Three Simple Techniques To Make More

Certainly at this time of the year many students are preparing their final exams. Anxiety, nervousness, little time available …

How can you organize yourself? A fact that seems clear in today’s society is that we are obliged to “store a series of theoretical data and knowledge” to obtain a degree, promotions and aspire to a certain professional and personal success.

However, there are few academic paths that teach pupils how to study, manage their time and even their anxiety. We have all been nervous before an exam and it is common for students who do not know how to deal with these situations and effectively demonstrate their knowledge. 

First of all, we must be clear that “studying” is not the same as “memorizing”. People have little ability to retain information in the long term, in fact they are forgotten little by little.

We only remember what is significant, so it is necessary to first establish a level of understanding, of information management, of transformation. In this way, the information read will be significantly fixed in the brain. Let’s see these steps in more detail:

 1. Organization and planning of the study

-You need to establish a time. Know how much time you have each day to complete your study.
-It is also necessary to create an evaluation scale of  the most difficult subjects for you, dedicating more time to them.
-Every day it is also necessary to establish the rest time. When studying, it is good to play sports, go out for a run, for example.
-You have to be realistic, establish a time that you know you can respect.

2. Strategies for meeting the agreed time

-You must understand that you have to respect the time you have decided to dedicate to studying. Don’t let friends or family bother you, avoid distractions, put your cell phone in a corner and in silent mode.

-The ideal is to establish times of 40 minutes. Our attention level usually drops when we reach three quarters of an hour of study, so you can structure the study phases lasting 40 minutes with 15-minute intervals. 

-What to do during the 15 minutes of rest? There are three relaxation methods that will be very useful for regaining a good level of attention. The first is to look at something at a distance of two or more meters for ten minutes. Do it calmly, breathing slowly, relaxing.

The second consists in relaxing the muscles of the head, raising the eyebrows about five times, keeping them tensed for a few seconds and then relaxing.

The third form of relaxation is very simple. You just have to breathe deeply and slowly for two minutes. It is very easy and will allow you to recover your energy immediately.

3. The LSSRM method

This is a simple method that will help you achieve much more meaningful learning by moving you away from simple mnemonic repetition.

L = Reading

The first step for the study consists in carrying out the reading of the text to be learned. First an exploratory reading and then an understanding one. You have to understand what the text says and reflect a little on what it wants to convey.

S = Underline

A classic, everyone does it, but is it good? There are those who underline everything directly and fail to identify the important elements of the text. This is why prior reading is essential. If you don’t know what to point out, you can ask yourself questions. Before each paragraph, think about a question and underline the possible answer.

The underlining should help identify the really important information.

S = Scheme

Did you know that memory remembers drawings better than words? If you organize the information in an outline, the memory will be much faster and more meaningful. Schematizing is a perfect technique that allows the graphic representation of the summary of the text, so that, with a simple glance, the content and organization of the ideas of the study material can be seen.

R = Summarize and review

We must be clear: a good summary should not exceed 30% of the total text. You should only reflect on the important ideas with your words, showing that you understand what you are saying. Do not paraphrase lines of the text, express it so that the result is internally yours. Afterward, review. Speak softly, say what you understand, reinforce the information with data you may be missing.

M = Save

It is the last step, but the previous ones must be successfully carried out, it must be easy to remember everything that has been learned. The purpose is to create meaningful data. If you want to memorize from the first reading, you will have to make a superhuman effort and the next day you will not remember much. 

The best thing is to memorize a little every day, look at the diagrams and summaries, repeat aloud, memorize so that you are familiar and useful what you introduce into your mind.