The following techniques can boost your studying and memory. Pick a few to try out!
It is easier to concentrate on difficult subjects when you are the most alert. Start with the hard stuff and move to easier things afterward. You can also try the “sandwich technique” which places a particularly difficult or distasteful task between two more pleasant ones.
Daily review includes recopying and editing lecture notes, outlining chapters, and completing work problem sets. If you do not review and revisit material, it leaves your memory quickly.
Weekly review includes moving notes into a study guide format or creating a weekly practice test.
Pre-exam review can be less stressful if you keep to a cycle of daily and weekly reviews. Much of the class content will already be in your long-term memory!
For papers or exams, pretend that you are the professor for your course and that you are going to give a lecture on the material covered by the exam or paper. Get a friend or two to attend your “lecture” and teach what you are studying. You will quickly discover what you know well and where the gaps are.
Regular practice testing not only prepares you for the sort of test questions that may appear on your exam, but also helps to keep the information in your mind. After every lecture create a few practice questions. By the time you get to test week you’ll have a complete practice test that you’ve been studying all along!
If staying on schedule is challenging, take a break and reward yourself when you do. For example, if you complete your homework, then reward yourself with one episode of your favorite show (no bingeing).