Things You'll Need:
- Study Materials
- Place to Study
- Time to Study
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Step 1
The first thing you want to do to maximize your study time is to determine exactly what you need to cover for your test. You can do this by book marking the chapters you need to read, what notes you need review, and what main ideas you need to cover. By doing this, you eliminate wasting time studying things, you don't really need to know for your test.
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Step 2
Once you have determined what you need to study, you can better judge how much time it's going to take you to cover everything. The last thing you want to do is cram everything the night before the test. Also, by determining how much you need to cover and how long it will take to do so, you can effectively set aside an amount of time each day to study to get everything covered before your test.
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Step 3
Re-write versus highlighting. Highlighting is great if you can keep your books and it's an open-book test. But chances are it wont be. It's proven that writing something can help you remember it much better than just highlighting. Also, if you use a highlighter, you may become "highlighter happy" as some call it, and start to highlight things that are not as significant as others. To avoid this and maximize memorization, when you find something you will need for the test, re-write it in your own words on a sheet of folder paper.
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Step 4
Read. If your teacher or professor has assigned you certain chapters or other materials to read, make you take the time to read them. Write down key points. And if you come across any words you don’t understand, take the time to look them up. You can’t expect to know the material if you don’t know what it means.
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Step 5
The night before your test make sure you get a good nights rest and eat a good breakfast that morning. In order for your brain to cooperate, it needs to be rested and fueled up. Also, the better you feel before taking your test can significantly affect your brain’s ability to recall what it has learned.
