Studying

Try to start studying at least two weeks before your exam date, and commit to your studying; remind yourself that exams don’t last forever - there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Try to study to learn and understand, not to memorize.

If you can’t find the motivation to get to work on something, force yourself to pick it up for just two minutes. The key word is force; procrastination is tempting, but keep in mind there is nothing physically stopping you from doing what you have to do. After those two minutes, if you still do not want to keep going, put it away and go do something else. Even if you stop after two minutes, you will have two minutes’ worth of knowledge you did not have before.

Prioritize

Don’t spend all your time on one class or one concept that’s particularly hard, spread your studying out to cover everything to the best of your ability (recognize when it’s better to have one weak area and the rest strong vs all moderate and vice versa).

Exams are designed to cover the most important topics and not every little detail - study accordingly.

Don’t spend too much time on the things you already have a solid handle on.

Suck it up, buckle down, and get it done.

Location

Put your phone in a different room than the one you are studying in. Don’t go on your phone before bed. If you want to go on your phone as a study break, set a timer or alarm so you don’t spend hours scrolling through social media and before you know it, it’s 10pm and nothing is checked off your to do list.

Study in a central location, but find a dedicated space to study.

Go to a café, library, or somewhere other than home can also be really effective because there are less distractions, but don't hole yourself up in the library either. The different surrounding could be more refreshing and less boring to study.

You can’t get up and walk around constantly or watch Netflix.

Remove yourself from distractions. Take the initiative to move away from friends in class, study away from noise so that you can focus.

Do's & Don'ts

DO NOT MULTITASK

Turn your Wi-Fi off so you don’t have any notifications when you check your phone.

Ask teachers questions outside of class.

Study more material than is assigned.

Do not read everything, but understand everything you read.

Redo old tests, so lots of practice questions and find practice exams if you can.

Notes

Make notes specifically for terms/concepts that you do not understand and make sure these areas get some special attention.

Go through your binder and make good colourful notes of everything you find that’s important.

Stop after a few sections of reading and make sure you can actually recall what you just learned and summarize it. Did you actually learn or did your eyes just read the words? Rewards help here (e.g. a candy or some chocolate).

Resources

YouTube can be used as more than just a distraction. It can actually be used to improve your studying. Watching videos that explain tricky concepts in science and math or summaries of stories and plays for English can be really beneficial to kickstart your review.

Teach the material to someone who has no idea what you’re talking about; a friend, family member (or to a pet).

Flash Cards & Quizzes

Don’t make ones for stuff you already know just to have a complete set of 40 or something. Make 3 flash cards if 3 quick things is all you need.

Make them even for subjects you wouldn’t normally think you’d need them for.

Quiz yourself after reviewing something to see what you really know and make a list or keep track of the things you don’t. After, go back and review the things you still don’t understand.

True/false and multiple-choice questions on previous tests.
- Read through all your tests and make flashcards with the multiple choice/true or false questions.
- With review questions that are true/false or multiple choice, instead of just writing on your page “True” or “A”, rewrite the question in a sentence that includes the answer and then highlight the key words/ points.

Quizlets are your new best friend.
- For subjects like English, going online and finding important quotes and analyzing them is a good way to study.

You only truly know something when you can teach it to someone else.

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