By: Shawn Cox
Submitted: 2010-11-03 08:50:06 | Word Count: 733
Realistically, while dealing with other classes and possibly a work schedule, you’re probably not going to have the time to conscientiously comb over and memorize every bit of information for weeks in advance of the exam. While that makes the ideal student, it’s also the type of student who would probably have machinery cranking if you lifted off the top of his or her skull.
While studying history at college, I wrote hundreds of pages’ worth of essay exams, and eventually I learned a process which greatly reduced the stress of the tedious memorization necessary to succeed. If you feel lost and overwhelmed at the prospect of writing your knowledge on a prompt within the limited time span available, try these effective study skills.
Taking Notes in Class
Take notes about everything, on everything. Literally. Be sure to not only keep neat notes in your notebook, but circle, highlight, mark, and write on any handouts while the instructor is talking about them. Jot down any page numbers that are mentioned. If you own your books, don’t be shy about doing the same in them; if you borrowed your books, use scraps of paper to mark important passages. For those borrowed books, I found it useful to keep a pad of mini Post-Its handy to mark passages and jot down why they’re important.
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If the instructor says some variation of “This will be on the exam,” touches on something multiple times, or writes it on the board, do yourself a favor and mark it with a big star. This will save many a woe as you stare at the exam, vaguely picturing that bit of information in your mind but unable to place it.
Don’t assume you’ll remember something because it seems obvious. In the stress and crunch of studying and taking the exam, such things can fly right out of your head. It’s better to have it available for review than to forget about it entirely.
Organize Your Notes
Gather up every scrap of notes you ever took in that class which relates to the area covered in the upcoming exam. In my experience, professors often give some idea as to what the prompts will be a few days before the exam, so you’ll be able to wrap your mind around them and let them mentally simmer before you dive into studying. If you have the evil type of instructor who won’t tell you anything at all about the prompts, tack on some extra time to when you begin to prepare and make sure you know where everything is. 3 AM, five hours before the exam, is not the best time to realize you left your book somewhere you can’t quite remember.
Write an Outline
Once you have your notes organized, string the information into outlines based on the essay topics (if your instructor gave them to you) or whatever else makes the most sense. Use ridiculous amounts of detail, everything you would want to put in the ideal essay you could type at your leisure rather than frantically scribble.
Now compress. Take out the minute details and retain the big and medium ideas. As you decide what to keep and what not, your brain is linking those minute details to the parts you decide are the more important concepts.
Compress again. Cut down on what you’re writing in your outline as much as you can while still retaining coherency so it all makes sense in your own head and would flow as an essay if you decided to flesh it out then and there.
Test Yourself
Once you’ve compressed the outline to your satisfaction, use a clean piece of paper to reconstruct all the information the best you can. You may be surprised how many of those details you cut out as you compressed the outlines will come back to you, brought back to the surface through association with the big concepts. At this point, it’s about really putting your nose to the grindstone and working on memorizing as much as you can.
When you sit down to write the essay, being comfortable with knowing the big concepts should relax your mind into letting the details come to the surface so you can write that A quality essay. Of course, these techniques can work for an essay exam on any subject. It worked for me – here’s hoping it helps you as well!
