We have our rituals when it comes to preparing for exams, but what if we are doing it wrong? We tell you 7 things in which almost all of us fail.
1. Read everything multiple times
Reading and rereading is a total waste of time. It takes a long time, information is not well retained and we lose focus easily. How many times in the middle of those readings have you had to go back because you had been thinking about something else for a long time? During exam help time we tend to race against the clock, which means that wasting time is not acceptable.
Instead of reading and rereading, it is best to do a comprehensive reading in which we underline and write down only the important things and then switch to another more effective study technique.
2. Transcribe the notes
Another waste of time, transcribing the notes is something that we should do much before and not during the exams. Writing (by hand) helps to memorize, but clearing a semester of notes is not something that should be done a few days before the exams.
If we have not taken care of passing them before, now it is better that we work with the dirty notes and that we make summaries or clean cards. That is all we should write. Only what we know is important.
3. Don’t use your voice
We get used to studying in silence because all our lives we have been told that it is studied that way. You have to keep quiet in classes and in libraries, but studying should be loud. Why? Well, because auditory memory will help us a lot to retain all the information and because by “singing” what we study aloud we force ourselves to organize our ideas and structure the information at the same time that certain “occurrences” appear that, well because we They are funny, good for how they sound, they cause us to memorize much faster.
4. Do not vary study techniques
That saying “better known bad than good to know” is the worst. We get used to studying always in the same way because, in the best of cases, it works for us, but doing it always the same way we are lowering our performance. Not all subjects are the same and we are not as fresh throughout the day, so varying study techniques according to what each subject requires and taking into account our level of fatigue will make the day much more productive.
5. Not having schedules, organization or an adequate space
We get up in the morning, sit at the desk, and continue like this until the body can endure. It may be that, at first, we will endure many hours, but the performance will not be the same as the day goes by and as the days go by, the fatigue will take its toll and the performance will be very low.
You have to create routines and fixed schedules with stops to rest your eyes and exercise your body.
In addition, it is advisable to organize the study, leaving the simpler subjects or parts for the last hours and, whenever possible, study in the same place where we can concentrate, be calm and have a good chair, a good table and correct lighting. Come on; let’s have our perfect study place.
6. Don’t make it fun
Nobody says that preparing for exams can be compared to a party with our best friends, but it does not have to be an ordeal either. If we get bored, our ability to concentrate will progressively decrease, so it is important that we strive to make it as enjoyable as possible. Inventing songs with the syllabus, making absurd mnemonic rules , studying in a group or in pairs , turning the reviews into imaginary quizzes, drawing or making mind maps are very entertaining techniques that we can alternate to make the process really enjoyable. Mostly students pay someone to take my online exam because of enjoying in exam season.
7. Not taking care of yourself during exams
The typical thing in exam season: we sleep little, we eat badly, we gorge ourselves on coffee, we do not exercise, we eat sweets or chips between meals, we do not rest our eyes, we incessantly repeat negative messages such as “I’m going to fail”, “no I have nothing left”and things like that, and we let stress serve as a motor to carry on for a few more hours or a few more days.
One of the most important lessons on the way to obtaining a university degree is that we learn to study and deal with exam seasons without losing our physical and mental health in the process.
You have to sleep eight hours, eat well, do not abuse stimulants, exercise physically to avoid body aches that concentrate us, snack on nuts or fruit between meals instead of preparations full of fats and sugars that will also reduce our attention span, exercise and rest your eyes every few hours, avoid negative circular thoughts and change your point of view to instill courage and strength and learn to deal with stress so that we do not create consequences or we become blank in an exam.
If we are able to create a study method in which we follow all these rules, obtaining a degree or any postgraduate degree will be very simple.
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