Blurting / Braindumping : start from a blank page and write down everything you know about a topic/concept.
Practice past/prior/old exams/tests/papers/quizzes.
Practice mock/practice exams/tests/papers/quizzes/exercises/questions/problems/MCQs. (often found in textbooks, on the internet or given by the professor. Use Questions Banks (“QBanks”)).)
Make your own questions and answers (Q&A / FAQ).
Use AI (e.g. ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Microsoft Bing Copilot) to generate questions and answers (double-check its correctness before studying it).
Study early (in the semester/year), study often (daily).
Build the habit of studying. Studying one hour everyday day for a week beats studying 7 hours in one day that week.
Good sleep :
Avoid cramming and all-nighters.
Avoid distractions / Go offline : no phones (social medias), no laptops, no tablets, no television,…
Retro-Planning using 1-hour blocks :
Start planning your study from the day of the exam and go backwards until today.
Here is how to retro-plan effectively in practice:
Deadlines : First, write down your exam dates, homeworks, and other class-related deadlines.
Classes : Then, write down the classes and lectures you plan to attend.
Sleep : Then, schedule minimum 8 hours of sleep per day.
Travel & Food : Then, schedule your lunch time.
1 one-hour block for waking up and breakfast.
1 one-hour block for lunch time.
1 one-hour block for dinner time.
Any block for the time spent in travel-commute.
Sport : Then, schedule your time for exercise/sports.
Study : And finally, schedule your study time by topic/subject.
Aim for a combined study-class time of 10 to 12 hours per day.
Aim for a combined study-class time of minimum 40 to 50 hours per week.
Mix the topics/subjects on the same day using interleaving (mix-and-match topics/subjects/questions/flashcards).
Use Spaced Repetition to fight the Forgetting Curve : when planning, spread your learning topics/subjects at increasing intervals of time.
Use a Spaced Repetition Sheet to track your repetitions: Use a papersheet or a digital spreasheet, one per exam, and make the following 8 columns in a table:
Topic/Subject: the name of the topic/subject you are going to study;
0-DAY (D0): the date of the day you start studying the topic/subject for the first time;
1-DAY (D1): the day after 0-DAY;
3-DAYS (D3): three days after 0-DAY;
1-WEEK (D7): one week after 0-DAY;
2-WEEKS (D14): three weeks after 0-DAY;
1-MONTH (D30): one month after 0-DAY;
PRE-EXAM: days just before the exam date;
Common repetition patterns:
Standard pattern: D0, D1, D3, D7, D14. (then every two weeks.)
Off-by-one pattern: D0, D2, D4, D8, D14 or D15. (then every two weeks.)
One less repetition: D0, D1 or D2, D3 or D5, D10 or D14. (then every two weeks.)
No D1 nor D2: D0, D3, D7 or D8, D14 or D15. (then every two weeks.)
Use different colors to highlight each cell based on how well the study session went (using highlighters or colored pencils if paper-based).
E.g.: Green-colored: the session went well, Orange-colored: you need more practice, Red-colored: the session was very hard.
Start your outline early in the semester and improve/refine regularly/frequently (Reduce the length of your outline as much as possible.).
Make your own outline. The process of making an outline helps you memorizing its content leveraging Bloom’s taxonomy.
Synthetize, don’t summarize : Focus on insights, do not just reduce the size of the text.
Ideal length: 3-6 pages for an Attack Outline. 20-30 pages for a Regular Outline.
Begin outlining around the Syllabus of the course and/or with the Table of Contents of your reference tectbook/casebook. Then fill-in your outline based on your class notes and/or commercial outlines and/or other students’ outlines.
Focus on your weakenesses: the topics you know less or make the most mistakes in.
MPGA : Make Preparation / Pre-Reads Great Again.
Meta-Learning : make a log (a Spreadsheet for example) for every study sessions and reflect on what did good, bad, your study weakenesses, etc… Review the log regularly to improve yourself.
Enjoy the process of studying and make it enjoyable. (favorite drink/snacks, light music, personal reward,…)
Do not idle to fight the sunk cost fallacy. Do not lose too much time trying to solve hard problems. Spend 30 minutes trying to solve it, and then look at the answer, and move on.
Upsolving :
The process of solving questions/problems slightly harder than your current level.
Resolving :
Solving questions/problems again after some time can lead you to new perspectives or a better answer/solution.
Disaggregate concepts :
Split/break down hard/complex concepts into smaller/easier ones.
Gather/buy notes/flashcards/outlines/past papers from your seniors or on the internet (freely available via a Google Search or dedicated platforms that sells study materials). Look for quality: correctness (are there mistakes?), exhaustiveness (does it cover the whole course?), and lisibility (for handwritten notes).
If taking notes on an electronic tablet, consider using Notability or GoodNotes.