That is not good. This is a very passive way of taking notes. By writing, you generally write much slower and therefore you have to emphasize the important information and rephrase and organize it into your own words. Writing in comparison to typing has also been demonstrated to improve recall possibly due to the increased motor coordination required for writing.
But now with the Surface Pro and the iPadPro with Apple Pencil you can get the best of both worlds.
Second, let's talk about lecture versus podcast.
Your school may offer audio or video recordings of your lectures. And for me, this worked best. However, there are of course distinct advantages to attending lectures in person. For lecture, you have this set routine and you're surrounded by other people who are doing the exact same thing. It helps reduce distraction and encourages you to be engaged in the lecture at least more so than if you were listening to a podcast at home. You're also able to ask questions in Realtime. But the podcast on the other hand, gives youth flexibility to watch whenever you want, meaning you can watch the lecture on your own schedule when you're well-rested and feeling fresh. You can also watch it at increased speeds. I personally opted for 1.5x or 2x playback speed. Zoning out with slow speaking lectures was a big and that's why I love the ability to speed up the podcast because it helped keep me engaged and focused.
That being said, be careful of the temptation of podcasting because it requires a great deal of discipline to stay on track and not fall behind. If you are the type of student who would procrastinate with podcasting, do yourself a favor and stick to attending lectures instead.
Okay, now let's talk about re-watching lectures.
This is a total waste of time. I understand the thought process behind it- you want to make sure you didn't miss anything important and you want to reinforce the content. Repetition. The problem is that re-watching lectures is extremely passive, even more so than attending it the first time. Your time is better spent reviewing the information, synthesizing it and doing active learning, questions, flashcards, etcetera. Do not re-watch the lectures or re-listen to recordings. Use your textbook, other resources, your classmates or your professors office hours if you need clarification.
Now, let's move on to textbooks.
I used to highlight the textbooks and read my highlights several times to review prior to exams, but that’s obviously a terribly passive way to study. Reviewing your PowerPoint slides or Word documents is equally ineffective. Instead, make the process as active as you can, even at the time of initial exposure. Using either your computer or notepad, summarize what you read into your own words. By doing this, you are identifying the important information and organizing it in a way that you will understand – this whole process will ultimately drastically improve your recall during test time.
Lastly, let's cover memorization.
Memorization is arguably the toughest part of studying, at least for most students. There are a few different methods you can use to memorize information much faster and much more effectively. First, summary sheets which some people like to call condensed notes. One of the best ways to memorize is to summarize the information. Let's say you have three pages of notes for one lecture. Condense them into one page by organizing and restructuring the information into smaller chunks. And I don't just mean decreasing the font size, adjusting the margins, I mean actually go through and read your notes carefully and extract the highest yield points and rephrase them again into your own words. This process of condensing alone is a form of active learning and it will reinforce the material. But now, you also have this condensed study resource that you can review at a later date.
One of the most powerful ways to memorize information is spaced repetition. We know that repetition is key to memorization. The idea here is that after each review, you can increase the interval between reviews. For example, you are exposed to the information on day zero, then you see it again after 24 hours, then after that another 72 hours, etcetera. Instead of reviewing it every day, you only review it right before you're about to forget. To perform spaced repetition on your own requires a lot of scheduling and it's not feasible. That's why you need to use software like Anki.
I recommend that you make your own flashcards within Anki and review them daily. By making your own cards (versus just taking someone else's), you are again taking advantage of the active learning process. Reviewing your cards daily is also key, because otherwise you won't be taking advantage of the spaced repetition. A big reason why flashcards are so effectives because you're using recall rather than recognition. Recognition shows you the right answer and you tell yourself, "Oh, yeah. I recognize that." Whereas recall requires you to extract the information on the fly which is ultimately more similar to test day. The beautiful thing about flashcards is you don't have to sit down and spend 30 or 60 minutes at once.
Now, these are all of the strategies that I prefer to study which if followed regularly will help you a lot in your academics.
What's your view. Don't forget to write down in the comment section below.
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