study tips

 In my previous blog post, I wrote about the importance of putting yourself in the best possible situation to be successful.  Now that you have put your phone out of reach, let’s discuss the best way to study for an assessment. 

The first myth I would like to expose is that reading over your notes helps you study.  When students go over their notes, they think they know more than they do.  Everything seems familiar, so they can develop false confidence. 

So, what works better?  Old-fashioned flash cards.  Trying to recall the information is a great way to study.  You can go through a deck of flash cards and keep in the deck the concepts that you are having trouble learning.   

When studying your flash cards, try to think of ways the material relates to your day-to-day life.  Any time you can relate the material to something in your life, you have a better chance of recalling the information—and more importantly, an increased understanding of the concept. 

Once you’ve mastered the flash cards, you are now ready to take a practice assessment. As a teacher, I provide all my students with a practice assessment to help them recall information and identify weak areas in their understanding.  If you do not have a formal practice assessment, you can look over your teacher’s drills, objectives, or study outline to test your mastery of the information. 

Finally, take advantage of the spacing effect.  It is best to study 15 minutes per day instead of cramming for 2 hours the day before the test.  While most students believe this is true, they still have a hard time doing it.  One easy way to get this done: When you are with a friend who is in your class, just ask each other what you learned that day in class.  After you are both done, check your notes to see what you missed.  If no friend is around, then do this by yourself. 

In the end, you must trust that keeping your phone out of reach and using these study tips will increase your mastery of the content.  At first, there might only be small gains, but by the end of the year, you should see good results.