It's a Metaphor.

First of all a disclaimer: No, you can not study them in one or two days. But depending on the topic and how fast you can read, you can do it in one or two weeks!

Factors on which your needed time depends on:

How complex the topic is

How long you need to read a page

How fast you can write

How easy it is for you to understand the text

Basic explainations before I go into detail:

There are two ways of studying: global and and analytical studying

Analytical studying means you really go into detail, try to understand every single word and try to get as much information in the topic as possible. You are studying the topic very precisesly and need the small details to understand it. This is great to understand the topic profoundly.

Global studying means you barely go into detail, but rather try to get an overview over the topic, its most important aspects, and the basic connections. This is great to realize what the most important connections and facts of this topic are, and in what relation the facts stand to each other. 

Studying in four steps:

1. The first thing you need to do is read through the whole text and make an excerpt. This step will take you the longest, some days or even some weeks. Basically the best way to do this is to follow these steps:

Look through what you have to study. Hopefully it has chapters, if not, try to split it up into chapters of about twenty pages. This amount works at least for me best. If you have a short concentration span, rather make more chapters with less pages. If you have a long concentration span, make less chapters with more pages per chapter.

Set a realistic goal how many chapters you can read and excerpt in a day. Try to stick to this goal. If the text is easy to read and the font a normal size, one needs about one to two minutes to read a page. If it is difficult to understand or a small font, you may need three to five miutes, so keep this in mind when setting your daily goals.

This goal can vary from day to day. If you know that one day you have a long and exhausting lecture, set the goal lower than for a day were you won´t have any distractions. 

Make sure you make this plan early enough. The later you do it, the higher is the chance you have not enough days to get through the text!

Now read a chapter and try to understand as much as possible of it. Focus on it as best as possible, because this is one of the most important steps. If you have problems staying focused, here is my masterpost on how to stay focused.

If your concentration is lost after reading this chapter, take a short break. Then, and it is really really important that you only do it afterwards you read the whole chapter, do an excerpt of this chapter. If you do not know what an excerpt is or how to make on, click here.

By doing the excerpt at the end of the chapter, you revise it for the first time already.

Do this for every chapter you need to study. If you have time left, you can revise the excerpts you already made, but your focus should be on getting through the whole text once. 

2. Read thoroughly through your whole excerpt. While doing this, try to recall as many details of the original text that you didn´t write down. Not only read the excerpt, but focus on the relations and connections, realize the meaning and consequences of what you are reading, understand their impact on the subject matter and the topic. Don´t learn it by heart, instead understand it and try to comprehend it with a logic that allows you to recall the realtions without studying them intensively. Do this at least once, if you have the time better do it twice. The harder the topic is for you, the more often you should do this step. This step should take you about one or two days.

3. Skim over your excerpt. Set your focus on the keywords you wrote down in colour and try to recall the most important keywords associated with them. If you have enough time, repeat this once or twice, but you do not have to if you feel you are already very good.This step should take you some hours or a minimum of one hour.

4. Skim over the headings and subheadings of your excerpt. While doing this, try to recall the words you focused on in step three. Only the most important keywords, realtions and connections should cross your thought in this step. This step should take you less than an hour.

After step four, you will be prepared for your exam! Just try to calm down, and most importantly, do not try to recall every little detail now. It will only stress you and give you the feeling that you cannot recall them, which is more often than not totally false. Everytime I used this strategy, I could recall most of the details when writing the test! Also do not revise right in front of the test. You will only confuse yourself and start to panic.

The concept behind this method:

Remeber I tought you the basics of global and analytical studying in the beginning? Well, these are exyctly the background for this method.

Step 1 = analytical

Step 2 = semi - analytical

Step 3 = semi - global

Step 4 = global

Pretty easy once you see it this way, right?

Tip for revising

It helps a lot of people to walk around while doing step 3 or 4!

everyone hopes to reinvent themselves at the beginning of the year, but not many actually succeed in maintaining their goals. these are some steps to give you a fresh start in the new year, from goal making to purging emotional burdens.

take some time to reflect on the past year. what did you do that you enjoyed? what did you wish you had done more of? what could you have done more? what do you want to continue doing in the new year? write these down so you can refer back to them.

pick your top three goals for next year. try to make them as specific as possible. instead of saying “i want to get good grades,” say “i want to make straight a’s and not have any missing assignments.” take the time to think about how these will improve your life.

think about how you will achieve these goals. will you study for an hour every night? will you pay attention in class more? will you spend more time on projects and essays? again, try to be as specific as possible.

make a plan on how you will hold yourself accountable for these goals, ie. rewarding yourself for sticking to your study schedule by making a treat, going out with friends, or buying something you really want. you decide how often to reward yourself.

set up your planner with these new goals. schedule in when you’ll be doing the goals, and physically write them down. this way, you’re committed

now that you have your goals set, it’s time to start cleaning. clean your room, aka. clean it, do your laundry, vacuum, dust, and anything else you need to do to get it physically clean

throw out/donate everything you dont need. minimalism is super liberating, and truly rejuvenates you and makes you feel like you have a fresh start. if you can’t throw out much, try to get everything off the surfaces in your room to give the appearance of you having less stuff.

if you are a homeowner, do the same to the rest of your house. if not, clean and declutter your bathroom.

now that you’ve cleaned, it’s time to cleanse. get all those nasty old energies out by opening the windows, turning on the fan, and burning sage/incense, if that’s your thing. you can use essential oils in place of sage if you want, just mix a few drops with water and spray it around your space.

now it’s time to cleanse yourself! eat a healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner. eating better improves your mood and physical well-being, and it encourages a more positive relationship with your body. even if salads and smoothies aren’t your things, try and find a way to incorporate greens, roots/legumes, and protein into every meal.

exercise, even if just a little. exercise helps to release stress and negative emotions and makes you feel happier and more energized. 

go outside. like exercising, getting fresh air and some vitamin D help boost your mood and release negative emotions.

write out a list of what you need to do and when they need to be done by

prioritize. do the most important stuff, the stuff that’ll take the longest, and the stuff that needs to be soonest first

put on some good music for things like cleaning, organizing, and chores

if you have to do stuff for school like study or write a paper, prioritize that. 

but remember your health and well being comes before your education. 

if you have stuff you know you need to do, take a rain check for going out with friends. you can go out another time.

know why you need to do something. ex: i need to study so that i can do well in my class to get into a good college. i need to clean my room so that the space is calmer. i need to do the dishes because i need to to eat. i need to get up and go to class so that i can get the most out of my education. i promise, there is a positive in everything.

remember to eat. remember to drink water. remember to sleep.

be grateful for the things you need to do. ex: i’m grateful i have school to study for. i am grateful that i have a room to clean. i am grateful i have food to eat off of these dishes. i am grateful for having an 8am class because getting an education is an amazing opportunity.

when making a to-do list for the day/week, put in things for yourself like play with my dog, watch that new harry styles interview, get a starbucks, take a deep breath, drink water.

set time goals. if you don’t want to do something or you keep getting distracted, set timers. for example, if you have a chapter you need to read but it’s super boring, set a timer for 10 minutes and see how much you can do in that time. set a goal like “if i can read 5 pages in 10 minutes, i’ll go make my favorite tea”. challenging yourself will get you and keep yourself motivated.

know that it’s okay to take breaks. you need them. but keep them under 30 minutes so you don’t get sucked in. (here’s a list of study breaks for every situation)

don’t give up; everything is temporary. having trouble understanding your calculus homework? that’s fine. you’re not the only one. take a 5 minute break, stretch a bit, maybe grab a snack, then approach things differently. ask a friend for help, set up a tutoring session, watch youtube videos explaining the content in a different way.

Make It Measurable

If you can’t tell if you’ve met your goals, you’ll never meet them. It’s important to make sure you have an objective way to measure your goals. 

Example: I will practice on my guitar for 20 minutes a day.

Non-example: I will get better at guitar.

Do, Not Don’t

Go for positivity instead of negativity! 

Example: I will eat at least 4 servings of vegetables a day.

Non-example: I will not eat junk food.

Leave Some Wiggle Room

Non-example: I will run 2 miles every day this month.

If you set this as your goal and you miss one day, it’s now impossible to meet your goal. You’ll know it too, and you’ll give up on it entirely.

Example: I will run 2 miles at least five days a week.

If you miss a day, so what? Now you can bounce back and still carry through with your goal.

Go For 110%

How much do you think you can accomplish? Set your goal a bit above that. People tend to perform better under pressure, and you will grow as you work towards that goal. 

Example: I will write 11 pages a week.

Non-example: I will write 10 pages a week.

Figure Out How

There’s no way to reach the top if you haven’t got your staircase. Write out a plan for how you will reach your goal. “Fail to plan, plan to fail.”

Example: I will get an A in English by doing every homework assignment on time and studying for at least 20 minutes a day.