Study smarter and feel calmer

Have you ever sat down to study and lost focus within ten minutes, then felt bad about it like it was a willpower problem? It's not. Long, unstructured study blocks are hard for anyone to sustain, no matter how much you actually care about the outcome.

The Pomodoro method breaks study into short, focused blocks with real breaks built in, so you're working with your attention span instead of fighting it.

Have you ever skimmed over your notes before a test and realised half of them don't make sense anymore? You wrote them fast in class, but you can't actually use them now.

Good notes aren't about neat handwriting or colour coding for hours. They're about being able to use them again weeks later, when you've forgotten most of the lesson itself.

A few small tips make that possible...

Skim before you write anything down,

Highlight the actual keywords instead of whole sentences,

Turn headings into questions you'll need to answer later,

Leave space to add more once it clicks.

... and a few more ... 🤓

Don't you just love a hand illustrated infographic? TIPS ON HOW TO CREATE GOOD MIND-MAPS was so fun to create. It ended up looking like a boardgame 😋. I'm so pleased that it made it into the QUEST Study Skills Journal! And while I'm on that topic, introducing Saffron Orange! I think it's my favourite option of all the colours. Anyway, back to the #studytips.

1. Have a main heading

2. Space is out

3. Use terms and subtitles

4. Use a colour scheme that makes sense

5. Less words is more

5. Categorise info

6. Pictures pictures pictures

7. Have an exam type questions list

There's more in the fine print in the QUEST Study Skills Journal, which can arrive at your doorstep when you order from the website above 🎉

'Be creatively productive' x

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The best part of creating planner spreads in journals is the creative part. Decorating headers and playing around with #washitape. The part I don't enjoy is drawing lines with my ruler. So I created this journal to solve that. I figured other planners disliked the ruler tasks as much as I did. So with these journals all we get to do is be creative and start planning. Are you loving this idea as much as I do? This spread was fun, quick and minimal. The 'before' and 'after'. What do you think?

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A simple summary...

1. Have a monthly planner for important assesment dates, due dates, socials, sports etc. This shows busy periods so you can plan accordingly.

2. Have a yearly planner for a very highlevel view of important dates, and busy times of the year.

3. Have a weekly planner for set schedules such as classtimes, specific study review periods per subject you set, homework timeslots, exercise, movie session, gaming et.

4. Have a day planner for your tasks and reminders for each day. Cross them out as you complete each task.

5. Have a project planner for big assignments and projects. Set important dates, milestones and track progress. This is worth more than its weight in paper !

By the way, this planning infographic is available in the QUEST Study Skills Journal pictured here. The journal has readily-available planning templates on faint dot grid pages and 30 pages of study hack illustrations. Check it out on www.queststudyskills.com

The #bulletjournal spread for the week. The printable for this is downloable from the website if anyone is interested.

How do you feel about drawing lines with your ruler in your #bujo ? Do you find it a chore? I love doing all the creative bits, but urgh, drawing lines.

#100studytips WAY BETTER THAN ROTE LEARNING (Note: this is semi nerdy)

When it comes to rote learning, there are some benefits and situations where it helps students. Cases such as memorising the times table, new vocabulary of a second language and the periodic table.

But in most cases while we learn throughout our nerd years, learning with comprehension and understanding is the most viable and longer lasting method when it comes to gaining knowledge of subject matter, and applying it to specific tasks, normally assessments such as a test or assignment.

Comprehending information requires us to know the subject matter in relation to how it interacts or is connected to other information we may have learned in the past or may learn in the future. It requires us to critically think about how this new knowledge (sometimes required for a test) impacts on or is affected by other events or possibilities.

Think about events in history. Nothing that has ever happened ‘just happens’. A memorable historical event occurs because something else caused that event to occur. It’s also the same in science and geography. Everything is interconnected somehow in some sort of flow. You could almost create a flow diagram of anything.

How does this help you in school? When you need to remember information for a test, just think:

1. How does this info relate to any other info I have learned? What is the relationship, cause or effect. 2. Can I find out more about the subject matter so I can deepen my knowledge base on it, and therefore understand it better. 3. Why am I learning this? How does it relate to the world around me?

You could honestly come up with a bunch of questions around the topic you are learning. Just keep thinking, why? how? what? when? who? where? It’s all related.

#100studytips LISTEN CAREFULLY FOR HINTS IN CLASS

Have you ever found yourself in a class or lecture so madly and rapidly writing notes that you miss a tonne of what the teacher is saying? And you sometimes have to ask the person next to you so you can ‘get with the program’ …. At this most ordinary juncture, you can forget trying to capture exam hints dropped by the teacher, you are simply in ‘survival mode’!

#100studytips TALK YOUR NOTES OUT

When you see people studying they’re normally fairly quiet if not sleeping. This study method may sound a bit odd at first, but it’s a very valuable study hack. Here’s how and why it works.

1. CREATE YOUR STUDY MATERIAL. Just as you normally (well hopefully) would. Create your usual study materials extracted from your messy class and/ or text book notes. eg. flash cards, mind maps, audio notes, diagramed notes etc.

2. TIP. Make sure these study materials are chunked and categorised per topic and sub-topic. This is fairly obvious.

3. TIP. Make sure your study notes are associated and are able to answer and address a number of questions that could be asked. ie. Teacher-type questions that would be found on a test.

4. TALK YOUR NOTES OUT. Go to a private place where you won’t look like a loon. Study your notes, and then recite and talk them out aloud. Because you’re so focused on talking them out correctly, your brain naturally triggers more memory pathways in the brain. It creates a physical context and memory association to the information, which in turn helps when you need to recall that information in a test.

5. EXTRA TIP. Even better than ‘talking your notes out’ is teaching someone else the information. It has a similar effect, but it probably keeps you a lot more focused on the task, because when you’re involving someone else, you inadvertently try even harder and ultimately learn the information even faster and more efficiently.

#100studytips CORNELL NOTES WITH A TWIST

In the last blog post about ‘Cornell Notes’ and how to take them (read bog previous post), I mentioned that I would post a blog about ‘Cornell Notes with a Twist’. Well, here it is... It’s basically the same method as Cornell Notetaking, but there is an added step. Here are the total steps:

1. READ FIRST. Read the chapter or content before the class. Nerdy nerdy but it’s good. Find out what it is, so you can read the info and ‘get with the program’ before the rest of the class. 

2. TAKE YOUR OWN NOTES.  Once you have read the info, take your own notes in the middle column. 

3. ADD KEY WORDS / QUE WORDS / TEACHERY TYPE QUESTIONS. Once you have written your notes, you will have an idea about what the key word or que words  etc are. Place these in the columns marked. 

4. GO TO CLASS & ADD MORE NOTES. When you turn-up to class, the teacher will cover the content. If there is something new, then you add that content to the class notes column next the related notes you already prepared. 

5. ADD MORE INFO. If there is any other info that is of importance, add that.

6. ADD YOUR SUMMARY. Similar to the Cornell Notes method, critically think about the page, and write a summary. This tests you understand the stuff from all angles.

7. ADD YOUR REFLECTION. Similar to the Cornell Notes method, once again critically think about the info on the page, and add a reflection of how you think this info relates to the rest of the unit. 

#100studytips CORNELL NOTES

Have you heard of the Cornell Note Taking system? This note-taking method has been around for ages, but I think the value of it gets forgotten. So I thought I’d give it a bit of a plug today.

It’s a very concise and organised way to compile and collect notes prior to study. Here’s a quick summary of it, but do take the time to research a bit more about it, if you want more info.

1. SPLIT THE PAGE INTO 4. A section at the top for the subject, topic, date etc; a large margin worth 1/3 of the page on the left; a large note-taking section on the right; and finally a space at the bottom for the Summary. 

2. WRITE THE ESSENTIALS AT THE TOP. That’s fairly self-explanatory, otherwise notes can get all jumbled.

3. THE NOTES. When in class, write your notes in the Note-Taking Area. Write in point form with bullets, include diagrams, arrows of information relationship, mind-maps, and use abbreviations. 

4. KEY WORDS/ CUE WORDS. Once you’ve written the notes, then write the que/key words on the left margin. This is essential, as it makes you critically think about ‘what’ you have actually written. It’s also good to write ‘teacher-type’ questions here. The ones you might find in a test.

5. SUMMARY. In the summary section write a summary (duh obviously) about the notes on the page. This is an important step, as it tests whether or not you know what you just wrote about. If there are holes in the information, and you’re not able to write the summary, then you need to get more info or ask the teacher. 

6. REFLECTION. Write a reflection about the information in the summary section too. Focus on how you think this info relates to the rest of the info in the unit, or how it relates to the whole subject in general. This makes you think even more critically about the content, rather than just trying to rote learn like a robot. Sorry.