Study Strategies

So it's midterm season!!!!!

YAY. SO MUCH JOY.

And stress. So much of that too.

Anyways, since ya'll are probably having near-breakdowns due to irrational fears about your lives falling apart, let me calm you down with some plans that you should either already have or should set with yourself while you still can.

Start Early-ish

Always start studying exactly a week before any midterm. If you have an insanely lazy teacher that likes to only have two exams a semester, or worse, just ONE with a final, you should probably try to start 2 weeks before the exam......just saying. I've pulled all-nighters for exams like that and honestly, even though it's totally feasible, it's a lot of unnecessary stress when you're pre-med. Start early, and when the test comes around you won't be so stressed to cram so much material.

BUT.....if you guys are down to the wire right now and have exams this week already, like me, there's still some hope left to get that A/B grade.

Cramming 2-3 days before the Exam:

First, start studying, at this very moment. Right now. Seriously go grab your study materials before you're done reading this post!

Second, study during all of your lectures. You'll lose some material, but since you're in cram mode, you can't afford to lose an hour here or there, because that's equivalent to points on an exam that can make or break your grade.

Pull an all-nighter before the exam if it's in the morning(unless it's only got a chapter of material on it). I know that research says that this isn't the best thing to do because of cognitive processes and whatnot, but again, you're in CRAM MODE. You don't have any time to waste on sleeping, when you have that much material to study in so little time. I can't tell you guys how many times I've increased my test grades by about 20 points just because I spent the extra 6-7 hours cramming the material instead of sleeping.

To counteract your sleep deprivation, take power naps of no more than half an hour. If you don't have the self-discipline to do this, don't nap at all, just wait until you get to sleep the next night, and use whatever caffeine/energy drink that works for you to keep you going. For me, Five Hour Energy actually works quite well.

Sleep and Studying:

As mentioned above, power naps of no more than half an hour are your best bet for rest if you need it that badly. This requires a good amount of self discipline in making yourself go to sleep efficiently and wake up efficiently.

NEVER study and then go to sleep within 10-15 minutes. I swear to you that you will lose all of the material you just read. When you study before bedtime, make sure you give yourself at least a half an hour between finishing studying and actually laying down to sleep. This way, the memory consolidation that happens during sleep will actually work.

One strategy I've used with all-nighters is giving myself 1 1/2 hour naps throughout the night. Power naps are great throughout the day, but you never get a full REM cycle in. During all-nighters, it's important to get at least one REM cycle in so that memory consolidation can happen somewhere in that cramming process.

If you were responsible and started studying a week or two before the exam, get your solid 9 hours of sleep in per night. You have the time, trust me. Again, memory consolidation is a thing that happens when you get a full night's rest, and it's important in the week leading up to the exam that you're not accumulating sleep debt, because THAT is when sleep deprivation will actually affect your test score.

The Studying Itself:

A lot of what college is about is finding out what type of learner you are and maximizing that learning style through different study strategies, so this section is mostly just an outline of possible things you could do while you still have time. Later on, when midterms are over and everyone's starting new units, I'll post a study strategy schedule that's actually proven to work no matter what type of learner you are (learned about it in my Human Memory lecture :P)

Flashcards. Nuff said.

Diagrams. These can either be flow charts to show the flow of ideas or questions or formulas to use. These are INCREDIBLY helpful for memorizing rules in small amounts of time if you're a visual learner.

Drawing pictures. Straight up drawing and labeling the pictures with pretty colors from textbooks is also a good quick (not to mention fun for the artsies) way to memorize diagrams for that bio course.

Reading the textbook. No kidding, in the all-nighters I pulled, I'd actually read the entire chapters front to back and paraphrase them in my notebook. Whenever I did this, I usually got about 5-10 above the average on the test. The professors use the textbook way more than students think. It's tedious, but it works.

Write all your notes out on a white board. Again, for the visual people, this is a great way of creating a "mind palace" of sorts where you can just memorize the whiteboard and recall it on the test. It's easy to be like "oh yeah! It was right below the dinosaur I drew during a study break. The answer is allopatric speciation".

Watching khan academy or any other education youtube videos. These are great ways for verbal learners to cram without having to read a textbook or write everything down. They also get tons of material in, in an interesting manner, in tiny amounts of time.

Skimming lecture slides. Professors a lot of the time will post the entire test on their lecture slides for whatever reasons......but it saves us boredom and time on reading the textbook so I'll take it.

That's about all I got for today. Happy studying! And, may the curve be ever in your favor.