I'm going to be talking about my top 10 studying techniques

since a lot of us are currently preparing for final exams.

Number 10: take notes from the textbook. Keep in mind that the main purpose of notes is to summarize the information

so that you don't have to read the entire textbook when you want to study.

However this can be an effective study technique if you're reading actively, so, summarize the information and put it in your own words,

analyze the concepts,

identify key ideas, make connections between topics, or to your own life. These are all examples of active reading.

Reorganize your class notes. Class notes tend to be rushed and all the information is written together in a big jumble.

You can restructure this information in a logical order, or put it into charts and diagrams.

This will help you identify what's important and

organize the information in your head and make connections between the information in the topic.

It's also a great way to make your notes easier to understand for when you're studying later.

Number 8:

correct your previous papers or exams.

Go through all the papers that you hopefully have organized somewhere and

check the wrong answers that you got on tests and quizzes, or comments on papers that you've written.

This way, you can kind of review the material by looking over a bit, and

you can focus on patching up the mistakes that you made before.

Number 7: make a study guide.

With a study guide, you'll be looking over all of the material, and you identify what's important.

This also helps you connect topics to each other and connect information within a topic.

Looking over the material isn't quite as effective as active learning techniques, which I'll be talking about in the next couple of tips.

Method Number 5 is to use flashcards.

This is considered active learning because you're practicing

remembering the information, because that's what you're going to be doing on tests. You'll be prompted to remember the information,

not just look at the information and think that you know it.

I recommend using flashcards only for vocabulary words.

Number 4, which kind of goes along with flashcards, and that is to use spaced repetition.

Research shows that we tend to forget information in certain increments of time as shown in this curve of forgetting,

so, in order to reset the curves of forgetting to cement the information into your long-term memory,

you'll want to study the information at certain intervals.

Softwares like Anki, or doing your own manual spaced repetition system, are really helpful for this.

I'll link more about that in the description.

Method Number 4: use practice quizzes. Like flashcards, this is another method for practicing retrieval.

Practice quizzes are also comprehensive, so they'll identify what you don't know and what you need to work on.

You can find practice quizzes in your textbook in those review sections at the end of chapters or sections,

or you can Google online for your subject practice questions.

Number 3: write your own practice quizzes.

Kind of like making a study guide, this also encourages you to look over the information and identify

what's the most important.

I recommend waiting a day or two between when you write the test and when you take the test that way you'll be retrieving the information

from your long-term memory, not your short-term memory.

Method Number 2:

do practice quizzes with friends.

Everyone should write their own quiz and then you guys can pool the questions together.

Because everyone will write different questions because you have different views on what's important and

this means that pretty much everything in the material will be covered.

It's also a lot more fun to work with friends. Just be careful of procrastinating and wasting time.

One really fun way to do this is with Kahoot or with online jeopardy or gameshow softwares.

And lastly, my Number 1 method, also known as the Fineman technique, is to teach other people.

Just like the other five tips, I'm sure I sound like a broken record by now, but this is a great way to practice retrieval.

This also helps you identify what you don't know because the other person will be asking questions.

You also have to really organize the information into a lesson structure,

and you have to truly understand the information in order to teach another person,

especially if they don't understand it as well as you do.

It's best to teach an actual person since they can ask you questions back, but if you don't have anyone available,

you can always make a fake lesson and teach it to your pillow, or a wall.

I hope you found this video helpful, and good luck with any exams that you're taking.

I upload new videos every Monday and Friday, and I post pictures of my studying on my Tumblr and Instagram,

which I'll link in the description.

See you next time!