Exams are one of the key factors that can affect a college student’s grades.
Getting high scores or at least passing the exam can boost one’s grades and open many doors in college, such as being rewarded with a scholarship, getting accepted in specific majors, and having higher chances of getting into graduate school, reports US News.
Conversely, poor exam scores can drag a student’s grade down and increase their chances of having to repeat the class.
The good news is that you can ace your exams and get a good grade by learning how to use study notes for exam preparations.
Rather than simply reading your notes, here are a few strategies that can help you get the most out of study notes:
1. Organize the most important materials:
College students often need more time to study for exams. Instead of reading all of your notes within a short timeframe, you can maximize your time by organizing your study materials for the exam first.
Our post, ‘Stay Up All Night and Study,’ outlines how to start your organization process for study sessions by deciding which topics to study for the exam.
You’ll have to check the syllabus and refer to your class notes to see which information will be covered in the exam to avoid wasting your time reading about topics that aren’t included.
Afterward, you’ll need to gather notes, textbooks, and handouts relevant to the topics covered in the exam.
Organizing your study materials properly allows you to read about the essential topics and test your knowledge before your exam.
2. Cover all topics by leveraging study notes:
Organizing your study materials is critical because you may need to find notes or write down important information.
Fortunately, you can still study all the exam topics by getting student communities’ study notes.
You can benefit from getting notes through active student communities such as the highly rated Studocu because they provide access to top-rated summaries and lecture notes for exam preparation.
Some of these study notes come from students at Harvard University, Florida State University, and other top universities, allowing you to learn more helpful information and get more organized summaries from top students in the country.
These study notes are also rated by other students, making it easier for you to find relevant and helpful materials for your course.
3. Add visualization guides to your study notes:
You can absorb more information from your study notes by creating visual guides of the concepts tackled in them.
Through these visualizations, it will be easier to understand the concepts and see how they relate to the other topics covered in the exam.
To illustrate, students studying history and biology can create visual guides for their exams by drawing timelines of processes or developmental milestones, according to Research.com.
Through these timelines, it will be easier to remember the chronological presentation of concepts, facts, and events during your exam.
You can also better understand the relationships between various subject matters by creating concept maps, like mind maps and branching diagrams.
You can also leverage Venn diagrams and other comparison charts to highlight the similarities and differences between the topics covered in your exam.
4. Apply active learning strategies to the materials:
Visualizations are just one of the active learning strategies that you can apply to your study materials. You can also create other revision strategies on your notes to absorb the information better.
Inc Magazine suggests active learning strategies can be more effective than quietly reading notes.
Making doodles or drawing out concepts can help you increase your recall of tough concepts.
You can also read your study materials out loud to remember more of the concepts covered in your exam.
If you prefer to rewrite your notes as a part of your review, you’ll retain more information if you actively write them with pen and paper rather than just typing them on your laptop.
Exams are one of the biggest challenges you’ll face in college, so learning how to maximize study notes is important.
For more college tips, you can check out our informational articles for students at School and Travel.
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