Exam Shack

Helping you with your exams and studies

Ten Principles of Successful Study

The sheer number of study methods out there can be bewildering. Some recommend moving around while learning to align physical awareness with learning. Others recommend a stream of endless note-taking in a strict regime. My advice, if your at the beginning of a course, is to try a number of methods and see what works for you. Outlined below is my study method and it has worked very well for me.

• Work to a time-table. Allocate split portions of your time to each subject area, plan what you will do during the week ahead and stick to it. 

• Split each study session into half hour slots (25 minutes plus 5 minute break) to prevent mental fatigue setting in. Studies show that the recall rate for study sessions begins to wane after 20 minutes, so keep your learning effective and divide it into chunks at which the learning and recall rate are highest. 

• Learn proper note-taking and try alternatives to the traditional linear form - mindmaps (check out books by Tony Buzan) are an excellent system and use a system of inter-connected keywords to trigger recall. 
  Keep your learning environment clear of clutter and free from distraction. 

• Revise throughout your course and not just before exams. At the end of each week, go through all your notes and, ideally, refresh them, breaking down the detail you need to remember into smaller and smaller memorable portions. Each time you go over them, the memory-recall connections become stronger. Revise that same subject matter again in a month's time, three months' time, six months' time etc. 

• Start each study session with your least favourite task/subject. You tend to be fresher and more positive at the beginning of a study session so you'll be able to push through the "pain barrier" more easily (and who knows, you're least favourite subject may soon become your favourite). 

• Use holidays to revise and push ahead. When I was doing my A Levels in the UK, most of my fellow students stopped studying, went on holiday and lazed about. At the risk of seeming like a dullard goody-two-shoes, I decided to spend between three and five hours each day revising what I had done the previous term, reading around my subjects for material not covered in the course and reading onwards into the course for material and subjects yet to be covered. Each time I went back to start the new term, I had pulled further and further ahead with my studies. It was probably the single biggest motivator to throw myself further and further into the world of learning.  

• Reward yourself for achieving step-by-step goals. Periodically treat yourself to something you'd like to do or you'd like to have. Studying should never be a chore - indeed you are unleashing the incredible power of your mind, learning thinking skills that will be with you forever and learning more about the world in which you live - and promising yourself gifts or rewards on a regular basis will keep your learning goal-oriented and focused. 

• Motivation is key. Motivation comes in many forms and you'll need to find and build yours. For me, my primary motivation was personal - I was told by my father I'd be lucky to pass any exam. Proving him wrong was for me a key motivation (I went from B/C and D-grade GCSE student to A grade A Level student and then got a place at Cambridge University). But equally motivating for me was learning about people who were, in themselves, motivational. Biographies of Mozart, Einstein and Leonardo da Vinci all spurred me on and reinforced the passion I had for the simple act of expanding my mind and discovering just what I was capable of. 

• Set your goal/s. Work out what you want to achieve in your studies at the earliest possible stage. Studying, as well as being of value in its own right, can also be a route somewhere. Do you want a certain grade? Do you want a certain career at the end of your studies? Whatever your aim, see your studies as a route to achieving it. And plan each step of the way by breaking it down into successively smaller chunks. Which, of course, takes us all the way back to the importance of Step 1 above - plan your study week.