Studying smart not hard!

Hello fellas! I bet there has been a time when your exams are just about to close in and you haven't covered everything. Basically, you don't have enough time to absorb everything in that amount of time. So I'll be talking about on how to Study smartly to make the most out of the time you're left with.

1. Study in chunks

There's an ancient technique that people used to remember everything that they read. It's called the Pomodoro technique.
A study shows that our brain effectively remembers only the starting 15 minutes and the last 10 minutes of a lecture. Pomodoro technique suggests studying for 15 minutes and then take a break for 5 minutes. Repeat this cycle 3 times and then take a longer break. This way you aren't much exhausted and remember more. .

2. 20% read 80% recite

Reading something that you're forced to for a longer period tires our brain. Its attention span starts to reduce to a big extent.
To avoid this comes 20% read 80% recite.
Let me tell you how to practically implement this.
Read a chunk of the page or preferably a topic, then close the book and ask yourself questions about that topic, try to come up with your own examples, and of course get those examples verified. But by doing this you're ensuring that you totally get a grasp of the concept and it will stick with you forever. Engaging your brain in thinking doesn't let it sleep.

3. Spaced repetition

This is very simple, all you have to do is study a topic and then just, read something else. I know it sounds crazy but just hears me out!
Just switch a topic once you've finished it. And later come back to it after some time. Do this for 2-3 times until you've completely absorbed that concept. Studies show that our brain learns faster when you go over something again and again rather than spending a large amount of time to learn it.

4. Study like a teacher

Instead of studying like a student who is just trying to score good marks in the exam, study it like you've to explain these topics to someone.
Dr. Richard Feynman is regarded as the best teacher because he could teach anyone the complex concepts of physics who has a basic understanding. He was able to break down the topics to such a lower extent which helped him win that title.
This technique is proven very effective to totally understand something. Try to explain the concept to your brain as if you're a 5th grader who doesn't know much. This also makes you anticipate the important questions from that topic which surely will help you win the battle.

5. SQ3R

This tip will help you get the most out of your textbooks. So what is SQ3R? It's
Survey
Questions
Read
Recite
Revise So the survey is going through the chapter just looking at what is in it. That's it.
Next, you've to jump to the questions at the end of the chapter, this helps you to know what is expected from you to grasp from the chapter. You've to focus the most on finding the answers to the questions.
Close your book! Think about what you just read. Ask yourself a question. Try to think about all the perspectives. Keep doing this until you're confident that you're the master of that chapter.
Now this all seems a lot of work but trust me, once you get a hang of it, it'll be too easy. Make this the new way you study. Apply this to every study session and you'll definitely see an improvement in the time you take, the energy you have while studying, and how better you understand the topics.

By –

Tanmay Tiwari