Study Skills

Techniques I have learnt about:

  • Spacing out – not doing all the content of one subject in one big chunk. It’s better to split things up, so do some biology, then some history, then some maths and then go back to biology
  • Taking breaks – although it feels like you are losing time by taking breaks, it actually helps you stay energised and helps you not burn out.
  • Listening to music – they say that listening to music is counterproductive when studying. Although I will find it really really hard to study without music as I am so used to it, maybe I will give it a try and see how it goes.
  • Retrieval method – writing down all the stuff you remember before going over notes/doing practise tests so you can find out what you do and don’t know. I’ve tried this before for biology and it worked quite well, so I think I will try it again for other subjects
  • Dual Coding – make all sorts of different kinds of notes – flashcards, mindmaps, notes etc. Also do different types of studying instead of sticking to just one, such as practise quizzes, note-taking, using flashcards etc.
  • Starting early. When revising for my GCSEs, I did not start too late (I was revising from the beginning of the April break before) however I think it would have been beneficial to start doing it a little bit earlier, especially for subjects like history and science where a lot of memorisation is needed. I find tests and exams very stressful and get very anxious about them, which makes it hard for me to start studying. Instead of it motivating me, I kind of get paralysed by it and the whole thing is too stressful so I cope by ignoring the problem for a bit. For the Grade 11 mocks, I am going to try as hard as I can to do small bits of revision way in advance, hopefully, this won’t make them seem as daunting and scary. I’m going to start by making flashcards for history in the CNY break, and will probably do the same for biology and maths.
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Leave a Reply