We’ve all been there. Last minute cramming, stress eating, and a whole lot of worrying. If you’ve ever wished for a last-minute study bible, look no further. These tips will have you acing your exams and turning your stress filled evenings into carefree review sessions.
Unleash Your Inner Rap Star
If you struggle to remember important terms from your lectures, creating inventive rhymes or mnemonic devices is a great way to get these terms to stick. This method works by getting your creativity involved in inventing unique associations in your brain between facts and familiar objects or ideas. This will previously boring facts and figures into something more fun to think about and easier to recall.
Making Connections
A great way to make it easier to recall important facts is to make connections between the thing you are trying to remember and something you already know. You can make connections with something you are learning in another class, something relevant or interesting from your life, something you saw on TV, or anything else that makes sense to you. Making connections is this way is powerful because the more connections you have to an idea or fact, the shorter the brain pathway to retrieve that fact becomes. You can even combine the connections method with the rhyme method from the last tip to shorten your brain’s retrieval pathways even more dramatically.
Limit Your Distractions
While this may be the hardest tip on the list to follow through, it’s a very important one. A great way to limit distractions is to go somewhere that cuts out your most troublesome time wasters completely. Heading to a quiet local café or booking a study room at your university is a great way to do this. If you struggle with keeping on task or focusing for long periods of time, it’s okay to cut yourself some slack. Set realistic goals like taking a five-minute study break for every 20 minutes of work. Taking frequent short breaks will keep you from fatiguing and allow you to focus longer. Planning for short breaks also the prospect of an hours long study session less daunting.
Get Your Priorities Straight
If you’ve left the majority of your studying to the last minute, you may have to accept that you just can’t study everything. Lay out a list of the most import ideas from the chapter or section you’re studying and then decide which of these are most important to know. If you’re totally at a loss, try breaking each section down into smaller chunks and studying the key terms from each.
Get a Good Night’s Sleep
This tip might seem counter intuitive but getting a good night’s rest is one of the best things you can do to ace your test. Going into a test with a full eight hours will ensure you have a clear mind and will make it easier to remember everything you’ve studied the night before. If you’re a chronic last minute studier, knowing when to throw in the towel and call it a night is a skill that will serve you well.