#effectivestudy

Note taking is an essential part of studying, and developing your own note taking style can significantly improve your learning experience. However, note taking should not just be a process of copying information from the board or textbook. It should be personalised to your learning style and optimised for effective retention and understanding. Here are some tips to improve your note taking habits:

Structure Your Notes for Organisation and Revision

Your notes should have a clear structure with headings, subheadings, and lists for better organisation and revision. Writing notes as if you were explaining the topic to someone who does not take the course is a good practice to ensure that your notes are clear and logical.

Additionally, labelled diagrams and concept maps can help you visualise and understand complex information. Studies have shown that visual aids, such as images and diagrams, are easier to remember and recall than text alone.

2. Highlight and Use Colours to Emphasise Key Points

Highlighters and coloured pens are not just for making pretty notes. They can also help you categorise and emphasise key points, making them easier to remember. Develop your own colour coding system, using different colours for different topics, definitions, or important information. Symbols, such as stars or underlines, can also be used to create your own coding system.

3. Use Your Own Words and Avoid Copying Verbatim

Avoid the temptation to copy everything word for word from the board or textbook. Instead, focus on deciphering the key information and paraphrasing it into your own words. This not only saves time but also helps you consolidate your understanding of the topic. You can still incorporate high-level vocabulary and terminology into your notes but try to write most of the content in your own words for better comprehension.

4. Consider Using Cornell Notes

Cornell notes are a popular note taking system recommended by universities such as Cornell and Harvard. They include a heading at the top, a column on the side for keywords, main ideas, and questions, a large section in the middle for class notes, and a summary at the end for revision. However, note taking is a personal process, and you should incorporate elements that work for you.

In conclusion, developing your own note taking style can significantly improve your study habits. Remember, note taking should be a personalised process that suits your learning style and helps you retain and understand the material better.

The life begins with us learning how to talk, learning how to walk and some other basic activities. The proper method of learning things is not specified to us in the schools or by our parents and even if our parents and teachers tell us that you have to memorize something, they usually provide us with methods like repetition and rot learning which is less productive and obsolete. We all know how…

—->Its getting to that busy time of year of exams and usually a whole lot of stress. During this time my studying comes into full effect and I try to do it as often as possible. Using the right study tips that are proven to be the most effective is the key to good exam results.

The Bad 

--->Although some of these techniques feel productive they really have no effect on your test scores. Avoiding them or changing them so they become effective is the key to a better studying .These techniques were found to be ineffective according to a 2013 Dunlosky study. These are all passive methods of studying.

Highlighting. Its the study technique many students run too but it has little to no effect on exam results at all. Its a waste of time and can actually hinder your progress. Its you reading the text and drawing your attention to individual facts. It hinders your ability to make connections and overall is a waste of time and classed as a ‘low utility’ study technique.

Rereading, this is almost as useless as highlighting. As its not actively retrieving it from your brain, its not utilising the information on a page into something to help you remember it. It feels like you know the information because you’ve just read it but its not stored in your long term memory. It’s another one of those ‘low utility’ study methods.

Summarising/writing, this is ineffective unless you know how to do it correctly. It feels like your doing something but again has very little effect when you are just copying from a text. There are keys to a good summary that can help retain the information but these are often not taught in lower education.

The Good

—-> These are the most successful study tips. They may not work for all but were found most successful for studying. These two were:

Active Recall

actively stimulating the brain during studying. Its much more efficient than passive techniques (highlighting, rereading, summarising). It works on the principle that the harder you have to think about something the easier it is to recall from long term memory.

Forgetting Curve

Which is understanding that over a certain period of time you forget things so coming back to the same concepts over a period of time helps to ingrain it in your long-term memory. It explains why learning is hard but also offers a solution. Here is an example of a forgetting curve, as time passes more information is forgotten. Interrupting this cycle is critical to remembering things long term. Keep going over key concepts to remember them.

—-> It’s all well and good learning about these terms but what revision techniques can you use that incorporates these effective study methods.

 Flashcards. Creating flashcards is definitely handy for self testing and active recall. You can use it for things like equations and general vocabulary all the way to key concepts. There are plenty of apps out there but Quizlet and Anki.

Questions. Create sets of questions for each subjects and answer them regularly, the more questions the better. Help disrupt the forgetting curve. This can be done on a word document or on paper.

Making effective notes. Choose a topic and study it for a set time, then close the textbook and write down everything that you can remember from it. Correct anything you missed out in a different colour. This is much more effective for retention than making standard notes. Remember to focus on content.

Creating foldable glossaries. Put the key terms on  one side and fold the paper vertically in half, write down the definition and test yourself. Speaking the definition out loud can help for retention. Again you can do this on word or on paper.

Practice Questions. Theres nothing better for exams than exam questions do as many as you can and check them to the mark scheme for practice. This technique definitely applies to heavy content based subjects and Mathematics.