Revision Tips – Guest Article

There is nothing more frustrating than reading pages and pages of material which has taken you hours to write up and having no recollection of what you have written.

Study Tips (Photo credit: Surminga)

I can relate to the feeling, having gone through loads of materials during my secondary school years and only remembering a small percentage of it. It is not the ideal situation you want to find yourself in before those large exams!

Over the years throughout my school life – I have devised an effective studying method and have been able to fully utilise these methods. Having analysed the way I study, I came to realise effective methods of studying that works.

And here is how I do my revision, it may not benefit you but you might relate to my style of studying.

1 – Don’t Use A Highlighter

We all used it at one point in our lives for studying but the first point to effective study is to ditch the highlighter. This is because even you used it, it will not help you to memorize anything. In fact, it only creates the illusion that you had gone through your work. Highlighting only makes you think that you are studying and working hard but that is all to it.

The moment you highlighted your text, your brain creates the perception that the material has already been read but the reality of it is that you have actually switch off your mind unknowingly.

2 – Don’t write and draw on your notes and books

Imagine looking for a particular item in a messy room, it will probably take you a little (or lots) more time to actually find what you want. The clutter hinders you from locating the item that you want and worse of all, it literally switches your mind off, diverting it to look elsewhere for that precious information.

Keeping your books clean instills a fresh outlook in your mind and makes you think that there are still many uncovered ground to study and explore. The feeling of curiosity and somewhat uneasiness will create the much needed pressure to give you that added boost to study.

3 – If you want to memorise it, write out the main points out

One of the most effective ways to remember stuff is literally to write it down. The hand eye coordination that is involved stimulates the brain to memorise things better. The drawback is that it takes more time to write something than just looking or listening. Writing is an active action. In comparison to simply looking at what has been written on the board or listening to your lecturer, the simple act of writing helps the brain to remember the key strokes and movements of the hand which directly leads to better memorisation of the work.

4 – Write properly

As with point 3, writing and scribbling are 2 ends of the pole. Scribbles creates a dimension of untidiness and prevents the brain from proper memorisation of the key strokes created. Many people end up scrapping those notes which are scribbled and untidily written down.

You will naturally find it easier to remember when your notes are written legibly too.

Hope you find these 4 tips useful and thats it from me, any other tips you guys want to share with me ?

Thanks, James (Guest Post)