How to Study Smart, So You Never Cram Again

I spent the greater part of a decade in college… some might think of me as a modern day Tommy Boy.  But I did love school while I attended.  I took the classes I wanted and eventually found the major that made me happy.  All this was not enough though, I was in it to win it, but I was wasting my energy.  Efficiency is everything… by the time I graduated I studied for maybe two exams within a week of taking them.  Here are some tips to increase your efficiency:

Take effective notes while reading.  This includes effective annotation (I have a factoid on annotation while reading) and good notes.  If you follow my annotation instructions you should be able to comprise your notes from in class key idea notes and by jotting down the ‘synopsis’ points on the sides of your reading.

Re-read your notes within 24 hours of taking them.  This is key!!  The retention you gain from this alone is astronomical.  If you up the ante and re-read all your notes each time I’m sure you would become a dictionary… though that kind of knowledge is not everything.

Ask questions when you don’t get it.  What ever your doing you are doing it, your becoming that action… if you paying for schooling that is another bit but remember your time is valuable ASK and CLARIFY.  (asking prof’s also gets you brownie points)

When the date of the exam is posted begin your studying.

Studying should hope fully start about two weeks before.  Use your key idea notes, the ones you read within 24 hours or writing.  Now make sure to read the whole of them.

Here do what ever works best for you, but for me I would go through and anything I didn’t remember I rewrite on another page.  If flash cards work then quiz yourself and remove the ones you got right.  Any way you do it the goal is to quiz your retention, remove what you know from your study, review until there is no pile of ones you didn’t get.

Now you should be able to recite almost everything at a whim, and you still have a week to go.  Use this as an opportunity to relax.  By relax I mean study, but you know it now, take it easy and don’t worry.

The night before the exam you should eat well, eat early, go to bed early and do not under any circumstances worry.  Get a good nights sleep.  All the information is up in your brain, the last thing you want is to cloud it with stress and exhaustion.

The morning of you should dress so you feel and look like a million bucks.  This means that it looks as nice as it feels.  Grab a lucky pen or pencil, one that also makes you feel like a million bucks.  Oh and supposedly people who wear blue or green on test day score higher.

When you walk into the examination know that you have an A, your mind is more powerful on your side than not.

If you can master this form of studying I can almost guarantee you straight A’s and you won’t be studying nearly as much just more often.