What's your best studying tip/advice?

Don’t think about sex. That will leave an extra 80% of your brain to focus on your studies.

Find some place you can read out loud. Don’t know if this works for everyone but for some reason it works for me. Same with this tidbit, write notes. For some reason I remember more when I write something down, takes the stress out of remembering it.

Studying old tests is the best way to get prepared for your own test. There are alot of great video lectures online that can help you with the cramming.

Stay calm, eat well and get enough sleep. Logic and instinct will carry you through.

This is what I’d do and for me it was the only thing that led to successful studying.

First I would organize my time. Plan study time between now and when you write the test, put it on your calendar and everything. And try to be strict with yourself. If you have to miss a study time, re-schedule it, don’t just blow it off.

Next I’d organize my space. Basically, maximize things that help you concentrate. For me that was sitting at my desk with all my books/resources within hands’ reach, with my earphones on and one song or a short play list playing over and over and over again.

Next, for the actual studying, I’d make notes of my notes, and notes of those notes, and notes of those notes. Basically, this involved going over the material over and over and over again, each time reducing the key points/phrases, so that hopefully by the end a single word/phrase/equation would spark a whole bunch of information, an essay-question worth.

If your test involves a practical, practicing over and over and over again so that your body learns the method/technique, not just your mind.

I have no advice for those kinds of tests that are exclusively multiple-choice, I hear they involve specific study techniques. Never took one of those.

Do not procrastinate. Nerves come from lack of confidence. The better you know the material the better your confidence.

I know personally ..it was to get rid of the nerves….you enjoy and want to know this stufff…right :O) ...

then… when it came to remembering (technical stuff).. i would walk around, basically talking to myself.. reciting the stuff i remember them telling me i had to know…reading the required text..taking it on board…etc

and understanding how all this worked in practical theory… (think this is the massage bit in your case..how all your vast and on the spot knowledge of anatomy, means you’re good at it..) .. i would…(also recite to self..) ... and this is why i do it like….This…… because…

Try hard not to think about it as a test, but just them asking you…so far… how much do you know.. and when you qualify as a .. (whatever that is..)...

Lets have a look how you will apply that when we let you lose lol… sort of thing

Good Luck sweetie…i’m sure you’ll be fine… :O)

@limeaide .. yes i agree with that…and i’m the same…if i write it down over and over..it goes in…:O)

Don’t listen to me.

@J0E lol :O)

You may want to try studying listening to some mellow classical music.
It has been scientifically proven to work for some reason.

repeat everything you need to know and even rewrite the things you say…repetition is a good key to memory

Set yourself dedicated times to study and during that time do not focus on anything else, otherwise you may think things are ‘sinking in’ when infact they are not.
Most students I have studied with have chewed mints, gum or sweets as it helps them to concentrate, but watch the waistline..lol

mind mapping was helpful for me (because i remember in pictures as do most people I believe) and getting old exam papers and doing them under exam conditions was priceless… the best thing I’ve done in terms of preparing for exams…well I think… (we’ll soon find out this week as my results are due on Friday!)

Flashcards, flashcards, flashcards!

I have some test taking techniques (I’ve always been better at test taking than studying.) I aced the California Real Estate exam, let my license lapse and had to take it again. Aced it again. I then got my Brokers license and also aced it. I was always the first one out of the room. I am pretty good at these multiple choice tests. If your field offers a crash course in passing the test they are almost always worth the money.

For multiple choice.
1. go with your first instinct. Don’t second guess yourself. Changing an answer when you are unsure is almost always a mistake.
2. Eliminate the obvious “wrong” answers and then take your best guess from the remaining 2.
3. If you are still unsure choose answer “c”.

Read it, write it, say it out loud. Make flashcards and quiz yourself out loud. Have other people quiz you. By reading it, hearing it, writing it and seeing it you get the majority of your senses involved and you will retain more.

For me, and many people, the best way to study is to expose yourself to the material in three ways. Read it, hear it, and write it.

Reading aloud, for me, takes care of the first two. Take notes as you read—that takes care of the other one.

G’day ubersiren,

Thank you for your question.

The answers above have given some good advice. I think that you need to have a relaxation technique so that you don’t get stressed out by the tests. You might find these stress management techniques useful. link

Regards

@jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities I have to agree.

And also what might be helpful is a recording device to study with so that you can listen and take notes. Remember to pay attention, and be cohesive if there is an essay. Uhh, other then that remember to stay collected and calm.

Study with a partner. They say teaching helps us learn, so if you quiz each other it will help it stick. If you can get a tutor get one. I don’t do well studying from a text book, I am much better hearing the information from someone. I am much more of an audio-visual learner than text book.

Most of the tricks that work for me would not work for most people because of the way my mind works (Personally, I rarely studied at all, and when I did it was never for more than about an hour or so. That might be why I only got a 97 on the ASVAB :P ), but there is one thing that does cross boundaries and can be considered a univeral tip;

Don’t worry!

Nerves will make you forget stuff, miscategorize/mismatch what you do know, lead you to make mistakes (some of which you may laugh about later because they were so silly) and otherwise screw you up.

However, if you are realxed then your mind will be clearer, you will think more logically, be more likely to remeber things accurately, and otherwise do better.

The best advise I can give you is the same advice my friend once game me;
“Just start. Completion will follow.”
When working with a deadline, my biggest failing is that I spend so much time worrying about how daunting a task is, I barely leave myself any time to do the work. Once I finally stop avoiding it and jump into the task, it is usually the case that the work is not nearly as bad as I had made it out to be. So my advice to you would be to just take the first step. maybe make some flash cards today, and use them for an hour or two today. It’s not too much time, and considering you still have a week or two until January, that time will really build up.

Create the proper environment that works for you. I’ll describe what I need as a study environment—you’ll have to determine what works for you—Isolation, cool temperature,low humidity, no sounds othen than “correct” music low in the background in my case JS Bach, Telemann, Vivaldi etc,Take frequent breaks but make yourself go back to it I use meditation techniques during my breaks. Make sure you get enough sleep even if this reduces your study hours. Try to organize your study into blocks of logically related material. Try to set an objective for each study session. Take a “major break” every 4 hours, about an hour, do something totally unrelated (I like to work off frustration on the firing range).Limit total number of hours of daily study to avoid burnout.I have Aspergers Syndrome (a form of autism) so my techniques may not work for you. Fore example: many people study well in groups or tutorial sessions, this doesn’t work for me.

Start studying now. Master the key concepts. Repeat often. If the exam is X hours, practice concentrating for X hours + ½ hour so you build up mental stamina.
Repeat, repeat and repeat. Turn your computer off when studying so it’s not a distraction.

I find that highllighting the important material and then writing it down is very helpful. I like @MrJosh‘s idea of utilizing all the senses.

Remember, deep slow breathing physically helps you relax.

remove yourself from all distractions – phone, tv, internet…

then cram like a monster, eating peppermint candy the whole time – it promotes alertness.

get plenty of sleep before the test, eat more peppermint during the test, and you should be OK.

Cramming doesn’t work for everyone. It can increase stress and anxiety, causing “mental block”. You have to find what works best for you; your learning style..

1. Studying tips:

No matter what kind of organism you are, from flies to sea slugs to monkeys to humans, cramming is never as effective as spacing out your studying.

Break down what you need to study into manageable chunks. Do a little bit every day.

Get plenty of sleep. Memories consolidate during slow wave sleep.

Exercise. This will help reduce your stress, help you sleep, and make your brain work just a little bit better.

2. Test taking tips:

Read the question.

Seriously, read the question.

My students do this all the time: they see one word in the question that they associate with another word in the answer, and pick that answer without thinking it through. Don’t do this. Read the question, anticipate what the right answer will be, and only then start looking through the answer choices.

GOOD LUCK! Let us know how it goes!

Lol! I’m reading these responses thinking, “I could use a lot of these in a few months when I’m in labor, too!”

Ok, so lots of good stuff here. Thanks, everyone who has answered so far.

Break up your time studying each topic on the test, but leave the week and a half before the test free to go over all material on the test and brush up on the things you struggled with when you focused on the individual topics and do some light studying a few days before. Cramming is bad you won’t remember more than half the stuff anyway.

Make a place in your home for studying. Use that space ONLY to study. Go over every lecture an hour after class. Take notes – even if you never use them again, writing will increase memory. Make a study schedule and keep it.Try to relate information to your life – it will make it easier to remember. Take your homework and books wherever you roam – waiting rooms turn into study time. 3×5 flash cards were my angles – put on the front seat, I was studying at the stop light. Do not wait until the last minute. If you have a final, study the first quiz (once its over), then the second, and so on.

I would spend the day before a major exam just trying to relax and get my head on straight. Not cramming. But don’t go bar crawling either.

I used to have huge test anxiety issues. I think making a study schedule helps. Alot a certain amount of study time each day and to your best to stick to it. Will help with procrastination or obsessive studying. What I have found to be the most helpful when studying is making note cards – question on the front and answers on the back. Writing info down will reinforce it and you can use the cards to study and quizz yourself. Breaking down the info this way also makes it seem less overwhelming and easier to remember. Notecards are also good if you are studying with a partner or group.

@ubersiren, This was in January 2010. How did you do?