7 Tips to Help You Ace Your Next Test

         

Hey guys, welcome back to A Millennial’s Survival Guide to College, get ready to put your thinking caps on because this week I am going to help you study better. The tips that I am about to present to you should help you focus better while studying and retain more information. I will be honest, not every tip will work for everyone, and this post just serves as a general guide to help you figure out which study habits are most effective for you.

1.    Pomodoro Technique: This technique is a personal favorite of mine because it involves giving whatever topic you are studying 25 minutes of focus and then a 5 minute break from your task. This helps you retain more information and produce better content because it helps you prioritize what you need to get done in the 25 minute window and then you get a 5 minute brain break. For more information on the Pomodoro Technique, check out their website: http://pomodorotechnique.com/

2.   Quiz Yourself: Chances are you’re going to be tested on the information you studied, so why not test yourself to see what you really know. You can use the quiz questions from the end of the chapter in your textbook or you can use apps like StudyBlue (available in IOS and Android) to create your own questions and quiz yourself with ones created by fellow classmates.

3.   Write Your Notes By Hand: Yes this tip sounds tedious, especially during a lecture with a professor who talks way too fast, but it has been scientifically proven that you retain more information this way. Isn’t that more important in the long run than the hand cramp you might get?

4.   Get Paper Textbooks: Yes, you may hate carrying around these books and paying for the paper version, but chances are if you grew up using paper books and paper textbooks, you are more likely to remember content from the paper version than the digital version.

5.   Exercise:  This may sound like a random piece of advice, but getting those endorphins going and that heart rate rising actually helps you retain more information, so go to Zumba, do your Crossfit, and do whatever gets your pulse racing.

6.   Teach Your Peers: If you really want to be sure that you know what you need to know, then you should try to teach your peers about the subject. This will test what you really know.

7.   Ignore Social Media: If you want to spend your time studying, then avoid Twitter, Pinterest, and Snapchat. You will be so busy scrolling through posts that you’ll end up wasting all of your study time on social media instead of learning the content you need to learn.

I hope you find these tips helpful and good luck with your next test. Do you have anything you do to help you study?