4 Tried and Tried-and-True Study Methods for Hardcore Students
- Devyn Doyle
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Who doesn’t scroll through their social media FYP to find people talking about hardcore, trendy study methods for their upcoming classes? You know what I’m talking about; some chick with huge glasses talking about the crazy resources she used to get through her Harvard organic chemistry semester… No? Oh, well, we obviously aren’t at Harvard, but here are some science-backed study methods for you overachievers to try out in the new YHS year anyway!
As a precursor, everyone studies differently depending on what works best for them. These methods are not a one-size-fits-all. If it doesn’t align with your kind of learning style, it’s totally a good idea to try and tweak the method to whatever you think is best for you personally.
Firstly, I’d like to discuss a method I found last year that works very well for me when it comes to doing a long project in a short amount of time, a quick review the night before a test, or if I’m feeling particularly unmotivated. This method is called Pomodoro. Pomodoro (or tomato in Italian) was invented by Francesco Cirillo as a university student. For him, this involved using a kitchen timer (which was tomato shaped) to break up his work into 25-minute intervals with a 5 minute break between each. Then, after 4 work intervals, or 2 hours, he would take one long break which was usually 20-30 minutes. This method is helpful for people who get interrupted or distracted easily because it allows you to work in short periods of intense focus followed by a reward. Of course, you don’t need a tomato-shaped timer to follow this studying technique. By simply searching Pomodoro online, a large number of related websites will come up that are coded with Pomodoro timers. By knowing exactly how much time you will be spending studying, this is also effective for blocking time for other commitments around school work.
Secondly, a very popular form of memorization in study sessions is active recall. This method is widely understood as one of the most effective, high-yield learning techniques. Active Recall is essentially practice testing. Instead of reviewing information passively, like reading or highlighting notes (proven to be some of the least productive and most time-consuming ways to actually study), you create questions for yourself from the material you are learning and repeatedly test yourself on them. By doing this, you are making your brain retrieve the information from the depths of your brain, so you are much more likely to remember the information when questioned on it later. It also allows you to know immediately which sections of the lesson you need to give more attention. Study platforms like Quizlet and Knowt are great for this method.
Thirdly, you may have heard of the blurting method. This method is another form of active recall but a bit more intense. It involves writing down everything you know about a study topic and then comparing it to your notes to see if you missed or got anything wrong. You then go back and intently review the sections you missed and try rewriting it all, followed by another comparison. You do this repeatedly until your writing matches your notes in correctness, and you know everything you need for your next test. For this method, it’s helpful to have your notes organized into specific sections with headings and categories, to make the blurting part of the process easier to reflect on. This technique is, again, fairly intense. So be sure to take breaks!
Lastly, this technique focuses on simplification and reflection. Invented by Richard Feynman, an American theoretical physicist, the Feynman technique involves 4 steps to achieve a deep understanding of complex principles. The first step is to study the subject and write down everything you think you need to know. Much of the information you gather might not be understood by you or be very jargon-y, but the point of this method is to break it down for yourself. Learn all that you can about the topic until you think you can’t go much deeper without confusing yourself, then go to step two. The next step is to present your learnings to someone else or an imaginary audience. This gives you the space to talk about it thoroughly and catch yourself if the explanation is shaky or has holes. Then, for the third step, you fill in the gaps. By presenting it to an audience, you know exactly where you need to target for studying. Go back to the books and find any missing pieces of information, and implement those into your notes. Finally, you take all of your information and attempt to simplify and review it in such a way that you could teach it to a child. This makes you understand the subject very cohesively and clearly, stripping it down to a format that is easily memorized and widely applicable to future work.
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