Study Tips



Well, I've always wanted to write something like this but I never thought I was qualified to do so. 
In reality, however, there is no such thing as being qualified to give study tips. I mean if you passed through the stage and found something that helped you succeed in a certain area, then you're more than qualified. Even if it only worked for a little bit.
It's nearing the end of the month and I don't have any posts planned. I wanted to try writing a short story for the next post, but I've changed my mind about how to approach it.
Since school will start soon as well / just started, I can't think of a better time than now to upload this. 

Over the years, I've watched countless videos and read countless pages online about studying, especially tips on studying, so my brain is pretty much cluttered with study-related content - 60% of them were probably never attempted. 
I'll try to keep what I say short and to-the-point, but I'll write from memory and try to give examples of subjects/ situations the tips could work.

Note: I pretty much did the British curriculum all my life - so at high school. And currently, at University, I'm doing a Problem-based curriculum (PBL) which is very different from the school curriculum so I had to adapt my study style a bit.

I've decided to first do tips specific to the school/ British curriculum. Then I'll write about general study techniques. 

Right, so first tips and then techniques.

Let's get on to the tips...

  1. Know your specification
This might sound like it's very specific to the British curriculum, but it works for others as well.
  • Basically, know what you need to know. Usually, at school, there is a syllabus; a list of things you need to know. To familiarize yourself with the list so that when you come across something, you can be like, "ah, I need to know this. I'll highlight it".
  • This is one of the frustrating things about my University curriculum - this step doesn't exist. I don't have a list of things I need to know so I'm basically running around like a headless chicken half the time.

  1. Know the basics
  • Literally, you can do this before the first step if you want but it is better to do it after the first step.
  • So once you've seen what you're gonna learn, do some research and revise what you've previously learned that is linked. 
  • For example, at A levels, year 13 is obviously a step up from year 12 so before going into year 13, you should revise everything you learned in year 12 and make sure you actually understand it before you add on new knowledge.

  1. Be organized from the start
  • I kid you not if you don't have some sort of organization system from the beginning, you will literally be a complete mess. There are a lot of things you need to keep track of such as notes, revision resources, class stuff, etc.. so you need some sort of filing system to sort it all out.
  • If you're unsure of a filing system, then you can look up organization videos on Youtube. There are tons I've watched before but it'll be hard for me to find the specific ones, so do some research. Increase the YouTube video speed to either 1.5x or 2x to get through them quicker, just to get a general idea. You can also turn on subtitles if you don't understand what they're saying.

  1. Spend your time wisely
  • This is obviously a general thing but especially at A levels. If you know you are someone that struggles A LOT, then you can't afford to waste any time.
  • So even if you have a free period at school or if you're done eating during lunch for example, and you feel focused enough, you can use the extra time to revise something or do your homework. It'll obviously lessen the work you'll do at home and you can ask the teachers at school then if you get stuck - you can immediately get extra help from the teachers.

  1. Have a good relationship with your teachers
  • This is self-explanatory. But this is important because they'll be writing recommendation letters and probably predicted grades for you for University, so have a decent relationship with them at least.
  • I'm not saying suck up to them. I never did that but I was a quiet person who just stuck to what they had to do and was overall a good student. That in itself is an okay thing to do because they'll at least have positive things to write about you.

  1. Always ask questions
  • Always asking your teachers questions will also help with building a good relationship. You'll be viewed as a hardworking person and will improve.
  • So don't hesitate to ask questions in class, if you have any. And always participate too.

  • Points 5 and 6 may look different for online lessons. So you could be the first to enter the online class and you could use that time to have a general conversation with your teacher OR  ask questions. That should still sufficiently place you in their good books.

  1. Avoid drama & choose your friends wisely
  • There really isn't anything to explain here.
  • Drama isn't worth your time and energy. And you need friends who will support and encourage you, so choose wisely. You can always socialize with a bunch of different groups in the first few weeks before choosing. (This will be difficult during online classes but you can always find a way)

  1. Do practice questions
  • Everyone literally says it, and it is the ULTIMATE thing you need to do.
  • This again is why University frustrates me. We have no practice questions so I can't test myself to see where I need to focus on. So I'm literally going into the exam with no clue what my level of knowledge is and I'm just there like, "welp, whatever happens, happens".
  • So if you have access to past questions/practice exams, DO THEM. You are privileged enough to have them, so USE THEM.

  1. Keep your hobbies & Take care of yourself
  • Don't do what I did and give up on your hobbies. You literally need them when applying for University so giving ALL of them up is just stupid. And now I find myself trying to get back into some of them, but it seems futile now (I have to relearn it all and it no longer seems fun - more like a chore).
  • And take care of yourself. Don't compromise your mental and physical health for the sake of getting an A. Obviously, this isn't a piece of advice I followed OR even currently follow, BUT I hope you follow it. 
  • Be the better person between the two of us.

  1. Summary
  • Do past papers
  • Use YouTube to help understand the content
  • Make time for yourself to recuperate
  • Stay organized
  • Use your time wisely


Now, I shall go on to study techniques. 
There are SO MANY study techniques out there, so I will try to tell you as much as I can remember.

1. Mind Mapping -  a lot of people will know what this is but if you don't then I'll try to explain. Basically, mind mapping is like a short visual/illustrative way to summarize. So rather than summarizing by taking notes, you make some sort of spider diagram that links key ideas together. So when you look at it, you can have a general overview of what is going on and be able to activate deeper knowledge. Using a mind map will also enable you to link different information together and to make associations between the content you learn.

2. Flashcards - some people use this to write a term on one side and the definition on the other side. And some just write key paragraphs or formulas you want to memorize. But like the name implies, it's just a card that contains bitesize information that you can go through in a flash..ignore what I just did.

3. Note-taking - pretty self-explanatory, however, there are different methods to notetaking. You can do some research to find the best style for you, but note-taking is almost like summarising but with more detail. It's basically putting down the main things you need to know from the textbook in your own words - fully explained.

4. Blurting - this is a technique I got from a StudyTuber (I'll put her name at the end of the blog). This only works for some subjects but you basically, just like the name says, blurt out everything you know. So you get a blank piece of paper and write out everything you know from memory then you can later use your notes to fill in the gap of things you missed.

5. Create tables & diagrams & illustrations - using tables and diagrams will help you learn things faster since it'll be organized in a format. Illustrations and images, especially funny ones, will help you associate the content with something strange so it'll be easier to remember.

6. Mnemonics & Acronyms - It's a way to memorize things. An acronym for example would be PEMDAS / BODMAS / BIDMAS which is used to remember the order of operations in maths. So PEMDAS = Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction. So rather than having to try to remember the individual order, just learn PEMDAS. And a mnemonic would be like the opposite, so using a phrase in which the first letter means something so for example in maths to learn the other of operations, some people use Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally aka PEMDAS. It's different for everyone so people change the words to something they can remember well.

7. Create a story/song - this only works for some people. Basically, in order to learn something, you can create a story/scenario out of it. Or you can create a song. So back in school (about 3 yrs ago), my friend and I made a song to learn how the process of plant fertilization works. I still remember the beginning part of the song briefly. Back then, it was really helpful because we just had to sing the song to remember what was going on.

8. Active recall - basically testing yourself. Doing questions and things. Learning in a way in which you have to actively retrieve information. On the other hand, passive recall is just learning by reading notes or watching videos or listening to something.. you don't need to retrieve anything. Active recall is more effective, however, I'd say do passive recall until you know the material and then do active recall occasionally. I think they are both beneficial.

9. Spaced repetition - basically space out how often you review things. This will help to combat the forgetting curve. There's a StudyTuber I watched back in high school that explained this really well, and I honestly think I should implement this at University now too. I'll mention his name at the end of this blog. But essentially you review the material for example, after one day, then 3 days, then a week, etc.. so you review the information at increasing intervals up until the exam date. And you also test yourself too, so active recall, whenever you are reviewing the information.

10. Study in different places - I'm not sure if this works on me but people have said that studying the same thing in different locations will help you make associations and so you can learn in better. So depending on what stage of schooling you are, different locations could be at the school library or your house or at a cafe outside. I'm not sure this works on me but you could try it.

11. Say it out loud - almost like teaching the topic to someone else. But if you say it out loud, then apparently you can retain more of the information you learn. I use this occasionally and it helps me focus and understand what I'm learning.

12. Use colours - also use different fonts/heading styles, etc.. This draws your attention to the important information and it helps you process the material well. For me, I won't say I have a photographic memory BUT sometimes I can picture the setting of a place and the textbook to try to retrieve the information I read. This works if I've read the information from the source multiple times. So sometimes colours help me with that. I can picture a certain colour and try to retrieve everything associated with that colour in my head. This depends on how well I encode the information.

13. Mind palace - I've heard about this from multiple sources, to be honest. Once from a friend (who will probably read this and get excited I mentioned them) and other times from StudyTubers and the internet. I can't explain this well because I've never actually used it properly. It is also called Memory palace or Method of loci. I'll provide some links at the end of this blog rather than try to explain this BUT I think the general idea is associating locations/objects in your house to memorize a certain thing. Mind palace doesn't work for me but you can try it.
This is also related to something else I use, but I'm not sure what the technique is called. What I use is completely different.. but..
So I use objects that I'll have with me in an exam to memorize information so like pens or my fingers for example. I used this recently at University to learn something related to the nervous system and the brain. So finger could be a motor neuron and the individual finger lines (no clue what the scientific term is), could be the different parts like dendrites, axons, etc..

14. Learn information from general to specific - this is somewhat self-explanatory. So learn general concepts and definitions of things before learning the specific applications etc. So using school again as an example. At some point, we learned basically that the mitochondria were the powerhouse of the cell and that the chloroplast absorbs sunlight - something like that. However, at an advanced level, bruh all that shit was thrown to the dogs. All of a sudden, these organelles became special.  So with mitochondria for example, at first we generally learned that it is used in respiration. And we learned the formula. Then the specific information became the conversion of different I dunno, proteins, or whatnot. I can no longer recall anything but if you're doing biology-related things at a higher level then you'll know what I mean.

15. Self-monitoring - this is a general thing that encompasses all. It's not a specific technique but it is more of like an organization tool. Essentially, you should self-monitor your learning. You should track what you're doing, so be aware of what you know and don't know and track the study materials you've made, etc.. I explain how I used self-monitoring a little bit down below. But like the name suggests, just monitor yourself - keep track of your learning.

In general, in order for any of these to work, you need to self-monitor your learning. I tried to do this in high school and now in my second year of university, I plan to try this again. But it will look different for everyone.

So back in high school, my self-monitoring would look like.. tracking how well I did in homework, checking if I understood things at the end of class, tracking my practice paper grades, etc.. I did all of this on a spreadsheet. You can also input deadlines and test dates to know what you're working towards. So essentially, you just track your progress.
If you track your progress, then nothing should come to you by surprises especially your grades in the end. Because when you're tracking, you'll know what you want to achieve and you'll be honest when writing how you feel about topics. So you will FOR SURE know what you're confident with and what you're not confident with.

I didn't do this in my first year of university because I wanted to see how things will pan out since the curriculum is different. Now in my second year, I'm determined to improve my average so I'm picking this up. 
Like I mentioned earlier, a problem now with university is that there are no practice papers or anything to use to test my knowledge before the real exam so I've decided to make a couple of questions for myself and test that way. And I'll track my knowledge based on how confident I am with the material in class, and after I review it later. One thing I realized at University is that I need to keep reviewing shit. Like literally I'd be so busy with going along that I don't get to review the first things I learned until like 2 days before the exam. That's just how my system is, really shit to be honest, but now I'll have to make sure I try to frequently review stuff. I'll see how that goes - I made a spreadsheet to track and stuff but it seems like it'll be tedious to keep up with it. Hopefully, I do keep up with it though haha.

Anyway, I'll include some random links I find and the names of study-related people below. 
If you've read up to this point, then I'll tell you one more thing. 

So basically yeah, I felt like I was way on my way to failing A level Biology at the beginning of 2019 - well not failing but borderline passing. 
Right, so I was gonna fail but I resat an exam and happened to get full marks in it - honestly, that is what saved me. I ended up with grade B overall at the end which was a huge jump from what it was and I'm fine with it. 

You're probably wondering, 'how did you achieve that?'
Well, 2 things:
  • Know your shit.
  • Consume practice papers.
So the first thing I did was to make sure I knew my shit. Because I know myself. 
If I understand something to the point where I can say it in my sleep, then there's no way I can be tricked. So I used the specification of course and made sure I knew EVERYTHING on the textbook. I used the section of the textbooks that corresponded to the specification and literally ate that shit up. 
At some point, I felt like I was wasting time, to be honest. But I flipped through every single page. Reread it all and summarised it into a booklet. Yes, I made a fricking booklet out of it. So once I had my booklet, I discarded the textbook because you shouldn't be going back to the textbooks once you've summarised things. Then for a few days, I flipped through my textbooks and began to learn things. I learned what I could, I understand what I could, and I memorized.

Then I moved on to my next staple food - past papers. I did as much past papers as I could find for my exam board, even if it wasn't specific to my track. So the ones that weren't specific to my track, I used those to test my knowledge. And the ones specific to my track, I also printed out the marking schemes and analyzed it. 
One thing with the British curriculum - GCSEs and A levels but especially A levels - is that if you don't write the way the examiner wants, then goodbye to you. 
So you need to rewire your brain into the way the examiner thinks. So as I solved things, I learned what the mark scheme says. I saw patterns in questions and made a note to give those answers whenever I came across similar questions.
So together with my knowledge and the exam techniques I learned, I was able to achieve what I thought to be impossible / a miracle. And like honestly in the exam yeah, I approached questions with the examiners' mindset. So I gave myself points for things I thought the examiner would give and I changed my answers according to that.

Anyway, I'd say the main thing is that you know your shit. But this depends on the person. I saw some people that focused on just past papers and did well, so you should know yourself. However, for me personally, 'knowing my shit ' was the main thing. 

Anyhow, I hope that helped whoever needed it. Obviously, only use what will help you and discard the rest. Do not feel the need to use all the tips and techniques.
And of course, feel free to ask me questions and whatnot - I'll do my best to help you!

"Push yourself, because no one else is going to do it for you."

Never forget that you're loved💖

Stay safe! Wear a mask! Sanitize! And practice social distancing, please!

- By Teenagehood Misfits 💙



Reference List (includes extra links + the things I mentioned I'll reference earlier):

Extra random link:

Mind/ Memory palace links -




Not a link but back in high school, I watched a lot of StudyTubers - basically the niche of people on YouTube that cover study-related videos. A lot of them are at University now but if you search study-related videos on YouTube, then you're bound to come across them. A few I watched were UnJaded Jade (I learned about the blurting technique from her), Jack Edwards, Ali Abdaal (he explained active recall and spaced repetition really well), Eve Cornwell, Viola Helen, Eve Bennett, Ruby Granger, etc... They are a community, that keeps growing day by day so if you discover one of them, then you're bound to discover the rest. 
There are also specific subject channels - I can remember that for A level Biology, I particularly found the channel 'Dr. Bhavsar Biology' to be the most useful thing ever.


That's it from me!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to Teenagehood Misfits

Have you ever wondered what goes on in the minds of teenagers? Have you ever wanted or needed advice from teenagers alike? Have you ever been intrigued by the way others act?  Or if you're interested just knowing a bit about someone else's life then welcome! I'm a teenager myself and I want to share a few things I've experienced so far. I've been wanting to start a blog for a while now so a majority of my posts will be past things I've written. I will also give my advice on how to handle certain situations. A majority would be school related of course, as my life more or less revolves around school and God. I'm a pessimistic sort of person but I know and occasionally look to the optimistic side. Please leave a comment below on anything you might be interested in learning or knowing about! I'll do my best to get back to you on time :) "Sometimes all you can do is not think, not wonder, not imagine, not obsess. Just breathe and have fai...
Read more

Echoes of an Advocate #5

Image
Analyzing my unfinished poems Hey there,  As you can see from the title, I found a couple of unfinished pieces of poetry. Sometimes I end up writing a few lines or just a stanza. I read through some of them and chuckled because I felt like I got into the mind of the person aka me then and it was amusing. So, I've decided to share :D The way I'm gonna structure it is by writing out the poem with the date. And underneath I'll attempt to analyze it or try to figure out what was going on in my head. Or basically, just give a commentary. Before I go on, I just wanted to say that I do have a couple of things pla...
Read more

Why do people lie?

Image
Hello and welcome back! To commence with the first sort of episode in this blog series, I'll start by illustrating my thoughts and findings on a question posed by a friend. This was a question a friend asked on their status once and it got me thinking. I felt compelled to reply and I thought I'd share what I said and why. I'm going to insert exactly how the conversation went.  (I'll also ask a couple of friends and share their responses with you :) This is how it all started. Friend on status: Why do people lie Me: Because people are dumb and don't deserve to be humans  Friend: I like dat Friend: Can I put this on my status Me: Sure Me: Liars ain't humans Me: They're flipping animals. Friend: Don't  u lie Me: Nope Friend: Okay.... how Me: Uh... just tell the truth Me:  Maybe to parents, not the WHOLE truth but I don't lie Me: Just be honest Friend: Sounds so simple Me: Basically if you ...
Read more