PublicRadar.Com

As a student, I find rereading notes to be a complete bore, and the more I reread, the harder it is to focus. I have found that the best way to deal with studying is to do as follows. My study plan is a modification of Catherine’s plan, posted here. Exactly one week before your exam pull out some blank paper and your notes. Rewrite your entire set of notes on blank or lined paper. For me, this consists of sifting through power point slides and rewriting every word on the slide. This is the first step to making the connections in your brain. This should take two or three hours depending on how fast you write.

On the next night, pull out the notes you rewrote as well as three highlighters (red, yellow and green). Read through your notes, and while reading, highlight your notes in these three colors. Green means that you understand the concept, yellow means that you sort of understand the concept and red means that you are totally lost.

The goal over the next five days is to turn your red items into yellow and eventually into green. The same goes for your yellow items - you want to make them green. The colors help you because it tells you do or do not know. End each study session by reading over your rewritten notes - or the notes you took in class. Remember, you have five days so concentrate on a few items per night. Don’t forget about the green items, you should still read over them: you just do not need to spend as much time one them.

On the day of the exam, gather your rewritten notes and your notes from class. Most of the items on your rewritten notes should be ‘green’. Anything that is not should be reviewed first. Read through your class notes once, as well as your rewritten notes. You should not have to do anything more than that on the day of the exam. Stop studying at least fifteen minutes before the exam, if you do not know it by then; you will not know it on the exam. Give your brain a few minutes rest before you start.

This method works for me, but as always you might need to modify it a bit to suit your own studying needs. A friend once told me about the highlighter tip - and I adapted it to fit my own needs.

Justin

Tags: notes, planning, Reading, studying, time, Work, Writing

Get SkypePro for free local calls

Here are some other related posted by this author...

Three Things To Do Before Taking Exams

Finals - The Dreaded Week

Those Who Worry, Lose Weight

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.