Studying at home over this pandemic can be more difficult than you might think. Students around the world have been struggling to concentrate at home and the pressure just keeps rising. But there are different ways and methods to maintain your concentration to make the most out of your study session.
Preparations
In order to study efficiently, you need to be able to set the scene, prepare your desk and your environment. Most people work best in a clean space, clean desk with a desk lamp, and your study materials whether that’s your laptop, notes, books, stationary, files etc. Get rid of any distractions, whether that is your phone or a TV in the background.
Create a calming environment that helps you focus. Some people prefer studying with a candle. Lavender, peppermint, or cinnamon scented candles are known to increase your cognitive senses to help you stay alerted and better your memory, but other scents can help too. Pick a good candle that matches your tastes that will help you study such as Lumira candles.
Study methods
Once your desk is prepared, know your study methods. Some people prepare flashcards for their notes to help them memorise the material. This is also part of the retrieval technique.
Other people prefer to study with questions. When you have questions rather than a set of notes, it helps stimulate your memory for you to think about the structure and content in order to answer your question correctly. This is also why doing past paper questions are so effective for most students because they become familiar with the style of questions asked in the papers and can learn and organize their answers before the actual exam.
Another is space practice which helps students to study over a longer period of time rather than cramming everything into one session, because you’re more likely to forget information by cramming. This method means you space out your studying to review and revisit the material day after day or every few days in the week for several weeks. This method requires planning and persistence but is sure to work in the end because it stimulates your long-term memory and helps you store large chunks of information into your long-term memory.
Other people prefer diagrams and flowcharts. This method works well for complex concepts especially if you’re studying the sciences in depth. Using colours and colour coordinating your diagrams with the notes can be very effective because it’s easier to remember and refer back to the colours to recall the notes you need during your exam. But the diagrams should be neat and easy to read and understand or else everything will get confusing.
There are many other ways to study and different unique methods that could work for you, but you need to try them and become familiar with your study method and stick to it for exams. Other than study methods, other things to be aware of is eating healthily and snacking if you get hungry while studying, getting good sleep, exercise helps as well, and prepare time to do other activities you enjoy. With these things in mind, your exam stress might just be a little less stressful.
