How to Create a Basic Study Guide

You're guaranteed to have to take tests in college, no matter what your major field of study. Be prepared for testing by creating a basic study guide to organize the course content. Organizing what you need to know in a memorable way can give you confidence. Read on to learn how to create a basic study guide.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Know your own learning style and use that style to create a basic study guide. If you learn best by seeing, focus on mental images, notes and pictures. If you're oriented toward audio learning, then make recordings of the lectures. If you learn more quickly through activities or hands-on practice, then design a physical study guide or one that uses both vision and hearing.
2. Pay attention to course objectives and chapter headings to understand the big picture. On the first day of class, draw a map of the big picture if you're visual or hands-on. Talk aloud either to yourself or others in a study group if you're audio-centered.
3. Organize the details inside the big picture after each class. Determine how details fit within the course objective and chapter headings. Create mental images, voice recordings of your reorganization of material or physical models, such as flash cards or clay figures, to retain the material learned in class or from assigned reading.
4. List questions to ask yourself or the professor as you create your study guide. Add the answers to your guide. At the end of each week, review the guide for about 20 to 30 minutes in a quiet environment so that your whole focus is on remembering and reflecting upon the material.
5. Be consistent in class attendance and keep up with the reading or class projects. A professor may hint or outright tell you what will be on the test during class. Work on your study guide as soon as possible after class and then review each week to avoid cramming the night before a test.

Tips & Warnings

• Listen to recorded lectures at least twice if you're an audio learner. Consider joining a study group to discuss material aloud and recording your reading notes or reading aloud to yourself.
• If you learn by doing, focus on activities--tracing words in the air, underlining, drawing, walking while reading and building models or figures that illustrate the course content.