Preparing for your exams is supposed to happen throughout your college year, but fear not, if you still have a few weeks left, then here are a few tips that may help. However, it is better that you start them from the very beginning so that you get into a few good habits.
Let’s Talk About Positive Habit Building
The most successful students are able to use positive habits. They remove the need for motivation when it comes to humdrum activities, and they ensure you stay on the right path towards success.
A simple example is when cleaning your dorm room. When you get back from a day of lectures and you enter your room, make a conscious decision to spend ten minutes cleaning and tidying. It may seem like you are imposing unneeded chores, but the idea of only ten minutes of cleaning is often palatable for even the laziest students. If you force yourself to do it for around two weeks, after that point it starts to become second nature. You will find yourself doing it without even thinking.
That is a simple but effective positive habit, and you can apply the technique to a wide range of your college activities. For example, it is highly recommended that after each lecture or each day of lectures that you write up your notes. It helps keep remind you of what you have learnt, it keeps the information in your mind, and the note will work well for revision material. Force yourself to do it every night for around two weeks, and soon this humdrum chore will become easier and you will find yourself becoming more efficient at it.
Teaching To Other People Is A Great Way Of Learning
For some reason, when we teach things to other people we seem to retain the knowledge a little more easily. You can use this to your advantage when you revising and learning for your exams.
You may not have a ready group of students waiting to learn from you, but that doesn’t matter. You can start a free blog with Google’s Blogger and teach your viewers things you learn on your courses. If you ally this with writing up your notes every day, then not only will you get a steady stream of student viewers (students that have missed lectures), but you will also find that the information seems to stick in your mind a little more.
Learning From Other People
There are going to be things said in your lectures that you only partially understand. Sadly, when you do not fully grasp a concept, you are more likely to forget it and the course material attached to it.
Luckily for you there is a cure for this, and it is as simple as hearing the same material from another person. For example, if there is a section of your lecture that you didn’t understand, you can look up the same material online. You can even find similar/identical lectures on YouTube, the Khan Academy, IvoryResearch, iTunes University and many more. Remember that it is less an issue of remembering the details and more an issue of understanding the underlying concepts.
Your Best Positive Habit Is A Good Sleep Routine
Most freshmen drop out because they are struggling with the material and/or the workload. What few people realize is that their workload has gotten on top of them because of procrastination and sleep deprivation.
Not getting enough sleep is an insidious foe. People that have not had enough sleep will often convince themselves that they are fine without realizing how unproductive they are being. Add to this the fact that many freshmen are away from home for the first time, so things such as early bed times and good meals go right out the window in place of fast food, alcohol and late nights.
As a mature adult, it is up to you to get back into a good sleep routine. It will feel like you are missing out on all the fun, but you have to put your studies first if you want to learn enough to pass your exams. The students with a good sleep routine will often find themselves more alert and productive when it actually comes time to take their exams.
Start Your Assignments The Same Day They Are Given
The students that fail to study and revise productively are the same ones that often fall behind on their assignments. You can get around this using a little psychology. Start your essays and assignments the very same day they are given. Take as big of a bite out of the material as you can.
If you do this, your conscious and subconscious mind will consider it to be an unfinished task rather than a task you need to start. It is far harder to ignore an unfinished task than it is to ignore a task you don’t have to do yet. For example, if you are clearing your floor of clothes and junk, and you stop half way through so that half the floor is clean and half is untidy, wouldn’t that bug you more than if all your room were tidy or untidy? An unfinished task is harder to ignore, ergo, you should start your assignments right away so you are less likely to procrastinate all the way up to the deadline. Do this, and not only do you clear your workload (which is nice), but you also free up more time for studying.