Learning Methods to supercharge your study sessions

1. Flashcards

In order to be effective, flashcards must be concise and meaningful. They should act as a trigger for content you have already covered multiple times.

One side can be a question, a fill in the blank or a simple picture. Try to make the information on the card as simple, using symbols and abbreviations wherever possible. This makes it easier for your brain to store the entire card as a single ‘chunk’ of information.

Often, we feel like we know a certain fact when we see it, but are unable to recall it later. Flashcards will train your recall of a fact, rather than its recognition.

Once you’ve articulated an answer out loud, flip the card over, Depending on how you fared, place the card in the ‘Known’ pile or ‘Review’ pile. Then, repeat the process with the review pile until all cards are in the known pile.

2. Memory Palace

The ancient greeks and romans used a memory technique known as ‘loci’ that can be used to store thousands of pieces of information with little effort. This method relies on using your minds eye to walk through a familiar space, like your home or school. As you ‘walk’ along, you create different mental images for the facts you need to remember and associate them with different parts of the room.

For example, say if you had to remember that homeostasis is a mechanism that regulates the body’s water levels, sugar levels, ions and temperature. You could imagine walking into your front room. Gushing out of the wall on the left is water from a burst pipe (water levels). You turn to your

coffee table and see that it is barely visible beneath a huge mound of sugar (sugar levels). On the sofa is a gigantic iron (ions) which is burning up the cushions. The couch then catches fire and heats up the entire room (temperature). Using vivid images and linking them together and to your loci room makes recall much more effortless than using plain rote memorisation.

3. Practise Questions

There’s a reason they say practise makes perfect. Whilst aiming for perfection may be unrealistic, it is true that the best way to master a skill is by repeated, deliberate practice. This is also true for the skill of test-taking. Whilst you may know the content in theory, the reality of concisely writing out your answer in a timed exam environment is a whole different ball game.

Once you have covered the content, the best next step is to get your hands on as many past papers as you can. Try to complete them timed, going over all your mistakes and adding questions you got wrong to your flashcard deck. Also, its a good idea to read examiner reports, if you have access to them. They outline the most common mistakes students make when answering exam questions, as well as tips to ensure you obtain as many marks as you can for each questions.

What other study methods have you tried in the past? Did they work? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.