Tips for How to Study, Write Essays and Take Tests
Scholastic achievement, at any level of academia, can ensure your success in later life. Studying efficiently and testing well will serve to promote your academic success. While a great amount of literature has been written about how to study effectively, take tests well and write well-developed essays, keeping these few easy tips in mind could be the difference between average grades and high grades.
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Planning to Study
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Before beginning to study, think about some goals you have for your study session. For instance, if you have a cumulative final exam and expect to study the entire course content in one sitting, you need to rethink your goals. Draft an outline of how many study sessions you will need to get through the material you want to study. People study at very different rates, so you may want to study for one hour, see how much material you get through and plan accordingly.
If you are a parent helping a young child study, sit down with the child and discuss goals for each study session and how you can help facilitate a better studying environment.
Beginning to Study
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Start by studying in a quiet, controlled environment such as your bedroom or the library. If you need music or background noise, use headphones if you're in a library. Different people have different learning styles, but it can be helpful to try to take in a little information in various ways. Passively rereading your notes or your textbook will probably not be very helpful. Rereading your notes for key pieces of information, underlining the notes and rewriting the underlined parts as notes or flash cards can help you remember vital information. Finding informative content on YouTube or on a DVD can also help solidify information for you if you're more of an auditory or visual learner. Finally, visually organizing your notes through a flow chart or illustrations can also help you retain more information.
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Testing Well
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Just like studying, different people take tests differently. Some students find it helpful to scan the entire test before working on any particular problem and picking out questions that they find easy to answer first. By taking a test without worrying about the chronological order of the questions, you may be surprised how other questions can jog your memory or even partially or fully answer a question on which you are stuck. If you find yourself getting anxious or nervous, stop taking the test for a moment and take one deep breath. Stress affects your thought processes, so calming yourself down can be beneficial to your test performance.
Well-Written Essays
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The most important aspect of a well-written essay is the voice of the essay. If you use a thesaurus because you think it will make you sound smarter, you are not writing with an authentic voice, which will be obvious and awkward. Use concrete, natural language and organize your essay as you would an argument you were having with someone. You would never just jump to the actual thesis of your argument without laying out what you are arguing and why. The same applies for a well-written essay. It is often helpful to write an outline before writing a paper, making sure that the outline has a least three points that clearly defend your thesis.
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