6/12/2017 0 Comments 6 Incredible Study HacksThere's that thing that you've been avoiding: exams. The end of the semester has rolled around, along with the so done attitude, about a thousand summatives, and some killer exams. Don't teachers know that we need nine hours of sleep? Is it even possible to do anything other than freak out, study, and gorge ourselves on caffeine?
Yes. You can have it all... sleep, good grades, and good health. All you have to do is follow these incredibly difficult steps (they may seem easy, but I understand that the need to procrastinate is a powerful thing). 1. Make a list of how much time everything needs. Put 9 hours of sleep on the top of the list. Then put in the rest of your priorities (eg. 3 hours for meals and snacks, 1 hour of exercise and so forth). Total it all up first, and you ought to have a number that's smaller than 24 (the amount of hours in a day). Then, you can use the rest of the time to study, or, if you so choose, for alternating study and free time. 2. Don't Overstudy I know, I know. "But I'm a millenial and I'm overachieving in a world where I'm most likely going to end up flipping burgers if I'm not perfect!" Overstudying is just as bad as not studying. It consumes too much time for only a little bit of information. It's not only inefficient, but it drains away time that could have been spent doing other useful things (eg. playing an instrument). 3. Take Breaks and Sleep This is tied in to overstudying. Studies have shown that students with more sleep tend to do better on exams, while students that pulled all nighters are more likely to blank out and have a mental screaming match with the paper. Stop with the coffee, and instead of getting as much sleep as you can cram in between studying (which is probably only about two hours), cram studying between sleep time (minimum 9 hours, this is non negotiable). Take 10 minute breaks every 50 minutes to refresh your brain, or else you'll be overstudying and forget everything. Your brain gets tired, too, don't pressure it or you could get seriously sick. And trust me, you do not want to be sick during exam season. 4. Exercise Before Studying Studies have also proven that students that exercise before studying and taking their exam are more alert and successful. I like to do a ten minute HIT, then study for 50 minutes and alternate. This isn't just good for your brain, it helps to fit in exercise time efficiently without you getting to exhausted. 5. Relax and Have Fun No, this isn't "oh yeah, have ice cream", this is if you stress, you're more likely to forget more. Trying to engage yourself in studying in a more fun way (eg. I like to make my study notes into comic strips because I like drawing, and comic strips are more exciting to read than textbooks) helps you to remember the content 10 times faster than if you just did it normally! 6. Read it Outloud I can't really expand, but do it, and it'll help. Don't be embarrassed, it's super efficient. For procrastinators check out this article: http://elutheria.weebly.com/self-improvement/how-to-stop-procrastinating
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