In addition, many professors will make attendance and participation a part of your grade. Therefore, just attending will contribute to you making better grades. If you don’t show up enough, you lose those points.
For instance, if your teacher says, “We’re talking about verbs today. Verbs are the action of the sentence. There are two main types of verbs, being and action verbs. " You could write: “Verbs: action of sentence. 2 types: being, action. " It’s a good idea to use shorthand or abbreviations to make your writing faster, but be sure to be consistent so that you always know what you wrote. [4] X Research source Though you can capture more with a computer, studies have shown that taking notes by hand actually helps you learn more than taking notes on a computer. [5] X Research source
Everybody’s mind wanders sometime. When you find yourself drifting away, bring your focus back to what your teacher is saying. If you absolutely cannot focus or you find yourself going to sleep, try going to the bathroom for a short break to splash water on your face, if your teacher will let you.
Once you have all of the concepts you need to cover, set aside a certain amount of time to cover each one, based on the amount of time you want to spend in total covering the exam. You don’t need to give equal time to each concept. If you know one concept better than another, focus more time on the one you don’t know. If one concept is more complex, it might need more time than other concepts.
For instance, if you’re trying to study a book for a test, try using an online study guide to spark discussion with your friends. You can find discussion questions for most classic works of literature. For something like math, try having mini competitions. Take one problem, and see who can solve it the fastest. If someone is having trouble, walk through the problem with him or her to help her understand it. Whether you’re doing the explaining or need the explanation, you’ll be solidifying the information more quickly.
For instance, say you’re trying to learn the circulatory system of an animal. You can compare the parts of the body to a train system, where the main train station is the heart, while the big train routes moving away from the station are the arteries and the ones moving to the station are the veins.
Just write a word or something you need to learn on one side, and then write the definition or what’s connected to that concept on the other side. Flashcards work best with study concepts that have two parts, such as words and definitions, events and dates, or the name of an equation and the equation. Another way flashcards can help is they allow you to study just what you don’t know. Once you’ve definitely learned a concept or word, you can take it out of the set of cards, focusing your time on learning what you don’t know.
Once you’ve read through the question, decide on what you would answer before looking at the answer choices. That way, you won’t be swayed by other answers before coming to a conclusion. If your answer is there, pick it, and move on. If isn’t, reread the question to see if you read it wrong. [16] X Research source If you’re having trouble deciding, eliminate the silly or ridiculous choices. Often, one or two of the answers will be obviously wrong. Put a line through those so you don’t have to consider them anymore. [17] X Research source If you still can’t decide between the other answers, pick one and move on, as long as you’re not penalized for guessing. [18] X Research source
You can count tea, coffee, and juice in your water intake. Just remember, juices are sugary, so don’t drink too many ounces of juice. Try adding fruit to water to infuse it with flavor, and make it more enticing. Though the standard rule is to drink eight glasses of water a day, you may need more. Women generally need about 9 cups of water a day, and men need about 13 cups. [22] X Trustworthy Source Mayo Clinic Educational website from one of the world’s leading hospitals Go to source
