Is there a winning formula to studying?
Ms C van den Berg • July 24, 2020
If you ever thought that time = results, you need to rethink your formula. Staring at a textbook for an extended period will certainly not magically transfer the knowledge to your brain.
One of the easiest ways to convince your brain that remembering information is important, is to expose yourself to the information repeatedly.
In addition to simply repeating content over and over again, you might read your textbook and then try to write down the information when you start revising.
We use our senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch) to take in information about the world around us and we use our thoughts and imagination to make sense of the information and to help us recall it.
The following tips can be applied to help you recall information more efficiently when studying:
• Use pictures
- We think in pictures, we dream in pictures, so using pictures and visualisation can help you recall the information studied.
• Recite aloud
- Recite your work aloud and listen to yourself or listen to a recording thereof.
• Use your senses
- Have you ever had the experience of a scent reminding you of something that happened long ago? You could smell a certain scent while studying something important and try to associate the smell with what you must remember. Then use the same scent to jog your memory.
• Tracing words
- Use your finger to trace out the letters. Think about what the surface feels like and try to remember the movement and the shape of the letters - this will help you remember them.
• Use stories and symbolism
- Our imagination uses things like stories, humour, symbolism, colour, and exaggeration, so use them to help you remember.
It seems like there might be a winning formula after all:
method + focus + time = results
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