You have to take exams not only in high school but later in life. Preparing for them, and then the process of taking them always causes stress. You start to prepare the day before the exam, there is no time to repeat it, and the brain refuses to work at all. But if you have at least some time, you must spend it with advantage. And not for useless and unstructured reading of textbooks in the hope to remember something.
Before passing any exams (SSC CGL exams, final school tests, or, for example, the theoretical part of learning to drive) we have to learn a lot of material. It does not matter if it is a text from a textbook or our notes. And this is often frightening. Although there are simple ways to cope with the volume of texts and your anxiety.
1. Read and Reread
So-called rote learning is appropriate only when studying strict formulas, and even then it is worth not only memorizing but also understanding. As for the other topics, feel free to reread the necessary paragraph several times: this way you will not only highlight the main idea but also clearly remember the material. Our brain readily responds to a repetition of any kind, so this approach the brain simply cannot ignore.
2. Find Your Checkpoints
If you know what a quest or logic charades are, you’re well aware of how one clue found pulls in a chain of subsequent ones, opens access to new information, and eventually builds into the big picture.
Remembering everything you read is sometimes impossible. If there is a large material in front of you, it is better to break it into meaningful segments and identify each of the main ideas. It will be the anchor point, clinging to which you can easily remember and set out the following material when passing the exam ticket.
3. Organize Your Information
You’ve read an impressive paragraph of text and seem to have the basics memorized. But there are still several subjects ahead, and each requires a thoughtful approach.
Unfortunately, when trying to memorize a huge amount at once, such confusion is not uncommon. In this case, to quickly find and remember the right point, visualization will help. Our brain actively perceives images and colored elements – it is human nature that bright signals are more firmly fixed in memory. Take advantage of this – use notes, colored highlighting (for example, with markers and stickers), to highlight the most important things, which then will become a solid base for your answer.
4. Find Your Strengths
A personalized approach always works better than any other. If you don’t already have your intuitive schema, it’s time to come up with your scheme for working with information. After all, in addition to reading and standard memorization, there are many other ways to effectively prepare for the exam and make the process easier.
To begin with, each person has his or her specific memory: some people are better at learning information by ear, others perfectly remember what they see, while others need to get acquainted with the subject from all sides.
- If you easily remember the text of a song you hear or a lecture you listened to thoughtfully, then you have a well-developed auditory memory. Take advantage of this. Read the text aloud, retell and spell out the information. Read out your notes on a tape recorder – it will be easy to listen to and remember the essentials.
- If a couple of glances at a page of text are enough to tell you in which part of the paragraph you encountered a particular definition, you have a visual memory type. Marking, underlining, and marking the basics of the text you’re studying will work for you. Take notes and make your notes – they will help you quickly retrieve the material in your memory.
- If you have a tactile memory, you’re sure to be original in your approach to anything. But the long process of reading can seem monotonous and boring. Explore the object from all sides, and the associative way of memorizing is perfect for you. It will be useful to make visual cards on which you can write down the necessary information and then combine the segments into a whole. This approach is particularly effective in memorizing foreign language words, definitions, and mathematical formulas.
5. Write by Hand
In the age of new technologies, which offer us to sit comfortably at the keyboard and quickly type the necessary text, the idea of arming yourself with paper and pen may not seem too practical. But it’s not that simple. Scientists and psychologists have long been proven that the process of taking notes by hand significantly improves memorization and can serve as a good service in preparing for exams. The fact is that independently displaying information on a sheet of paper, we kind of pass it through ourselves.
6. Association.
The efficacy of the associative method is proved not only by psychologists but also by life itself. Imagine: you meet some people, and the name of one of them coincides with your own (or someone you care about). You are unlikely to experience discomfort because you forgot how to address the person. If the new information can remind you of something you already know or are interested in, it will certainly take a place in your memory. Such associations can be called natural – they arise on their own and do not require the investment of one’s effort. But all the connections and analogies can be created in the process. In this case, the more creativity you put into the association, the brighter it will be remembered.
7. Take Breaks and Sleep a Lot
When time is short before an exam, it seems like it would be a real crime to take a break for ten minutes. Absolutely in vain!
Our brain is designed in such a way that a large flow of information in the absence of rest plays against us, and new knowledge is not absorbed.
Have you ever reread the same sentence several times to catch the meaning?
This is the signal that it is time to put aside the textbook and relax a little, switching to a short rest or a walk. Thus you give yourself the necessary break, you will find that the information is remembered much better.
The night before an exam is the busiest time in the life of schoolchildren and students. You want to read, memorize and repeat as much as possible. However, the complete neglect of sleep can have the most negative effect: when looking at the pulled-out ticket, you cannot remember a good part of the honestly learned material. A healthy sleep before the exam will be much more helpful and will organize all the necessary thoughts.
If you’re busy preparing for your exams, don’t hesitate to use a do my assignment for me service. Save some time for sleep. It’s very important for your mental and physical health!
8. Repeat
The human brain is great at adapting to repetition. For example, if it’s not the first time you’ve walked the same route, you’re unlikely to get lost. The same rule is active in the sphere of information assimilation: a repetitive song on the radio can stick in your head even against our will.
So once you’ve chosen the most important thing, don’t neglect to repeat and review it one more time. Here’s a little trick. If you reread the material learned at night, then during sleep the information obtained will go to the stage of long-term memory, and the next morning in most cases you will be able to confidently reproduce memorized rhyme, remember the mathematical formula or date of birth of the Russian commander.
