Applying more efficient methods when studying is one of the secrets of success for every excellent student, and this study technique will help us a lot.
Memorizing without understanding anything
A classic of the exams is to learn the syllabus as if we were parrots and forget everything soon after. Memory is a good resource for learning formulas, specific phrases, lists, helps to
write my essay for me, making an acrostic, getting the rest of what we have studied easily, etc. Still, it is not useful to understand or, therefore, to learn.
It is not only thinking out loud
Anyone fond of sending endless WhatsApp audios with their friends in which they share reflections on life and circular thoughts of the moment will understand well what we mean. Often, until we say something out loud and tell someone else about it, we don't realize what we are thinking, and above all, we don't realize to what extent we are clear about something.
These audios are also, on many occasions, a way for us to come to conclusions that we had not reached just by thinking about it.
But to apply this study technique, it is not enough to just think out loud or recite what we are studying (which is also very good for memorizing); what really makes us able to reach new conclusions and organize our ideas better is the effort we make when trying to "translate" our thoughts to explain them to another person, and that is the crux of the matter.
How do we apply this study technique?
1. Reading and underlining
The first thing we should do, as always, is to read, trying to understand what we read and underline the most important ideas separating the main ones from the secondary ones with a color code.
It is unnecessary to do this with the whole syllabus at once because it can be tedious and cause us to lose concentration. It is more advisable to do this part and the following by dividing the syllabus into shorter parts.
2. Summarize or make worksheets
Each underlined point must be summarized. It is best to do it in small cards so that we can synthesize as much as possible and keep the main points. When it comes to explaining later, these same cards will serve as support in the first rehearsals.
We must remember that the summaries must have "key phrases" that, just by reading them, we can pull the thread of memory. Therefore, it is very important that we take the first stage of reading and underlining seriously.
3. Start the class
Now that we have everything read and summarized, the fun part begins: we will play at being teachers. We have to take it as a real role-playing game. This way, it will be more enjoyable and, therefore, more effective since we will remember better an entertaining experience than a monotonous one.
Let's imagine that we will give a class and we have to make our students understand what we have just studied. How do we do it? How do we tell them? What will we emphasize the most? What doubts might they have?
We should contemplate all these kinds of things and try to explain each part as clearly as possible. Let's think about our doubts or what would be those questions from our students that could put us in trouble if the class were real.
4. Divide and record
As we did with the reading and the summaries, dividing the classes into fragments will also be more enjoyable, and it will be easy to control which parts we are doing better and which ones we need to review. Giving a two-hour lecture to our poor imaginary students is not a matter of giving a two-hour lecture, but it will be better if we explain it point by point and make sure that they "get it."
In addition, recording the sessions will be great for review or to play the audio when we go for a run or when we are cleaning the house. If we have also divided the recordings by points, it will be easier to locate those we need to review or focus on in a different way for the next "class."
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