Wednesday, May 28, 2014

How to study for finals? Tips and tricks

There will be no easy way to achieve something you want by doing nothing.

"How to get straight A's or just pass in an exam?"

"How to pass an exam easily?"

"How to study fast for an important exam?"

I often google this kind of questions. I read articles and articles of how to study but really the things is start from you! Yeah, it might be easy to say but if you're interested to really get an A's in high school, you should begin to love studying. Do what you love and you will love what you do. Maybe you might say, "studying isn't my thing!" but you must understand that gaining knowledge can make your life easier and you can get a better job.

Now, study come with examination. I, myself do not agree in examination but it is a way to prove that you have certain knowledge. But how to study? I am a straight A's student and I am not genetically smart or what. I just start to focus on my study after my elementary/primary school.

I have found some way to study that work for me:

1. Focus when teachers are teaching

Yes, it might sound simple but it works the best! In every examinations, when I can't answer the questions, I will start to rewind my memories when the teacher is teaching. A lot of times, it helps. Of course, I will sometimes can't remember a thing because I can't really understand. So, the main point is understand. The problem is you might be shy to ask teacher what you don't understand. What you can do is go back home and search on internet. We should embrace our power of technology(haha). YouTube is a site where you can go and search. There are always people uploads the 'things' you don't understand  and they're pretty awesome. They work like a home tutor but you can't really ask them questions which is one of their weaknesses.

2. Do the past year papers

This method works miracle if you're a lazy people just like me! The past year papers can tell you clearly about the format of the test you're taking. Besides, it give you a main idea what kind of questions it is coming out. Sometimes, the questions might repeat, so it is a smart move to go through the papers. Also, just reading the past year papers is not enough if you're planning to read this and go for the exam without other preparations.

3. Do what the teacher ask you to do 

I don't really mean to do all your homework here. I want to said that teachers are kind, so a week or two before the examination, they will give us some tips when they're teaching. But not everyone is smart enough to identify. That's the reason why do whatever they gave you before the test. This trick might not work on some of the teachers as they might just gave clues from the beginning of the semester. They are more experienced teacher. Don't get me wrong, I am not here to analyse the teachers. I am just telling from my experiences. The point here is to go through every exercises if you met this kind of teachers. But some teachers are just like to challenge the students by coming out some rare questions, so understanding is very important.

4. Stop procrastinating 

"Procrastination is like a credit card, it's a lot of fun until you get the bill" by Christopher Parker.

I know it's hard because I think all of us procrastinate. It's not like we can control our brain and heart fully. We are not machine. What we can do is block out all the distraction. For example, I find it hard to study when my phone is sitting beside me. And I always hear my phone calling me to check my social media or just stroll through some feeds. I always said to myself that it won't take a lot of times but unfortunately it did!
So Eunice, how to stop procrastinating? I have few ultimate steps that you could try out:
STEP 1: study at midnight or time that you like to study and free from distractions(for me is midnight)
STEP 2: study with music (search for music to study)
STEP 3: eat, bath and do whatever before you study(so you won't have any reason to escape)
STEP 4: choose a place that you like to study, it can be in your rooms or library.
STEP 5: off your phone and put in a place where is far away from you(you can skip this if you don't                             procrastinate with your phone)
STEP 6: DO NOT EVER LET YOURSELF TO PROCRASTINATE NO MATTER HOW                                     ATTRACTING IT IS, IF NOT YOU WILL JUST KEEP PROCRASTINATING AGAIN AND AGAIN.
*step 2 do not work if you're listening to the song you love because you will probably just sing along with it.

5. Read out loud

This works for me and after my research with the top students in my school, they're using this method too.
I know it sounds weird but trust me it works!
Of course, don't force yourself to shout but just read the thing you wanted to study out loud. This way you can understand better while memorizing it. Kill two birds with one stone!
You should stay focus while reading it.
You can also try to explain it to someone or to yourself. Or read like it is a storybook. I swear this will be fun.

6. Ask yourself questions

When you're reading your textbook, you can summarize the one whole page of  texts into few points that you think are the main points. You can turn them into questions and write them into a post-it notes. Write the question at the front while answer at the back. This can be come in handy when you're doing a last minute revision. 

That's really the methods I used to overcome my finals and other examination. What about flashcards?
For me, flashcards is kind of time consuming and I barely even have time to write them. I also find it difficult to read something that has only a little information. What about notes? It works but if you're writing is not that pretty and well organized, then it is better of you to rather read the textbook or download the notes from internet. And group study never works for me since I am too distracted by my friends and chatting with them. Hope this might help you guys:)

 my signature

No comments:

Post a Comment