Edited by: Veronika Potylitsina
In the midst of exam season at U of T, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the amount of work at hand…I know I am. To help break up the monotony of studying, I tried implementing some new study habits and techniques into my study sessions. I found each one of them to be helpful in their own way. I’m going to give you a rundown of each new method I tried, as well as the pros and cons of each.
1. The Strict Schedule
Are you one of those people who say that they’re going to start working at 1:00, but suddenly it’s 1:02, and now you’ve got to wait until 2:00 to start? I am. Hours have been lost throughout the year watching “one more video” or grabbing “one more snack” before I started getting work done, but I knew that that was going to end as soon as exam season began. I didn’t have time to lose anymore! One of my most productive and rewarding study days came when I made myself follow the strictest study schedule I’ve ever created. I wrote up a schedule that outlined exactly how much time I wanted to spend on the things I needed to study, right down to the minute. By writing in two short breaks and longer gaps for meals, I was able to hold myself accountable to the schedule, and felt accomplished and less tired than I thought I would be once it was over.
Pros: it’s satisfying to check the little boxes you make on your list, and by scheduling tasks for certain times, the clock holds you accountable.
Cons: it’s easy to get discouraged if you get a few minutes behind schedule…it can quickly turn into a snowball effect. Try making a schedule without specific times.
2. Compare Yourself to Strangers on the Internet
If there’s anything that motivated me this April, it’s been watching videos of people who are better at studying than I am. Not only did it get me pumped up to do some work, but their videos also inspired me to try new ways of making notes and managing my study time. I actually got the idea of making my study schedules the way that I did from watching a couple of YouTube videos on time-management and organization. But be careful! It’s so easy to fall into the procrastination trap of watching too many of these videos. Limit yourself to a set number to help get you motivated, and then get to work!
Pros: watching a video or two can be refreshing and a welcome break during any study session.
Cons: watching a video or two can be enough temptation to cause you to abandon the study session altogether.
3. Quizlet
While I have made my fair share of flashcards in my lifetime, I’d never tried using Quizlet before. For course content that is more fact-based and that relies solely on memorization, I found the website to be extremely helpful. Making flashcards online is a lot faster and more efficient than writing them out by hand, and Quizlet can generate all sorts of tests for you to test your knowledge in different ways.
Pros: quick, easy, and self-shuffling.
Cons: there’s something nice about writing flashcards with colourful pens on index cards. I find that for certain subjects, I can remember the content better if I’ve written notes down by hand. If this is the case for you, keep at it with the flashcards!
4. Lecture Your Friends Until They Hate You
This works especially well with friends who aren’t in the same classes as you. Find somebody who doesn’t know the first thing about ancient Roman architecture, or Kant’s “universal law” formulation of the categorical imperative, and teach them something! For me, teaching the content I’ve learned to someone else is a great way to help me know if I really understand it as much as I might think I do. Often, the answer is no. If I’m having trouble explaining a concept to somebody who’s never learned it before, I need to go back to my notes, or to the lecture slides, and figure out where I’m going wrong in my explanation. It’s also a great way to see how much information on a topic you can recall.
Pros: it’s a great indicator of how thoroughly you understand content, and verbal/oral studying proves very helpful for a lot of people.
Cons: though the title of this heading is a joke…seriously, apologies to all my friends who’ve heard too much about Rome.
5. The Pomodoro Method
This is probably the most effective study technique I used this exam season. The Pomodoro method consists of working for 25-minute chunks of time that are separated by shorter breaks. For me, 25 minutes feels like the perfect amount of time to devote to intense studying without feeling completely burned out afterwards. An hour on the Pomodoro method looks like 25 minutes of studying followed by a five minute break, repeat. If I used the method for longer than a one hour period, I would throw in some ten minute breaks as well. There’s a fantastic online timer that is specifically meant for the Pomodoro method, but keeping an eye on the clock works just as well.
Pros: easy to use, motivating, and sets the pace for a controlled and doable study session.
Cons: the online timer doesn’t allow you to alter your Pomodoro to be longer or shorter than 25 minutes, but if you really want to increase or decrease it, use a generic online timer instead.
Now that you (hopefully) feel more inspired to study, stop reading articles online and get to work! Choose one of these techniques and give it a try. Good luck on your exams!