Have you found your ideal method of studying yet?

[JR_StudyEd]

My study techniques are quite boring and conventional. Practice questions, maybe watching some videos, and that's about it. That may explain my impressive procrastination over the past few days despite the fact that my calendar is filled with SACs and with my final exams 55 days away.

I haven't really been willing to be more imaginative and creative with my study techniques just because I think they're too 'out there', so I just play it safe with what I know will work. But my current study techniques are not interesting enough compared to watching YouTubers play Mario games.

I'm not specifically asking what your study techniques are (because there are about as many methods of revision as there are people on earth) but what I am asking is have you discovered how you best learn and revise?

P.S. I'm getting concerned that it is too late to make any significant change. But I've heard teachers say they didn't know their best way of studying until they were well into uni, so I do believe there is still lots of hope left.

[NomotivationF]

My study techniques are quite boring and conventional. Practice questions, maybe watching some videos, and that's about it. That may explain my impressive procrastination over the past few days despite the fact that my calendar is filled with SACs and with my final exams 55 days away.

I haven't really been willing to be more imaginative and creative with my study techniques just because I think they're too 'out there', so I just play it safe with what I know will work. But my current study techniques are not interesting enough compared to watching YouTubers play Mario games.

I'm not specifically asking what your study techniques are (because there are about as many methods of revision as there are people on earth) but what I am asking is have you discovered how you best learn and revise?

P.S. I'm getting concerned that it is too late to make any significant change. But I've heard teachers say they didn't know their best way of studying until they were well into uni, so I do believe there is still lots of hope left.

I feel like I have, but it's honestly hard to tell. I've come to realise for me doing intense 15-20 mins blocks of study, whether that be practice questions or we-writing practice questions that I got wrong, and then taking a 2.5-5 min break in between works wonders for me. Personally, skimming the notes before starting practice questions, correcting them, re-writing them and then skimming notes again has worked for me so far.

[Joseph41]

I reckon I found it through Year 12. Less so through uni. Now that I'm studying again, I'm definitely finding I'm studying differently than I used to, trying to balance full-time work etc. For example, I now type notes rather than hand-write them purely for time.

It's probably an ongoing process, I think! Interesting topic.

[DrDusk]

Interesting. I never make notes myself, rather I study straight from the textbook for Physics, and for Comp it's just doing all the exercises we get...

My study techniques consist of just doing problems for Physics, however I usually walk around my room or day dream when I'm stuck on a question. I like to picture the problem in my head physically and it helps me notice any small subtleties in the problem.

It's funny because people around me don't think I'm actually studying because mostly I'm either walking around or leaning down with my eyes closed, but they don't realize it's how I think.

[Sine]

Definitely not - throughout high school, I had a pretty solid type of studying which worked at the time but at university, my method changed a lot and really depends on the subject. E.g. more theory-based stuff I will be taking lots of notes down but for application subjects, it will be more about listening in and absorbing the content. Like J41, moving to digital notes although I still write handwritten stuff but don't exactly "study" those.
EDIT: and I'm guessing my study method will evolve further in the future

[Joseph41]

Definitely not - throughout high school, I had a pretty solid type of studying which worked at the time but at university, my method changed a lot and really depends on the subject. E.g. more theory-based stuff I will be taking lots of notes down but for application subjects, it will be more about listening in and absorbing the content. Like J41, moving to digital notes although I still write handwritten stuff but don't exactly "study" those.
EDIT: and I'm guessing my study method will evolve further in the future

How have you found the switch to digital? I definitely still prefer hand-writing, assuming time permits.

[NomotivationF]

How have you found the switch to digital? I definitely still prefer hand-writing, assuming time permits.

Just gonna jump in here since this year I've hand-written all my Psych notes and typed all my Eco notes; Although it's a lot easier and faster to type notes, I find handwriting notes allows me to understand and remember the notes x20 better.

[Lear]

I did pretty much find my ideal method for year 12. There was nothing very creative about it. It was something like this
Make some notes on the textbook—> do the textbook questions —> spam practice sacs/exams.

I think we too often waste our time looking for the ‘perfect’ method or some sort of secret ‘hack’ that will boost us. We often believe our current method isn’t working because it’s simple a bad method rather than thinking about other factors such as effort, procrastination and time management.

I understand the above may be seen as controversial but having spoken to many of those ‘high scorers’ in my course I am yet to hear about any special methods that didn’t revolve around simply grinding.

[caffinatedloz]

Practice questions, practice questions, practice questions.

For me, I have different methods for each subject. In biology, as there is a lot of content that needs to be learnt and understood, I use a combination of my textbook, powerpoints from my teacher and Edrolo to make a set of notes. Once I have those, I just practice applying the knowledge over and over again.

[colline]

I think we too often waste our time looking for the ‘perfect’ method or some sort of secret ‘hack’ that will boost us. We often believe our current method isn’t working because it’s simple a bad method rather than thinking about other factors such as effort, procrastination and time management.

Agree 10000%!! There is no "magical" study method that can bring you immediate noticeable results, you just gotta put in the effort and focusing your attention so that you're not being distracted by other things. The amount of people I know who spends an hour lighting scented candles in their room only to study for 15 minutes is mind boggling.

Another thing is, no matter what method you use, it got to be efficient. You can work hard, put in a lot of effort, and study non-stop for 5 hours by copying from a powerpoint word for word, and not learn a single thing. Grind, yes, but don't do it blindly.

[caffinatedloz]

Grind, yes, but don't do it blindly.

Never has a wiser word been spoken in regards to exam revision!

[TigerMum]

I have no method of study. I just come home and some days I can't be bothered to do anything and I lounge around, other days I have random energy spikes and I smash out 5 math exercises in a night. I'm only in year 10 doing Methods this year but yeah, my working habits have zero organisation, I hate following plans and schedules because I work best when I actually want to be working.

[S_R_K]

I did pretty much find my ideal method for year 12. There was nothing very creative about it. It was something like this
Make some notes on the textbook—> do the textbook questions —> spam practice sacs/exams.

I think we too often waste our time looking for the ‘perfect’ method or some sort of secret ‘hack’ that will boost us. We often believe our current method isn’t working because it’s simple a bad method rather than thinking about other factors such as effort, procrastination and time management.

I understand the above may be seen as controversial but having spoken to many of those ‘high scorers’ in my course I am yet to hear about any special methods that didn’t revolve around simply grinding.

This is true, but there are also students who spam lots of practice questions but don't obtain any significant improvement. A lot of the time this is because the practice has not been done with enough self-awareness, reflection and deliberate focus, and people tend to overestimate their mastery.

Practice is most valuable when you (i) isolate your mistakes and work on those, to the point where you can avoid those mistakes consistently and without any external prompts / feedback; (ii) work on a range of problems with different superficial structure but similar deep structure, so you develop your ability to recognise how to approach a problem; (iii) return to skills / concepts routinely, even if you think you've "got it", because spaced repetition decreases the rate and amount of forgetting.

[Sine]

How have you found the switch to digital? I definitely still prefer hand-writing, assuming time permits.

Has been great and I don't think my performance has changed too much - but really hard to compare high school to uni. I think given the amount of content covered at uni I kinda was forced to make the change.

and definitely, if I had the time I would certainly prefer to handwrite my stuff.