1. Pull information out, don’t push it in
it’s worthy of repeating: making yourself recall information is a ridiculously effective way to build memory.
Testing yourself isn’t just for checking what you know: it’s also the absolute best way known to science to get stuff learned.
Smart students use the majority of their learning time on this “retrieval practice” strategy: flashcards, quiz questions, practice exam questions, scribbling it out from memory.
2. If you’re spending more than 25% of your exam-prep / revision / review time re-reading, highlighting, or making notes, you’re doing it wrong.
This goes with the last point. It’s fine to start by reminding yourself of the course content, but move on ASAP.
Don’t wait till you “feel you know it” to start testing yourself, OK?
3. Re-reading isn't effective, but can be improved by pre-testing: try answering some practice questions before you re-read the topic, or just dump whatever you can remember (however little) down on a blank sheet.
It’s like ploughing the fields of your memory to make the seeds of knowledge take root way more easily.
4. Know when to zoom out and when to zoom in
Sometimes a topic is hard because we don’t understand the details. Focus intently on the vocab you don’t understand, or a specific action in a math(s) solution – isolate the individual problems and fix them.
Other times, it’s the big picture that’s the problem – create a visual map for the topic that lays out the big building blocks clearly, so you understand how the different details relate to the whole.
5. Work shorter hours with deeper focus: if you’re religious about monotasking , you’ll be able to focus intently (hopefully on your “retrieval practice”!), and get a tonne of work done in a short space of time.
Far better to work intently and smartly for shorter hours than doing long hours of low-value work.
Enjoy all the extra free time 😊
6. Don’t say “I can’t”, say “I can’t YET”: More than anything else, I wish I’d known this one when I was a student.
I’d aced high school, but entrance exams are brutally hard . If I’m being honest, I was guilty of giving up, because I didn’t understand what we psychologists call “growth mindset”: the idea that our brains can literally grow and change and rewire to get better at things, with the right kind of practice.
7. Harden yourself to the stresses of the exam: there are a million things that can go wrong on exam day...
But start by forcing yourself to take high-stakes mock exams in stressful circumstances. Do it in a silent study room / library reading room. Time it. No notes. Even find a partner to mark it for you, and pre-commit to telling close friends / family what mark you get. Get used to operating under conditions of stress and pressure before the big day, and the big day will feel way easier by comparison.
OK, it’s crunch time...
... what’s the one thing YOU want to do differently?
There may be lots of things you want to do – but pick one to start with, and put it to work the very next chance you get.