How to Study for a Test the Night Before

How to Study for a Test the Night Before Youve procrastinated for who knows how long, and youre arriving at the point where, if you dont start studying now, youll go into the test with a head devoid of information. You probably know this already, but this happens to everyone. As long as you dont make a habit out of it, youre fine. Youll have a chance to reflect on what you did and why it was bad later on, now lets focus on getting you through the test with a passing grade. Get Your Space Ready If you can, go to a public space. Even though its been well-documented in the Internet that people can fall asleep pretty much anywhere, you should make sleeping an unappealing option by placing yourself as far away as possible from your bed. If you cant go to a cafe or library, make sure you make yourself as uncomfortable as possible to stave off sleep. Dont wear sweatpants, dont sit in a chair you can lay in, and stay as far away from pillows as possible. Clean your desk and use it. Get everything ready, including but not limited to: textbooks, notes, writing utensils, something to drink and something to snack on. Ideally, youll be sitting at this desk without getting up for awhile, so try and prepare everything beforehand. 50/10 You have to strike a balance between breaks and working, so set a timer for 50 minutes, and dont lift your head from that textbook before its up. As soon as times up, get up and move! Go to the bathroom, make some tea or just walk around for a bit to give yourself some energy. If youre using a computer, dont go on Facebook, Twitter or wherever else you prefer to waste time online. Youll no doubt end up in a content vortex and wont come out until an hour later. Theres no time to waste right now, so if youre using anything with a screen to study, just leave it for the duration of the break. Be Efficient When you have limited time to study, you cant afford to read all the chapters in-depth. If you encounter some information that you cant parse on your first read through and its not absolutely vital, it might be best to just move on. A lot of this process is basically going to be throwing information into your head, and hoping it sticks. Dont use a highlighter. All the highly relevant information is probably going to be bolded or highlighted in another way in your textbook. Highlighting is for when you need to find stuff in a wall of text for later use, and with the time constraints that youre under at most what you can hope is one thorough reading of the text. Yeah, it seems like some vague attempt at doing what students who dont need to cram do, but highlighters are not magical. After you finish each chapter, get a piece of paper and write down all the information that you think you will need when taking the test, in bullet point form, with headings and subheadings. This will do wonders for what information you retain, and youll quickly see what parts of the chapter youll need to revise to cover the gaps – if you have the time to do that, that is. Try these helpful memory improvement tecniques to memorize better! Go to Bed After youve done all your reading, drink a glass of water and head off for some sleep. Youll need at least a power nap before the exam, since coming in with your brain fried from all the information youve been cramming into it wont do any good. After waking up and getting ready, read through your notes. If you read the textbook, the stuff youve written down should bring up related information. See? Results! After its all over, take a look at how you got yourself in this situation. If you routinely have to cram for exams the night before, then its time to think about how you can reverse the habit. Resolve to always be on top of your reading and never turn in your homework late. Staying up all night to get a passing grade is a huge toll, and, in any case, barely passing every test you have shouldnt be the way you spend your time in college.

How to Remember What You Read Using Sticky-Note Flags

How to Remember What You Read Using Sticky-Note Flags How often have you read a book from start to finish, only to discover that you havent retained very much of the information it contained? This can happen with any type of book. Literature, textbooks, or just-for-fun books can all contain information you really want or need to remember. There is good news. You can remember the important facts of a book  by following  a simple method. What You Need Book that is interesting or required readingColored sticky-note flags (small)Pencil with eraser (optional)Note cards Instructions Have sticky notes and a pencil on hand as you read. Try to get in the habit of keeping supplies on hand for this active reading technique.Stay alert for important or pivotal information. Learn to identify meaningful statements in your book. These are often statements that sum up a list, trend, or development in an assigned reading. In a piece of literature, this may be a statement that foreshadows an important event or a particularly beautiful use of language. After a little practice, these will start to jump out at you.Mark each important statement with a sticky flag. Place the flag in position to indicate the beginning of the statement. For instance, the sticky part of the flag can be used to underline the first word. The tail of the flag should stick out from the pages and show when the book is closed.Continue to mark passages throughout the book. Dont worry about ending up with too many flags.If you own the book, follow up with a pencil. You may want to use a very light pencil ma rk to underline certain words that you want to remember. This is helpful if you find that there are several important points on one page. Once you have finished reading, go back to your flags. Re-read each passage that you have marked. Youll find that you can do this in a matter of minutes.Make notes on a note card. Keep track of all your readings by creating a collection of note cards. These can be valuable at test time.Erase the pencil marks. Be sure to clean up your book and remove any pencil marks. Its okay to leave the sticky flags in. You may need them at finals time! Additional Tips In the course of reading a book, you may come across several noteworthy statements in each chapter or a single thesis statement in each chapter. It depends on the book.Avoid using a highlighter on a book. They are great for class notes, but they destroy the value of a book.Only use a pencil on books you own. Dont mark library books.Dont forget to use this method when reading literature from your college reading list.