Retaining Information

With a new semester underway that can only mean finding new ways to get those A’s. The hardest part for most students in college is studying/remembering information for exams. Since exams are make up the biggest percentage of the final grade, here are a few ways to make retaining information for exams easy.

The number one, of course, is to study the notes for all your classes every day. Honestly, how many of us actually have time for that? The answer is none of us. Instead what you can do is once you get your syllabi, write down in a planner what dates you have exams. Count back a week before the exam and spend those seven days focusing on that specific exam.

To retain the information for those seven days you can read a chapter a day and take notes on the important parts of that chapter. Once you finish taking notes read over those notes. The day before the exam study those notes that you have taken as well as any other study guide that you were given.

Another way to retain information is to read over your notes or the study guide before going to sleep. I know most of us would rather be on our phones enjoying whatever funny thing is happening on late night Twitter. But by going to sleep right after reading your notes the information goes to the subconscious and for all you know you might even have a dream about it. (a little weird? I know.)

Cracks of time. I cannot say this enough. There are 24 hours in a day and as much as we like to think we use all of those 24 hours being productive we don’t. (I’m guilty of this too.) Use those little cracks of time in your day to study instead of check social media. You will thank yourself later.

When it comes to retaining information for exams it can be very difficult and nerve wrecking but hopefully some of these tips can help with that. Cheers to a new year, a new semester, and a new way to retain information.