Study Techniques

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How to Study

Manage Your Time

Make

a weekly schedule and devote a certain amount of time per day to

studying.

Make

sure you stick to your schedule as much as possible. Make sure this

study plan is realistic and not impossible.

Pace

yourself.

Find

the best speed for you to study and adjust accordingly. Some

concepts or classes will come to you more naturally, so you can

study those more quickly. Other things may take you twice as long.

Take the time you need and study at the pace you feel comfortable.

If you study more slowly, remember that you will need more time to

study.

Using

Effective Study Techniques

Use

SQ3R.

SQ3R

is a study method that involves active reading to help you

comprehend and start learning the material. The method gets you to

preview the material and actively read so you are more prepared when

you read a chapter or article.

Start with Survey, which

means to glance through the chapter to look for tables, figures,

headings, and any bolded words.

Then Question by making each

heading into a question.

Read the chapter while trying

to answer the questions you made from the section headings.

Recite the answers to the

questions verbally and any important information you remember from

the chapter.

Review

the chapter to make sure you include all the main ideas. Then think

about why this is important.

Research has shown that reviewing new

material within 24 hours of hearing it increases your retention of

that material by about 60%. If you want to significantly reduce the

time necessary to prepare for exams, this is the way to do it.

Use the THIEVES strategy.

When

you are beginning to study a new chapter, it will make the

information it contains much more meaningful and easier to learn if

you preview the chapter using THIEVES.

Start with the title. What does

the title tell you about the selection/article/chapter? What do you

already know about the topic? What should you think about while

reading? This will help you frame your reading.

Move to the introduction.

What does the introduction tell you about the reading?

Scan the headings and subheadings.

What do these headings and subheadings tell you about what you will

be reading? Turn each heading and subheading into a question to

help guide your reading.

Read the first sentence of every

paragraph. These are generally topic sentences and help you

think about what the paragraphs will be about.

Look at the visuals and vocabulary.

This includes tables, graphs, and charts. More importantly, look at

the bolded, italicized, and underlined words, words or paragraphs

of a different colour, and numerical lists.

Read the end of chapter questions.

What concepts should you know by the time you finish reading the

chapter? Keep these questions in mind as you read.

Look

at the chapter

summary

to get a good idea of what the chapter is about before going on to

read the chapter as a whole.

Remember

to concentrate upon understanding.

Don't simply read through the words. Any words which you don't

understand you should look up.

Highlight important

details

Use

a highlighter or underline the most important points in the body of

the text, so that you can spot them more easily when you review the

material.

Don't highlight

everything – that defeats the purpose. Instead, only highlight the

most important phrases and words.

It

also helps to make notes in pencil in the margin in your own words

to summarize or comment on important points.

You can also read just these portions in

order to quickly review the material you have learned while it is

still fresh in your memory, and help the main points to sink in.

If the textbook belongs to the school, then

you can use highlighted sticky notes, or a regular sticky note

beside the sentence or paragraph. Jot your notes on a sticky note

and paste it beside the paragraph.

It's also a good way to periodically review

in this manner to keep the main points of what you have already

learned fresh in your mind if you need to remember a large amount

of material for a longer period.

Summarize or outline

the material

One

good way to study is to write the material in your notes and in the

textbook in your own words. That way you can think about it in your

own terms instead of textbook language.

If you have enough privacy, it also helps to

recite your summaries aloud in order to involve more senses.

If you're having trouble summarizing the

material so that it sticks in your head, try teaching it to someone

else. Pretend you're teaching it to someone who doesn't know

anything about the topic.

When making summaries, use different colours.

The brain remembers information more easily when it is

associated with colour.

Make Flash Cards This

is usually done with index cards. Place a question, term, or idea on

one side and have the other side contain the answer. These are

convenient because you can carry them around with you and study them

when you are waiting for the bus, for class to start, or have a few

down moments. Keep quizzing yourself until you get all the answers

right reliably. Remember:

"Repetition is the mother of skill."

Break things into

smaller parts

One

way to study is to break things into smaller sections. This helps

you learn the information bit by bit instead of trying to understand

everything at once. You can group things by topic, keywords, or any

other method that makes sense to you. The key is to lessen how much

information you learn at one time so you can focus on learning that

material before moving on.

Make a study sheet

Try to condense the information you will need

into one sheet, or two if absolutely necessary. Bring it around with

you and look at it whenever you have downtime during the days

leading up to the test. Take your notes and the chapters and

organize it into related topics and pull out the most important

concepts.