WHAT STUDY METHODS HELP ME TO REMEMBER MY STUDY MATERIAL AND BE CONFIDENT TO TAKE THE EXAM?

I already shared my study routine a few posts ago and that is the method that helps me to remember my study material in the best way possible for me. I’d love to share a few study techniques in this post that help me to remember the study material better. So here we go:

1. Flashcards – I love using flashcards for learning definitions and case law! You can also use it for a lot of other things but making flashcards can be quite time consuming so only make them if they are going to be useful in your study sessions.

2. Mind maps – I usually use mind maps for essay writing as it allows me to order all of my thoughts. It can also be very helpful for studying. However, as a law student, I often notice I don’t really need to make mind maps to get a clear overview.

3. Using the content table as an overview/mind map/outline – I find the content table of my law books usually detailed enough to use as a quick overview of all my study material. As I read the content table, I try to remember as much of the study material as I can. If I don’t remember a lot, I just go to the page and study again.

4. The teacher method – the teacher method is my go to method for cramming or learning the material by heart. After studying the material for a while, close your books and pretend you are a teacher explaining the material to someone who doesn’t know a thing about it. If you can properly explain it (in your own words) it means you understand the material and that you know the material.

5. Summarizing – extremely useful to fully understand the material and it helps to get a good overview of the material!

6. Highlighting or annotating the material – in my experience, it is really helpful to highlight all the important stuff in your study material. It is very helpful to summarize later on and it’s nicer when you are going over the study material after everything is highlighted.

7. Quizzing – ask someone to quiz you about the study material to see whether you really remembered the material or not.

8. If you don’t have a lot of time to study or you find it difficult to find the important parts of your study material while summarizing, it might be helpful to use a summary or notes written by someone else. Of course you still have to go to the lectures and read the normal study material but you can use the notes/summary as a foundation you can build your final summary/overview on.

9. Reading from as many different sources as I can. One thing I know about our brains is that the more detailed the information is that you are trying to remember, the better you remember the information. That’s why I try to find different sources of a certain topic that all have a different explanation and have different examples so I am more likely to understand and remember. I only do this with topics I find hard to understand or topics that I cannot seem to remember.

So these techniques help me to remember my study material and make me feel confident for my exams. I usually go for my “normal” study routine that I explained in an earlier post but these ones are the ones I use to switch things up!

Love, Rose