As the school year is coming to an end and finals season approaches, along with a grim wave of stress and uncertainty from students, there has never been a better time to advance your study methods to keep you engaged with your studies while balancing your other responsibilities in life. Therefore, here are ten unique study methods to keep you focused and excited for finals!
1. Start with something easy.
As tried and true as the Pomodoro technique, starting with something easy is what any student preparing for exam season would suggest. Just being able to tick off that one simple study task in your harrowing day of cramming motivates you to continue on with your work as well as warms up your mind for more daunting tasks. So, start with something easier to feel positive about finishing your other assignments rather than burdened and worn out at the start of your day.
2. Stay ahead of your schedule.
Planning your work week is essential to maintaining organization before an important exam and feeling less stressed. However, following through those idealistic schedules is a difficult and daunting task, to say the least. Therefore, creating your schedule a few days before you begin it and getting a jump start on your plan keeps you motivated and ready for the next day of work. You are kind of tricking yourself into productivity, cutting off all opportunities for procrastination.
3. Try out the Feynman Notebook Method.
The Feynman Notebook Method, created by Richard Feynman, an American physicist who developed study methods during his time studying at Princeton University, is a manner of taking notes utilizing diagrams and flowcharts to your liking to break down your thought process on every subject. The beauty of the Feynman notebook method is that you get a lot of freeform and can tailor it to suit your study needs. With this method, you can take a subject and explain it to yourself through simple flowcharts in ways that make sense to you, not just what the textbook states. It is simple and effective, and the method could be utilized for retaking notes for your understanding.
4. Connect studying to your favorite songs.
Music livens up anything, from mundane everyday activities to intense study sessions. However, it does not always have to be intense or excessively worrying and can even be applied to remembering a topic always seeming to slip your mind. Playing a song you cherish and listen to daily while memorizing something you’re having difficulties with helps you associate the topic to music you love. From there, when taking a test that requires you to remember the topic, you will remember the song that you played for a certain subject and remember it instantly.
5. Listen to dramatic theme music.
This method may seem absurd, but it does provide results! If you have ever seen dramatic moments in movies, where either the end of the world is imminent or a fight scene between two characters commences, the dramatic music in the background plays an important role in the scene, if not the most important. Music drives emotion in the audience and causes people to feel as if they are in the scene itself. This can be applied to your studies for those days that feel as if studying is an unachievable task. Playing dramatic theme music in the background while studying creates the atmosphere of an impending apocalypse and makes you feel like you are the one deciding the fate of the future. This makes your impossible task of studying a cinematic experience, giving you the motivation you need to finish studying for the day. For suggestions on what you can listen to, dramatic classical music such as pieces by Tchaikovsky does the deed. Or, for a more cinematic experience, the score for “Batman,” “The Chronicles of Narnia,” “Harry Potter,” or “The Imitation Game,” are key for study inspiration.
6. Clean your work area and take care of your study material.
During finals season, your work area is the most important place in your house. So instead of feeling cluttered, clean up your workspace every night before going to bed so that you are returning to a clean space ready for your studies for the day. That goes for your notes and other study material as well. Studying from a disorganized notebook or a flurry of scribbled papers lying on your desk is bound to make you feel overwhelmed. So by starting to care for your study material and organize them to your liking for finals, you will feel less stressed.
7. Turn study material into gossip.
It is a well-known fact that people, in general, remember what happened in the latest episode of their favorite television show or celebrity gossip much better than historical dates or scientific processes they were forced to study. This is because people like to remember something more fun and trivial rather than the three phases of the Peloponnesian war. So why not make your study material something that matters to you? As students who are taking Calculus and can never seem to remember the antiderivative of tangent or secant, my friends and I devised a story to go along with the information needed to memorize. Now, with the simple trick of a story, I can remember the material with ease, just in time for my finals. Furthermore, by turning your material into something you care about and find humor in, you too can remember random bits of information needed for your exams.
8. Take creative breaks.
Schedule breaks throughout the day to calm your mind down from intense study sessions. However, instead of watching TV or scrolling through social media to unwind, do something active to ensure you have enough energy and motivation to get back to work. Whether it be taking a walk or playing with your pets, keep active to stay active for your study sessions.
9. Look at other students online or in your class for inspiration.
Finding a variety of study methods can help you tailor yours to your benefit when it comes to preparing for exams. Talk to a student you know to see how they conduct their study sessions; not only to derive inspiration but to understand you are not alone in this harrowing process at the end of a term. Another great way to see other individuals’ study methods is through YouTube or forums in your free time. Watching “study tubers” and how they conduct their study methods is not only fun but most of the time, aesthetically pleasing, which can motivate you to study as well. However, you must make sure to not procrastinate by watching too many videos on battling procrastination, as it defeats the purpose entirely.
10. You don’t have to follow each study method carefully.
Study methods are meant to help you plan your study days to your benefit. They are not meant to burden you with the hopeless feeling that you are underprepared for your exams. When you research unique methods of studying, even with these tips, make sure you take what is important to you, as everyone has their own different study needs. The best study method you can use is a compilation of all the different methods you researched and tailored to fit your needs.
Finally, I hope these tips will guide you through finals season and take you through the exam with as much confidence and ease as possible!