Exam season is one of the most challenging parts of student life and a lot of students associate it with sleepless nights and unfruitful revision sessions that end up in tears. While exams are meant to challenge students’ skills, there are ways to achieve high marks without all the pain. This blog has rigorously researched the best revision methods, in hope to make the most stressful part of student life more manageable. While it is well known that starting the revision process as early as possible is the best way to study for exams, a lot of students end up cramming the night before, so this blog will advise on both situations.
The secret ingredients
Firstly, whether students are preparing for a long all-nighter for an exam the next day or starting revision for exams months away, the most important study methods to be remembered are active recall and spaced repetition. Warning: rereading notes and highlighting them are insufficient to remember information. Old ways must be left behind to succeed here.
What is active recall?
Active recall refers to the learning method in which students focus on actively retrieving information from memory and analysing it, rather than passively reviewing notes. This is the best practice for exams as it involves very similar mental exercises. This study tool is heavily backed up by science as studies have demonstrated that it improves long-term retention of information, as well as comprehension.
There are multiple ways to practice active recall while studying: by using flashcards, participating in study groups, and practicing testing with past papers, mock exams, or self-made tests. This study method can be used for an all-night cramming session the day before the exams and for planned study sessions months in advance. Therefore, we will explain in depth how this can be utilised best for both situations.
What is spaced repetition?
This study method is the other secret ingredient to improving student life during the exam period. Spaced repetition refers to repeatedly revising information across various temporal intervals. This method also has a strong scientific foundation, as it has been developed based on the scientific concept of the forgetting curve. This idea claims that people tend to continuously forget learned information in a matter of days or weeks unless they actively review it. While this seems like a very intuitive idea, students still tend to underestimate how fast information is lost, and what a big difference can be seen if the first revision happens in the first few days after the initial encounter. Unfortunately, this study method can only be used if revision starts at least a few weeks before the exam period. Thus, explanations for this will be given in the section for long-term revision advice.
Tips for the cramming part of student life
Every student has been in a position where they didn’t manage their time well enough and now an all-nighter is needed the day before the exam. While a difficult task, it is possible to be able to pass the upcoming exam and even perform well.
The biggest obstacle in such cases tends to be negative self-talk and panic. While it seems like morale is not something you should focus on during such tense moments, research clearly shows that positive self-talk enhances productivity and performance. Thus, maintaining a realistic but positive attitude is the first step towards overcoming this challenge.
The other problem that needs to be tackled is the mind’s limited capacity to retain information and comprehend information in such a short time. While details matter, if the studying session is time-limited, the focus should be placed on memorising and comprehending the key theories and concepts.
These can be identified by going through all the notes relevant to the upcoming exam and identifying the main broad topics. The next step now should be to write condensed versions of these notes for each topic where the key ideas are clearly stated and explained. One of the best ways to ensure nothing of importance is missing is by checking past exam papers and mock exams, and seeing if the condensed notes offer all the necessary information to complete them. After preparing this material, time should be allocated to different ways of doing active recall.
One way is the blurting method, which refers to writing down all that is known about a topic from memory, and then checking the notes and write down in red the information. Other efficient ways of active recall are attempting to solve past exam papers and using flash cards ( with questions on one side and the answers on the other side). After some individual study time, fatigue will inevitably make it harder to focus and be motivated, which is the perfect time to participate in a group study session, as it breaks monotony.
During these study sessions, students should ensure that they recognise their weak points and try to amend those first, before diving deeper into better-known topics.
After taking the exam, despite using all these methods it is very likely that most of the information will not be retained long-term due to the amount of information reviewed in such a short time. Thus students should make sure they go through their notes again in the future, if the information is essential for other future assessments.
Tips for long-term revision
It is a well-known fact that starting early is the better choice for achieving the best results in any task, but it is especially true for the exam season in student life. However, even students who have managed to organise their time well enough to start early can still make mistakes that would give them unsatisfactory results.
For these students, the first steps happen even before class starts. In order to be most efficient in taking notes during class, the students should familiarise themselves with the main ideas of the material by going through the presentation slides, and writing down (or copy-pasting) all the information in their preferred notes app. This way, during the lecture, any details that the lecturer shares can be easily written down, as there is no rush to write down the information in the presentation.
The day of the lecture, or a few days after, students should write a condensed version of the notes, with the most important ideas. Then after familiarising themselves with the material, revision can begin. The day when the condensed notes are written, students should practice active recall, either through flashcards or the blurting method (it may be too soon to engage in mock exams practice, or group study sessions). Then, every few weeks, the same should be repeated, spacing out the revision more and more each time.
Therefore, an example would be the following:
- Revision no.1 - first week after the class
- Revision no. 2 - two weeks after Revision No.1
- Revision no. 3 - three weeks after Revision No. 2
Depending on the complexity of the subject, some topics will need more revision sessions than others. Organisation is an essential part of student life and so is tracking one’s study progress. After every revision session, students should take note of how well the information was remembered. One essential part of making long-term revision sessions a productive use of time in one’s student life, is to focus on the weak points identified after the first few revision sessions. Students who study well ahead of exams could still not perform well if they place too much focus on remembering details from topics they know well while neglecting other topics’ essential theories.
Hard work is an important factor in high performance during the exams period, but ultimately it is not enough without efficient study methods and organisational practices. Check out more tips on the best organisational and note-taking apps to manage student life.
Additionally, since morale is essential for a high-quality student life, choosing the right degree is crucial. If you are struggling with this choice, our experts at UAPP can help you. Book a free consultation today!
