Study Hacks For Being A Successful Student
Being a student means the constant fear of tackling exams. For some, the exam season dawning upon them is no less than a nightmare, but some tend to sail through them. Moreover, not all of these people who navigate through the dilemma of giving exams are nerds or are students who are brilliance at par. So, whether you are facing the midterms or the finals even, some study hacks can help you tackle the fear of exams. Instead of taking a shot in the dark, here are some study hacks that you can follow this time around:
1. The Art of Chunking:
Chunking is a term that many psychology students will be familiar with. The chunking theory backed by scientific evidence, says that people tend to remember things when they learn it in small chunks. This is the exact opposite of cramming that we all tend to do during exam time in a panic mode and end up recalling nothing at all.
Chunking depends on the capacity of our working memory and how it tends to turn short term memories into collective long term ones. Take for example phone numbers. Memorizing a 10-digit number isn’t easy but breaking them down into a chunk of three will help you effectively remember it. Make shortlists of the things you wish to retain in an easily recallable sequence next time around.
2. Learn to Let Go of the Forgetting Curve:
As you might have studied, people take in an astounding number of sensory information on a daily basis. Since all the information you take in isn’t necessary, the brain decides on what it ought to retain and let go off. One of the simpler ways the brain maintains specific information is processing it multiple times.
Make sure to review what you have learned in class that particular day and then consider and recall the same. This means taking notes, recording your lectures and reviewing the notes taken in class that particular night before retiring. Reading the notes, you make during your lectures and recalling it every day will help you in the long run.
3. Exercising:
You might be wondering, what’s the use of exercising with study hacks? Well, exercise tends to have a short as well as a long-term effect on your memory. A study found that people engaged in light aerobic exercises were able to recall information in a much better way than the ones not indulged in any physical activity. You need not hit the gym to retain more information or study better. Small lifestyle changes like taking daily walks, cycling or moderate cardio can do the trick. Who says you only need to rely on your course books to score good grades? Go digital and make use of eBooks for the best guidebooks available with discounts.
4. Take Small Breaks:
It’s not possible to study an entire semester’s syllabus with an all-nighter before exams. You will only tire yourself more with back to back all day and night study sessions. It is essential that you take adequate breaks while studying. The human mind has a limit to how long it can keep focus. This time around, pan out a schedule for yourself which includes intermittent breaks. Some hyper-focused small one-hour spurts of study bouts with breaks will tend to be more productive than those long 10-12-hour sessions. Don’t strain your eyes studying for too long. Ensure you have the proper eye care at your disposal.
5. Pretend to be Studying for Someone Else:
As obnoxious as this may sound, this idea tends to work. While taking down notes, think of doing it for someone else, say your friend. You will automatically improve the quality and readability of your penned down notes just because you are doing it for someone else. If you are trying to memorize the lessons and different concepts, pretend that you are the teacher and have to deliver a lecture to teach kids the next day. This helps you retain information more thoroughly and also boost your confidence massively.
6. Read it Out Loud:
Perhaps the most straightforward hack you can come across. As per a 2010 study, reading aloud helps your ability to remember things in a better way. This particular study conducted, looked at differences in the retention of a written material which was both read silently as well as out loud. The study found that people were able to remember the study material read aloud in a far better way than it was read silently. Speaking and hearing word aids in memory retention, giving your brain a new way to remember things.
So, there we have some simple study hacks that you can use to study better. You can try them all and see if any particular hacks work for you or multiple ones for that matter.