To achieve that coveted degree, you need a university study method. However, if your current “method” involves this activity, you are making a fatal mistake. Take a close look at the photo at the beginning of this article. At first glance, you might see a simple student choosing a book from a library shelf. Now, observe it more closely. I can already imagine this poor fellow: a freshman who has taken refuge in this suburban library after struggling through the first exam sessions. He pretends to read book covers, repeating to himself, “I don’t have a study method; reading and repeating are boring,” to avoid returning to the university classrooms! Of course, I’m joking! However, for many students, the first encounter with university life can be traumatic. Accustomed to high school standards, most of them enter the lecture halls of their faculties without having a clue about a university study method. On the other hand, Those with a minimal study method often make a fatal mistake that will inevitably lead to exhausting study sessions and Average results. They find themselves in a situation where they don’t even want to ask for help with their university studies because they are too proud and resistant to changing their study method. Keep reading. In the next few minutes, I’ll explain this fatal error and what you should do instead to develop a genuinely effective university study method. Specifically, we will cover:
How Average University Students Study
“I don’t like to study. I hate studying. I love to learn. Learning is wonderful.” —Natalie Portman
If you find yourself in the “study method” I will describe in the following paragraphs, you should start to worry. Whether you are studying Economics, Medicine, Engineering, or Law, it doesn’t matter which faculty you belong to; most students preparing for a university exam inevitably make the same darn mistake. They retrieve notes, slides, reference texts, and answers to the multiple-choice test from the last session, and then they start reading and rereading this material until they’re exhausted. That’s it. It is the brilliant study method adopted by 97.2% of university students: sitting in front of a textbook and flipping through it lazily, repeatedly, hoping that something will stick to their bored neurons. If this is also YOUR university study method, let me be clear: remember to remember about graduating on time and getting top grades. Hoping to learn the material for an exam this way is like expecting a tennis ball to stick to a wall by repeatedly throwing it at it. Okay, you caught me! But what would be this alternative that is so effective?
“Knowledge is what remains when you forget what you have studied.” —B. F. Skinner I’ve already introduced you to study methods in this famous EfficaceMente article. I’ve dedicated an entire manual to this subject, used by nearly 13,000 students from various faculties! It’s only possible to cover some aspects of a complete study method in a 1,500-2,000-word post. What I’ll do in the following paragraphs is provide you with a genuinely compelling alternative to the “tennis ball against the wall” method ;-) So, let’s take a detailed look at what doesn’t work in the exam method you’ve used so far and what you should start doing today.
What NOT to Do: Reread that darn exam material until you’re sick! There are university study halls that resemble post-modern monasteries filled with student monks muttering their litany in front of a sacred textbook. Let me repeat this: silently reading (and rereading) a textbook is the most inefficient way you can use to prepare for an exam. It is related to two factors: Silent reading activates only our short-term visual memory. In other words, if you limit yourself to reading and do it only with your “eyes,” you will have already forgotten 80% of what you’ve seen after half an hour. Studying and memorization are two completely different things! You only truly study when you rework the material you’ve read. Memorization is only the final phase of learning and not even the most important one. Here’s what you should do instead.
TODO: Alternate between fast reading and reading aloud.
A 2010 study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology showed that reading aloud some parts of a text improves our memory. Before jumping to wrong conclusions, reread what I wrote carefully: “Reading aloud some parts of a text improves its memorization.” The experiment compared three groups of people who were given a list to memorize: The first group had to remember the list by reading the individual items quietly. The second group had to remember it by reading it aloud. The third group had to remember it by reading it quietly and aloud. The first two groups obtained very similar (and relatively poor) results, while the third group outperformed them by far. Reading aloud does not improve your performance. It slows down your reading. So, I was hoping you could continue to practice the speed reading techniques I’ve always recommended. You can also focus on the critical passages of your text material and repeat them aloud.
As we’ve seen, merely reading and rereading study material is the fatal error committed by Average students. If you genuinely want to make a subject your own, you must rework the information you are acquiring. Here’s how to do it quickly:
Synthesis is one of the most effective reworking tools available to our brains. Every time you read a chapter from a book, your notes, or slides, ask yourself, “Okay, what are the 3-5 key points I absolutely must remember?” Write them on paper, leaving some blank space between each point.
Use the blank space to write a brief description of the critical point, and when I say brief, I mean brief, let’s say no more than 140 characters, roughly the length of a tweet. Create these lists of critical points within 24 hours of the lecture or immediately after completing a chapter. In the next paragraph, I’ll explain how to use them during the review phase.
Okay, we’ve learned how to read our study material and how to rework it, and now we need to be able to handle the final phase of our university study method: repetition. This is the phase where you truly make a subject your own. Here’s how to go about it effectively. Before saying, “I can’t repeat aloud; I hate doing it!” read my suggestions:
Take your key point lists or mind maps that you prepared for your exam, read the key points and their related “snippets” from a chapter, and then put away your notes. Start explaining everything you understand and remember about this chapter as if you were lecturing a class. If you master the first list well, move on to the next one. If you’re hesitant, put a red dot on that sheet and move on to the next one.
Quickly review the material from the “problematic lists” (those with a red dot) and then try to repeat everything you understand/memorize from the mind maps. Repeat steps 1 and 2 cyclically until no key point lists are left to repeat. That’s it!
Of course, this is just the beginning of a university study method. Still, I assure you that if you’ve been using the “tennis ball against the wall” method so far, this will be a real revolution for you, especially studying without excessively repeating empty facts. As I mentioned a few lines ago, a respectable university study method consists of a whole series of elements beyond simple reading or repeating study material. You must be able to take notes, utilize advanced learning strategies, master memorization techniques, quickly regain concentration, and know your cognitive style!