Are you in the process of studying and preparing for exams? You might come across concepts difficult to understand or facts complex to remember. However, the process of studying will be easier if you are using the proper techniques and strategies. As a student, you must have a variety of tools and techniques in your arsenal to learn the subjects, instead of cramming it at night. Some of the best study techniques for students are active recall, spaced repetition, feynman technique, and pomodoro technique. In this article, you will find the 15 effective study techniques which can help you to quickly learn the materials and crack the exams.

At Mahalakshmi Vidya Mandir (CBSE), we are using better teaching methods, give top study techniques for students and encouraging the students to learn well. Our teachers provide enough guidance for the students to study without breaking the mind. 

What are the Three Kinds of Knowledge?

Before getting into the study techniques for students, it is helpful to understand the three kinds of knowledge. It can help you to choose the right technique to tackle the material you’re learning. Let’s look at the three kinds of knowledge, one by one.

• Factual Knowledge: It refers to the basic information, details, events and specific facts related to the specific subject area. It comprises terms, definitions, dates, countries, and specific events. The goal here is to achieve the ability to recall the information when required. 

• Conceptual Knowledge: This type of knowledge consists of ideas, concepts, principles and relationships between different frameworks. Here, the emphasis is more on understanding, rather than retrieving. If you are able to understand its subtleties and nuances, remembering will be followed.
• Procedural Knowledge: It denotes knowledge about how to perform a specific activity. By practicing over and over, one can gain expertise in the given skill, for example, playing musical instruments or performing a dance. Here, the focus is on practicing, rather than understanding or retrieving. 

In a nutshell, it can be summed up in the following manner – factual knowledge is to be remembered, conceptual knowledge to be understood and procedural knowledge is to be practiced. So, ensure to identify the kind of knowledge you’re dealing with and tailor your studying strategy accordingly. 

Top 15 Proven Study Techniques for Students

Below, we have provided the list of 15 effective study techniques for students, along with the description and implementation guidelines.

1. Active recall

Active recall is one of the effective study techniques, which is completely opposed to passive reading. Instead of numbing yourself by reading the sentences in the book, you will actively retrieve information from your memory. It exercises your brain ability to recall the information, strengthens the memory pathways, and develops long-term retention. Its power lies in its activeness, which gives adequate work to your brain in remembering the information. This is the reason why it is more effective than re-reading the notes and textbooks. You can score good marks in your exam by using this technique, since it trains your brain for information retrieval in a more effective way. 

2. Spaced Repetition

When it comes to studying, planning early is essential. This is what spaced repetition does. It is the best study techniques for students helping them to study complex material and remember it well. Instead of cramming at night, you are required to study over an extended period of time. This temporal stretch allows your brain to make connections between ideas, consolidate and build your knowledge in a gradual manner. 

To implement this technique, follow the below schedule to space out your studies:

• Day 1: Learn and take notes over your assigned material.
• Day 2: Revisit, Review and Recall
• Day 3: Revisit, Review and Recall
• After one week: Revisit, Review and Recall
• After two week: Revisit, Review and Recall

This is a sample schedule. You can modify it based on your situation and needs. The idea is to study the material in intervals rather than swallowing it.

3. Feynman Technique

Feynman Technique is inspired from the Nobel Prize Winning Physicist Richard Feynman and popularized by the blogger Scott H Young. This technique helps you to understand difficult concepts and remember them perfectly. Ideally, it can be used to learn the conceptual materials, as it helps you to identify the holes and errors in your understanding. The core idea of this method can be summed up in the following quotation of Albert Einstein – If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.

Here is the step by step process to use this study technique for learning the material.

1. Take a piece of paper and write a topic you want to understand on the top
2. Explain the topic as though you explain it to a six-year child. It forces you to create explanations as simple as possible.
3. If you are unable to explain any particular aspect of the topic, it means you lack understanding. So, you need to go through the material or ask your lecturer to seal the hole gap in your understanding. 
4. After you understand, resume your explanatory process. If you’re stuck, follow the third step. It must be done over and over until you sufficiently explain the topic. 

4. Pomodoro Technique

Pomodoro technique is one of the efficient time management techniques used by the students and professionals. It works by breaking down your study time in intervals. For each 25 minutes, you can take a break of 5 minutes and after the four 25-minute cycles, you can take a longer break like 15-20 minutes. This structured approach helps you to study in a consistent manner. It helps you to concentrate better, beat procrastination, study faster and prevent burnout.

5. Memory Palace

Memory palace, also known as method of loci, is a memory technique that utilizes our spatial memory to remember things. It works by attaching the items in a familiar location which aids recall. By constructing a mental map of place and placing the mental images along different points of the route, you can easily retrieve the items just by imagining the place and its locations. This combination of visceral and spatial memory helps you to turn the abstract material into a concrete framework.

Here are the steps to create a memory place:

1. Select a familiar place: Choose the school, office, playground or a house that you are familiar with. This is the memory palace where you are going to place the items you want to remember.
2. Chart out a route: Imagine a specific path from your chosen location and identify the distinct points like the entrance, living room, kitchen, etc.
3. Attach items with locations: Create images representing the information you want to remember and place it on the distinct locations in your memory palace as you walk through.
4. Retrieve the information: To recall the information, walk in your memory palace and mentally see the items you’ve created and recall it. Practice this over and over until you are familiar with the memory palace you’ve created.

Also read: Efficient Tips For Exam Preparation

6. Use Calendar

Calendar is a good companion to craft your study schedule. You can include the spaced repetition intervals to the calendar, so you’ll never forget. The idea of keeping a calendar is to keep track of your reading assignments, review schedules and exam time table. It can act as a second brain, which will keep the rudimentary yet necessary details.

To effectively use the calendar, start by listing out the subjects or lessons you have to study, prioritize based on the complexity and exam date, and distribute the study sessions accordingly. More importantly, be committed to the plan you created using the calendar. Without commitment, everything you’ve done is plainly useless.

7. PQ4R Method

PQ4R method is a well-structured reading technique that allows you to digest the material effectively. It is one of the best study techniques for students when they have huge reading assignments. PQ4R can be expanded as – Preview, Question, Read, Reflect, Recite Review. Ensure to give enough time for each section of this framework to achieve a better understanding. Let’s get into this method, even more detailed manner.

• Preview: Firstly, skim through the material to grasp the main ideas. Look for the titles, subheadings, introduction, conclusion and first sentence of each paragraph.
• Question: After that, create questions on the taken subject based on your reading. List out questions like – who, what, when, where and why.

• Reading: While reading, look for answers to the question. Read section by section and understand it well. Ensure to move to the next section, only after you understand the preceding section.

• Reflect: After the reading, assess how the new information connects with what you already know. Ensure to understand what are all the new insights you’ve gained and how it changes the way you look at something.

• Recite: In this stage, try to summarise the material you’ve learned. Elaborate the central ideas and how the ideas related to it.

• Review: Now, review the material along with your summaries and elaboration. Incorporate spaced repetition to improve your long-term retention.

8. Mind-Mapping

Mind-mapping is a visual thinking tool that helps you to organize the information with its central idea and all of its details. It provides you the holistic picture of the topic and makes you comprehend the relationship between ideas. As a learning tool, use mind-mapping to branch the ideas and details within the topic. Start by putting a topic at the centre and create branches to other ideas based on the logical connection. It somehow resembles your brain and the way it is connected to each other.

9. Practice Testing

A Study conducted by American Psychologist, John Dunlosky found that practice testing proves to be the most effective learning strategy. It forces you to practice recalling the information you’ve learned. Ranging from remembering the dates of the historical figures to applying the mathematical formulas to arrive at a solution, this technique strongly cements the material in your brain. The great thing is it can effectively tackle all three kinds of knowledge – facts, concepts and skills. And, drives out your anxiety since it develops deep familiarity with the material. 

10. Mnemonics

Mnemonics is a popular memory technique that helps to remember the factual information. The classic way to use this is to pick out the first letter of each item and turn it into a sensible or pronounceable word or phrase. The typical example is VIBGYOR, which sums up the colours of the rainbow. This simple technique can help you in the long run.

11. Use FlashCards

Flashcards can be used to incorporate practice testing and spaced repetition in your learning routine. You can either use a physical or flashcards app to store the material and learn it. Typically, it involves writing a concept on one side and definition on the other side. You have to remember the definition just by looking at the concept. This is just an example, you can modify it based on the subject matter that you’re studying.

12. Leitner System

This is an upgraded version of flashcard method. First, you need to write questions on one side and answers on the other side and put it in the box. Take each card and answer the question. If you answered correctly, keep it in the same box, if not put it in the other box, which needs to be frequently reviewed. The same process will be continued until you have grasped the information adequately. Do it until it becomes part of you.

13. Smart Breaks

Study breaks are important to relax and prevent burnout. But, what kind of breaks you’re taking also needs to be considered. Try to take a walk or drink water instead of using social media or playing games. The key idea is to take boring breaks instead of exciting breaks. If you take breaks which involve excitement, you’ll be distracted and prevent you from getting back into studies. Thus, boring breaks are ideal to create a rhythm in your studies without interruption.

14. Write it Out

There are two kinds of distraction you’ll have – internal distraction and external distraction. Internal distraction is about thoughts running through your head while you’re studying. This internal noise heavily slows down your study pace. So, whenever you’re struggling with internal distraction, just take a piece of paper and write your thoughts out loud. Clarity resolves the confusion. Confusion is the cause of all internal distraction. Keep a daily journal to record your thoughts, which helps you to greatly reduce your thoughts runs like in stampede.

15. Create a Good Space

We have learned how to handle the internal distraction, now let’s focus on external distraction. This can be solved by creating a good space or environment for your studies. Some might be resistant to the external distraction, still having a good and peaceful environment speeds up your learning. Shut down the TV or other noises in your house or else move to the library. Choosing the study environment might seem like a trivial thing, but it contributes to effective learning, for sure.

Download the study techniques PDF to keep the document handy and use whenever you want!

Also read: How to overcome exam fear and anxiety?

Conclusion

Problems in your studies can disappear with the rich toolkit. Hope you got the enough tools and techniques to battle the struggles you face while you’re studying. Use it flexibly and in combination to effectively tackle the chosen material. This will enhance your study routine and learning speed. Study hard and enjoy learning