Study without Stress

With exams just around the corner, it's natural to feel anxious and stressed about the outcome. To improve your grades, one of the most effective strategies is to review your course material regularly and actively test your recall of key concepts.

Don’t feel pressured to over-do it this holiday. Good sleep and nutrition are equally as important as revising. It keeps your brain fresh and ready to soak in all the information. It’s not too late to start revising - if you start today, it will be better than starting tomorrow or not starting at all! Every effort counts. 

A study timetable is the perfect way to keep everything together during exam season. We find that it keeps us focused and on track. Setting it up is quite easy - you can use your day-to-day digital/paper calendar to plan in study sessions with plenty of breaks in between to maintain a good level of concentration. It would also help to make a list of all the topics you have to review from each module and assign them to your timetabled study sessions (guilty of forgetting what we actually have to do once too many times 😔). 

Ok so - once you have a study timetable, what do you do? You could start off by reviewing the notes you made during your lectures using the Cornell Note Taking System. The page is divided into 3 sections: a 2 inch column on the left side of the page for your cues, the right side of the page for your notes and 3-4 lines blank at the bottom for a brief summary. The notes section covers important ideas from lectures that can be quizzed using the cue section to the left. 

Hopefully, the Cornell Note taking system helps refresh the content as well as preventing you from spending too much time just re-writing notes. It’s better to spend most of your time actively recalling module content. Active recall is a study technique that helps you remember information for the long run. Some examples of active recall include (but not limited to): flashcards, practice questions, the Feynman and the Pomodoro techniques.

💡 Flashcards 💡

An easy and effective way to remember information. All it takes is writing a question on one side and the answer on the other. They can include diagrams or key points - whatever works best for you! What’s great about flashcards is that they are easy to carry around and there are plenty of free online platforms that can help you create digital flashcards if that's what you prefer. 

💡 Practice questions 💡

A great way to get a feel of what the exam structure looks like. Usually, Moodle has practice MCQs or past papers that can be used to practice and understand the type of questions your professors are likely to ask. Additionally, you can use ChatGPT to generate similar questions to the ones from the MCQs (make sure to learn how to use AI responsibly) that you can practice answering before the exam. 

💡 The Feynman technique 💡

Using your Cornell notes, teach the topic you’re studying to an (imaginary) audience or yourself. Not only does this method help improve your memory of the material, but it also assists you in identifying gaps in your knowledge where your explanation was unclear. 

💡 Pomodoro Technique 💡

This technique can help you concentrate and improve your time management when revising. The set-up is quite easy - pick a task and set a 25 minute timer. After 25 minutes, take a short 5 minute break. Then repeat! Every 4 Pomodoros, you can take a longer break. The task you set yourself varies - you can make your Cornell notes or flashcards or whatever works for you on that day. Hopefully, with the help of this technique you will find it easier to remain concentrated and avoid a burn out. 

If you're working on coursework instead of exams, some of the studying strategies mentioned above could be really helpful. For example, using Cornell notes can help you stay focused on the main objective of your project, especially if you start to feel overwhelmed or find yourself veering off track.

You can try studying with some friends at the library. It might help make studying less dull and more productive if you study the same topic and share your insights with each other.

Good luck on your exams! Believe in yourself and as hard as it sounds try not to stress too much. With enough revision and rest you will do great.