How do you study efficiently?

By Han Eun-ji, The International School @ ParkCity Kuala Lumpur

After endless towers of homework, sleepless nights revising for exams, the academic year finally comes to an end. With another academic year, deciding our future pathways for most of us slowly approaching, I’ve decided to share some studying methods I’ve used to get successful results without overstudying or having burnouts.

To start off, I’ve found out over many unsuccessful trials that rewriting notes is unethical and inefficient. It wastes a big chunk of your limited time, reducing the time you could use for studying that could actually impact your results. Here are a few revising techniques I’ve found to be very useful.

Firstly, watching videos explaining topics you don’t understand. Instead of reading textbooks, watching videos thoroughly explained by experts makes a huge difference. These videos usually include a detailed explanation on the topic, an example question and how it is used in a real-life scenario. This widens your knowledge and, with help of expertise, helps you process information much faster and more efficiently. It may not seem systematic, since these videos do take up some time, but I found these to be very valuable.

Secondly, revision websites are seemingly practical. These websites such as “Save my Exams,” “Seneca,” and et cetera include definitions, flashcards, past paper questions and way more just with a click on your computer. Instead of digging through the internet for hours just for a few questions, these websites do it all for you, making studying way more accessible and convenient. It’s also beneficial for visual learners; color coding and bold words make digesting and reviewing notes way easier for many.

Last but not least, past paper questions are known to be and remain the best method for revision. Not only is it accessible on several websites, it gets you to know what questions you would face in the real exam. It increases your confidence with every question you answer, and it actively retrieves information from your brain, transferring data and information into your long-term memory store, helping you memorize information more effectively than others. There are many more revision techniques than those that I have mentioned, but in my personal experience these three methods; videos, websites and past paper questions have been the most useful for me, and I hope these can help you as well!