The end of the course and the exams arrive. In some autonomous communities, tests of selectivity have already been done, probably the most determining tests for any student. And with the exams come the endless days of study. But, are you studying effectively? We tell you some tricks to study effectively, optimizing your time and preparing you properly for that test. Good luck!
TIPS FOR STUDYING EFFECTIVELY
Handwrite
The current trend is to digitalize the classrooms. It seems to us an excellent news that the new technologies are part of the classrooms because they open a world of new possibilities together with a novel distribution of school furniture. But do not forget about the physical books, the paper and the pen. Experts believe that it is much better to take notes by hand than with the computer. It takes longer to trace on paper than to press the letters of a keyboard. Therefore, the brain has more time to assimilate what it says in the notes. If you are one of those who prefers to have the notes of class rather than computer because they seem clearer, cleaner and more orderly, we recommend you to make schemes by hand from those notes.
In the same way, it is very useful to highlight the most important parts or make notes of keywords in the margins that help us quickly remember the agenda.
Sleep enough hours
It is usually better to study in the morning, since the brain is less recharged and better assimilate all the information. Likewise, each person is a world. Maybe it will work more to study in the middle of the afternoon or at night. In any case, those long sessions of nocturnal study without sleep serve less because you are depriving your organism of the rest it needs. It is very important to feel fresh when it comes to studying, if not it will be a waste of time because it costs a lot more to assimilate the concepts.
Spend more time memorizing than reading
It is very typical to spend hours reading dozens of pages and repeating them until you memorize its contents. The ideal is to make a deep reading thoroughly and devote most of the study time trying to memorize. It is useless to read the same text 10 times if we do not stimulate the brain to remember it. To give you an idea, say the studies that about 50% of what we read we forget just at the end.
Prepare yourself for open questions
Memorizing is important, but only if we understand well what we have engraved in our memory. One of the things most feared by students is to get to the exam and stay blank before a question you had never thought about. Preparing for this kind of broader questions of reasoning is one of the most effective ways to study. The best advice to do it is to study with classmates. Two minds are more powerful than one at the moment of exploring new paths and solving doubts. Explaining the concepts out loud and debating them makes them retain much better.