When it comes to studying, it is a good strategy to think about what tools we are going to use when studying. As with any other work, when studying we must be aware of how we can improve our performance and get better results in less time, and for this, we have the study techniques.

The Summary

The summary is a study technique with which you will be able to convert all the information you have to study, no matter how much you have to study, into a shorter document in which all the important information is included, which will allow you to optimise your study time.

When making a good summary it is important that you carefully read the text you want to summarise. Once you have read the text as many times as necessary to understand it, you should underline the most relevant content. In case the information you want to summarise is very long, it is also interesting to create a small framework to serve as a guide when writing your summary. By the way, when writing the summary, it is vital that you write it in your own words.

The summary should be a comprehensive document. When you have finished your summary, you will be able to study directly with it, without needing to refer to the contents that have been used as a source to create it.

Summaries are one of the most widespread study tools, and when you master it, everything changes. You will pass to another level as a student.

The outline

Another one of the best study synthesis techniques you can apply in your study is the outline. In fact, it is a complementary study technique to summary. You can use both, and both will bring you certain benefits.

An outline is a graphic representation of the most important ideas and concepts of a text. In addition, the outline represents the relationships and hierarchy that exist in the information we include. We could also say that an outline is a graphic representation of everything we have previously highlighted.

Unlike in a summary, in the outline it is not necessary to use complete sentences with meaning, but we can use single words, concepts or ideas. In the outline we use as little information as possible , no more than two or three words in a row.

Through the outline we will have an overall view of what we are studying, global but very concrete. An outline should be the skeleton on which, when the time comes to study, the student will be able to reconstruct the subject in an efficient way.

Flashcards or study cards

Have you heard of flashcards? If the answer is no, we have to tell you that you are missing out on one of the best methods of learning synthesis and one of the most fun study review tools.

Flashcards are study cards with a concept or related question on one side and a developed explanation on the other side. Images or other visual elements can also be used.

When creating these flashcards, you will have to work on detecting the most relevant concepts and ideas and an important exercise of summarising this information. On the other hand, they are a fun way to practise before an exam. We could say that you create by yourself a little trivia game about what you are studying. Interesting, don’t you think?

Mnemonics

Mnemonics are a range of memory techniques based on mental association that facilitate the memorisation of concepts and information. This way of memorising by association has a great advantage: it allows us to memorise a large amount of data with less effort than if we tried to memorise it by force.

These mnemonic rules even allow us to use a certain gamification when memorising. We are not referring to playing videogames while studying, but we can memorise by means of songs, word games, making connections with absurd ideas, images, etc. It may not seem like a serious study technique, but we are precisely highlighting this memorisation technique because it works really well.

Mnemonics are capable of triggering brain mechanisms to remember, in a simple way, a large amount of information. In fact, mnemonic rules have been considered since ancient times as a very useful method for remembering a considerable amount of information in the medium-to-long term.

There are many different types of mnemonic tools, from the ancient Loci method to the initials method, the chain method or the creative story method. All these techniques are very useful for memorising and remembering all kinds of information.

The Study Calendar

A study calendar is a calendar in which you can see all the hours you have available to study and the assigned study hours and tasks that you are going to study in each subject.

To make a good study calendar you should take into account the difficulty degree of each subject and when the main milestones of each subject are going to take place (assignments, exams, etc.). Taking this into account, you should assign more or less time to each subject.

The study calendar will allow you to better organise and optimise the time you have to study. Improvisation really is not a good companion. Moreover, if you introduce a study calendar into your life, it will be easier for you to create a study routine and even adopt the study habit in your day-to-day life.

With these study techniques and a Double Seven you will surely find it much easier to pass all your exams.