How to study - a guide for ♡ good grades ♡
for most of my school years, I never studied. I have naturally good memory and was quick to understand things... up until maybe year 8. Then things got a bit harder, my grades started falling. I only started to truly study during year 10, and that's how I developed my various ways of studying.
i will be listing the methods i use below. these have helped me a lot and hopefully they can help you too! That said, here are my methods:
this is my preferred method for sciences, aka, biology, chemistry, etc.
what i do is have two separate notebooks for each subject.
one is to use during class. its messy, disorganised, an info dump of everything the teacher says.
the second one stays at home. there, everyday after school, i rewrite my notes, this time more aesthetic, more complex, prettier. i also research online and check the powerpoints used by the teacher to make sure I'm not missing anything. I take my time with this notebook, because rewriting my notes helps consolidate them in my mind, and is a great tool for revising for tests. it also means that during class, i can pay more attention to what the teacher is saying instead of trying to do pretty titles and such.
i also mostly use this for sciences, it helps a lot.
flashcards are the best. You can use ones ready made on your computer, or handwrite your own. I prefer to handwrite because, even though it takes time, as I said before rewriting helps consolidate the material in your brain. After every class, I write down questions and answers on white rectangles I bought from the nearby stationary store, punch a hole in them, and add them to the ring where I have all the other flashcards.
when I'm close to a test, I keep my flashcards close to me at all times. when I am bored, or have nothing to do, I take them out and flip through them until I feel I know everything. I try to go through them at least twice a day.
this method has saved me in so many ways.
this is the method I use for history, languages, and english.
I rewrite all my notes on my computer (but you can do handwritten, i just prefer computer so i can print many copies) and then print them out. a week before a test, I start leaving the notes in places i pass by often, eg, my desk, my bathroom mirror, taped to the inside of my wardrobe. every time I see my notes, I force myself to read them all. because I pass by the places so many times, I'll be constantly rereading the same thing, helping consolidate it in my brain.
ofc, this might not be enough, so I also suggest reading your notes like this - read the first sentence. then read the first again, and then the second, and read the first again, followed by the second and then read the third, and then reread the first, second, and third sentences. then read the fourth. and reread the first, second, third, and fourth, and then the fifth, etc. this method is amazing and helps memorize stuff so easily. sorry if its confusing ♡
this method, in my opinion, is better for subjects like maths, physics, etc.
it's pretty obvious what it is. just do and redo exercises, correct them, grade yourself, Google past papers and test yourself again. do this until you are confident that you understand everything. and even then, keep doing exercises.
this one is for English, and you might hate it. I mean, who doesn't hate essays?
what i do is, I go to chatgpt, and ask it to suggest possible essay questions on possible things that might be on my test (eg., shakespeare).
then, I write an essay (using the PEAEAL structure) and ask chatgpt to evaluate it and rate it out of ten, tell me where I should improve without giving me the exact answer to what I should improve. then I rewrite the parts that were wrong, and send it to chatgpt again. I do this until I get a 10/10. I keep doing this with multiple questions until I'm confident I know the topic well
how i truly, truly, managed to get good grades was making studying enjoyable. I started romanticizing it - lighting candles, installing an aesthetic clock on my computer, spending hours on pretty diagrams, going to cafes with my notes and studying there.
get a friend to study with you too sometimes. Trust me when I say, romanticizing studying is the best study method.