The most important tests of the semester are about to happen. You are faced with an immense amount of content to study, but only a small amount of time to review the material. If for some reason you have already let the material accumulate, you have certainly experienced this in your academic life, right?
Know, however, that this does not have to be so. Knowing how to review the material properly, you will not only be able to organize your studies, but also achieve better and better results in tests and assignments — and that is exactly what we will talk about in this article.
Below, we list 08 foolproof tips to help you in this mission. To know them, stay with us and good reading!
1. Adopt a routine
The first step to being able to review the material in the best possible way is to adopt a study routine. This is because, in this way, you will study a little each day, managing your time and without having to rush through all the content on the eve of tests and assignments.
To do this, set up a schedule according to your time availability and academic assignment deadlines. This will help you set clear goals for each study session, allowing you to get the content out of your way as you progress.
In addition, this practice can significantly reduce your anxiety levels about studies, as it will serve as a guide to ensure that you always take the necessary steps when reviewing the material.
2. Make a checklist of tasks
A precious tip for reviewing the matter is to assemble a checklist with all the tasks to be completed and content to be studied. Having all this information together in a single list will certainly give you a clearer view of everything that needs to be done, avoiding confusion that can be caused by lack of organization.
3. Know how to prioritize
Adopting a study routine, making a checklist of tasks and having the help of a review schedule also bring another incredible advantage for those who want to review the material without letting anything accumulate. This is because, by taking these measures, it will be easier to see and establish which subjects and content to prioritize. This definition can be made taking into account established criteria according to your needs. It is interesting, for example, to consider the following factors:
- subjects in which you most need grades;
- dates of exams and assignments;
- content ease.
Here, it is important to understand that we are not saying that it is necessary to put aside some materials in favor of others, but to know how to identify which of them need to be reviewed first, so that nothing accumulates and that your time is optimized.
4. Make good summaries and notes
During your review, it is interesting to make summaries and annotations to help with the total fixation of the content. To do this, pay attention to what you’re reading rather than simply skimming through the (often tiring) texts needed during the study.
Then, mark the most important passages in the article, highlighting them and inserting them into your notes in your own words. Here, an interesting idea that works for some people is to try to repeat the process of summarizing by writing what you have studied on another sheet and without referring to your material. Thus, you can compare these notes with the old ones, realizing what you forgot and what still needs to be fixed.
5. Keep it organized
Organization is fundamental in all aspects of our lives — and when it comes to studies, this could not be different. Here, we are talking from organizing your schedule to the place where you sit down to review the material. It will hardly be possible to concentrate in a disorganized and, worse yet, full of distractions place.
6. Don’t leave anything to the last minute
Haste is the enemy of perfection — and you’ve surely come across that saying at some point in your life, haven’t you? Know that, here, it makes perfect sense.
After all, not following your study routine can make you end up leaving content that should have been fixed weeks in advance to the last minute. This ends up generating the famous end-of-semester accumulation . Remember that the ideal is to study a little each day or week, not too much in one day.
Also, every time you start a review or work, it’s ideal to finish what you’ve already started before moving on to the next task. In this way, you will avoid having a lot of incomplete activities accumulated and the feeling that you are not making progress in your studies.
7. Count on the help of technology
That technology is a fundamental part of modern everyday life is no secret. Just to give you an idea, more and more people use the internet to work and even take undergraduate, graduate and distance MBA (EAD) courses, an excellent solution in terms of cost-effectiveness for those who want to obtain a degree and study wherever you want and at whatever time you prefer.
When it comes to reviewing the matter, technology can also be a great ally. There are applications available precisely for this purpose, such as:
- trello : to create schedules and checklists;
- Evernote : to annotate materials in virtual notebooks, add PDF files, slideshows and record audios of lessons and important reviews;
- issuu : to read books, magazines and materials about what you are studying.
8. Explain the matter to a colleague
Colleague, family member, pet or even to yourself in front of the mirror: contrary to what it may seem, this is a very effective way of fixing content after having already done a review. It is difficult to forget information after explaining it (preferably aloud) more than once from the beginning.
