How I Study
As a student, I am a firm believer in Active learning. This encompasses active recall, efficient revising and memory retention skills.
What is Active Recall?
It is a necessary skill to enhance efficient learning, where it stimulates memory during the learning process. This skill takes advantage of consolidation of long-term memory.
There has been research in regards to active recall as a way to learn, and it has been proven to be the quickest, most efficient and effective way to learn written materials.
Here is a link for you to read this up further, and is written by one of my Favourite Inspiring Youtubers, Ali Abdaal. He pretty much preaches about active recall in MOST of his videos.
The following blurb below, is how i study, and how it may be beneficial to most of you.
Every Individual learns differently, and not every suggestion i may sound out may apply to all of you. These is just how i cope with my studying methods.
How I Study
1. Colour Coding
- In my previous blog, i gave details on how efficient colour coding should apply to one's notes.
See here: Colour Coding Efficiently
I use colour coding to assist me in breaking down the amount of information to roughly about 4-6 subtopics. All depends on the subject i am learning about. The colour codes i use, stick to the same 4-6 colours, so it becomes habitual for me to correlate which colour falls under which subcategory. This method is handy especially when i have to go through a chapter in a textbook! De-clunking the chapter to just the 6 main keys would be an efficient way to go through and review it again later.
2. Cornell Note-Taking Method
This is by far my favourite form to take notes and review. The Cornell Method is a skill which reflects how an efficient student reviews and revises their material. It is study method derived from Cornell University and has been proven to be quite effective amongst students.
How do I use Cornell? See the image below for a breakdown!
My study schedule for a particular topic goes in the form of 3 steps.
A. Preview
In this section, i dedicate 15-30 mins of my time to review the slides/ lecture material and grasp the overall idea of the topic. I also make use of this time to take notes in the main body of the Notes Section, and write down 10-15 key points that will be covered in the lecture.
B. Take Key Concept/ Main Notes
This is the part where it is IMPORTANT to focus in class. Again, i am writing in the main body of the Cornell Notes and rephrasing the important things that was highlighted and clarified by the lecturer.
C. Review
I use 30-45 minutes to immediately review what i had just learn during this section. I jot down the important questions and key words in the recall column for me to go back again later, at the end of the day during my dedicated revision time.
So, as you can see Cornell Note-Taking is by far the most common one that i fall back on to revise my material, because it ties in well with how i study!
3. MIND MAPS
When a topic has lots of interpretation, pathways and connections, this form of note-taking/ review is my favourite.
IT GIVES YOU THE BIG PICTURE!
This is particularly handy to visualise, when the topic has a LARGE AMOUNT of information as well! By using a mind map, you are essentially forcing yourself to condense down the details and fine tune only the necessary key concepts. A handy tool for memory retention. BONUS is you get to incorporate your colour coding habits to enhance memory retention!
4. Review Sheets
This is another method i use to revise my material. It does have the essence of Cornell's Note-Taking Methods, but without the summary! My goal when i use a review sheet is to make it a ONE-PAGER and to condense as much information i have on One A4/ A5 page.
This would allow me to review without having to worry about going through ALL the minute details and main details again, come exam time!
I believe by putting pen to paper, it also aids in memory retention as well. In my case, i put ApplePen to IpadPro (Notability/ GoodNotes5). It is a one stop, convenient access for my notes and reviews. It further allows me to lookup my notes at a more efficient and less time-consuming way.
For more digital Apps i use for my study, stay tuned in my next blog post!
- Deanna
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