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Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Study Tips: Surviving Finals Edition

Day 2 of Blogmas!

Yesterday I wrote a post about the end of the semester.  Well going off of that, I thought I would share with you some of my study tips and tools. In this post I have included some do and do nots, fun apps, and other study tools.

Do:

  • Use Note cards! They are extremely helpful when it comes to studying for exams.  I go through a significant amount of flash cards each semester.  These help with memorizing information.
  • Study in groups.  This is incredibly helpful.  If you are able to teach somebody else what you know this shows that you actually know what you are talking about.  Teaching others can also help you pin point aspects that you need to spend a little more time studying.  Also, your peers might be able to teach you their study tricks to remember difficult concepts.
  • Start studying now for your exams that are a week or two from now! The more time you spend with the material the better off you will be.
  • Attend review sessions and/or complete study guides if your professors offer them.
  • Re write your notes.  This also helps with memorization.  I like to re write my notes to organize them and color code them in a manner that makes sense to me.  Sometimes during lectures, professors bounce around with topics.  Also, this helps you remember parts of lectures that you tuned out.  
  • Use high lighters.  Color coding information  helps you associate related items together, making memorization that much easier. 

Don't:

  • Study for five hours straight.  Take brain breaks.  Study for an hour and take twenty minutes to do something like browse pinterest, workout, or watch an episode in your favorite TV series.
  • Don't multi task by texting, watching TV, listening to music, hanging out with friends, and studying at the same time.  This is not beneficial to you actually retaining the information you are reviewing. When you are studying, focus all of your attention on studying.
  • Don't just read over your notes.  Be sure to quiz yourself, this helps you identify what topics you need to spend more time studying.
  • Don't pull all nighters.  These will make you more tired for your exam.  If you make it through your exam, chances are you will crash later on when you should be preparing for your next exam.


Do you find yourself easily distracted by all of your social media, music, online shopping, pinterest, etc. when you are trying to study or write a paper.  Well, I have the solution to your problem!  I stumbled across this last semester, and it has helped me complete a significant amount of assignments much more time efficiently.   It is called the self control app.  This app allows you to block websites for however long you need to study or write a paper fo.  This app prevents you from being distracted.  To download it click here. It is free and definitely worth downloading!


These are some of the things that help me out when studying.  What works best for you?

xoxo
mQs

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