One of the most important skills i picked up when i was studying was the ability to speed read. This cut down the time i needed to study entire textbooks by at least 60%. Lets face it, why would you want to spend 2 hours a day reading when you could spend 40 minutes reading the same material and devote the remaining 80 minutes to something else. Now im going to warn you at the outset, speed reading takes practice, patience and takes some time to learn. Now if your finals or an exam are around the corner, don’t try it now, wait till you have about a couple of weeks to spare and then start, even if you can’t use it now, it will be useful later.

My warning aside, its not a very hard skill to get used to and with constant practice you could even double or triple your reading speed. The average reading speed of young adults in the US is between 150 to 200 words per minute (depending on which study you look at) and with some practice and proper speed reading techniques that figure has been increased to as high as 600 words per minute during studies with complete comprehension of the reading material.

That’s all for now, this is going to be a multi part article and in it i will cover the basics and speed reading techniques, speed reading and comprehension and finally for those of you who would rather get some help: speed reading courses and speed reading software.

Have you got any speed reading techniques you think i should talk about or any tips and tricks?

I’m talking about finals!

Do you think of finals like this? If so, it might be a good idea to face the pain and look back to see what you could have done better. What you might discover is that if you had done a few things differently earlier in the semester, the apocalypse called “Final’s Week” would have been a cake walk!

To do really well on your finals, you really have to start preparing on the first day of class. That way, instead of cramming for your finals next semester, you’ll only have to do a nice little review the night before. Sounds pretty sweet huh?

If you want to ace your finals, spend less time cramming for them, and have zero fear come final exam time, read these 6 tips and apply them to your studies next semester.

1) You didn’t really forget it all.

One thing most students don’t understand about memory is that it’s not like a textbook. You can’t go to the table of contents, look up the location of the memory, and turn to the right page.

It is also not like a chalkboard. You don’t erase memories to make room for new ones. They’re all still there!

So don’t sweat it if you feel like you have “forgotten everything.” Chances are the knowledge is still there in your brain somewhere. You just have to do some reviewing to refresh it.

2) Learn it the first time.

If you start reviewing and you still don’t feel things clicking, it is because you didn’t learn it right the first time, not because you forgot it.

If you were getting Cs and Ds on your exams leading up to test time, you probably were not doing a very great job learning the stuff during the semester, were ya?

3) Do well on tests.

Your tests will give you the best “sneak preview” you can get for your finals. So do your best on them. And hold onto those suckers! They’ll prove very valuable come finals time.

When I get my graded exams back, I always do two things:

1. Go back and look up answers for questions I got wrong.
2. Hold on to them!

Old tests are the best thing you can use to study for your finals. Better than your notes, better than your instructor’s Power Points, and better than your textbook.

4) Be consistent.

Some people, (like myself) do just fine without taking notes in class. Other people would rather not read the textbook. That’s fine, but do not change your habits half way through the semester unless you really believe you must.

If you keep switching things up every week, you will never find a good “groove” that works for you, and you will still be confused as hell during finals week.

Having good study skills requires that you know how to study. If you don’t know how to study for your course by finals time, you did something wrong.

5) Stay organized

Keep separate folders and notebooks for each class and keep all your old tests and notes in these folders. That way, the night before the final, you won’t be scrambling to find materials to study from.

6) Make friends in each class.

I have always been the type to do things on my own and this tip I learned fairly recently.

Making a few connections in each class will pay off down the road. Especially when you start taking courses for your major. You will inevitably find a few of the same people in each of your classes. Make them your allies! There are a lot of ways you can help each other out.

Sometimes in one class you will find someone who had already taken a class that you are currently in. Most people are more than willing to give you advice on how to do great in a class and if you’re really nice, they might even give you their old materials (notes, study guides, and even old tests!)

So here’s a recap of the 6 steps to preparing for your finals next semester:

1) Realize that you can’t forget everything you learned

2) Learn it right the first time.

3) Do well on your exams and hold on to them.

4) Be consistent.

5) Stay organized.

6) Make friends in each class.

I cover a lot of these steps more in depth in my other posts, so look around, but these might get you started.

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could walk into your classroom on final exam day without worry and ace it? Bookmark this post and read it again in August (if you can remember!) If you start preparing early your finals will be a breeze.

image by wittco.gmbh

This article by Cal Newport is useful if you need a little structure in your study sessions:
My World Famous Mechanical Exam Prep Process

Too many students begin exam prep without a (sufficiently detailed) plan. They have, at best, only a rough idea of how they’re going to review before they dive straight into a pseudo-work grind.

Read more…

My friend Martin over at The University Blog will tell you how to be prepared for your exam in 7 steps:
Be 7 times ready for exams

Go through the rigmarole of examinations with a positive step and some initial work. You need to be 7 things in order to achieve readiness for the big day:

1. Be Selfish - For once, you need to ignore what’s going on around you as you stand outside the examination hall. Exams are not group efforts. The revision is done and was unique to your own mental strengths. Now is not the time to consider what other people think will be in the exam and how they have prepared for it. You’ve done all you can, so listening to others 2 minutes before you step in to the room is only likely to knock your confidence.

Read More…
This one will help you determine whether you need a little improvement in the study skills department:
Test Taking Skills

Discover Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Good study skills can make a big difference in your school performance. Even if you find a particular subject difficult to understand, you will find that being organized and knowing how to tap in to your natural strengths can add valuable points to your scores.

Read more…

Memory is always an important aspect of test-taking and here is a little guide to help you pimp-out your memory at Lifehack:
How to Improve Your Memory

Fuel Your Brain

A starving brain is just like a starving person: it won’t work well. Give your hippocampus the things it needs to operate smoothly.

Exercise

One of the best things you can do for your memory is get exercise. I’ve put this under the Fuel Your Brain section because the reason exercise works so well is that it pumps oxygen to your head. Spend three hours a week walking, running, swimming or doing some form of aerobic exercises. If you already have an exercise regime that doesn’t involve aerobic exercise, you’ll need to add at least three hours per week to get the benefits of exercise on your memory.

Read more…

And a few more Effective exam-taking tips.

1) Focus on your studies. This means that all you will ever think about and do during this preparatory period is to study and that alone. Stay focused - no unnecessary text messages, no parties, no time for star gazing. You can better understand what you are studying and retain more information that you read if you refrain from distractions.

2) Join a study group. But be sure that when you do, you already have understood most of the topics so you will not get confused all the more when the group discussions begin. Do your part, study extensively, and take the opportunity to ask the group those topics that you cannot understand. Also, try to anticipate possible questions that might be asked in the exam and make a group effort to find the answers for these questions.

Read more…

Good luck on your finals!

image by notashamed

I considered charging for it, but I’ve decided to give it away for free instead. The only thing you have to do is sign up for my free newsletter. It’s really a benefit for both sides. I get a way to keep in touch with you, the reader, and you get a $20 book for free! And don’t worry about spam. I hate it as much as you do, and your email address will remain completely confidential.

So what are you waiting for? Go on and get your free memory ebook.

** UPDATE: I have a problem with my mailing list, fixing it now so check back soon and the book will be available **

So let’s get down to it. What is the Link System and how does it work?

I first read about the Link System in a fantastic book by Harry Lorayne called Super Memory - Super Student: How to Raise Your Grades in 30 Days. Harry sums the Link System up like this.

“In order to remember any new thing, it must be associated, in some ridiculous way, with something you already know or remember.”

That’s all there is to it really.

Putting it into action

Say for whatever reason that you needed to remember this list of 10 items:

shoe, baseball, lamp, computer, phone, nail, bottle, fish, window, wheel.

The first thing you need to do is to picture the first item on the list, in this case a shoe, in your mind’s eye. And really picture it. Visualize it. Make it big and vivid. The easiest thing to do is picture something familiar, so picture your own shoe.

Next you will “link” the shoe to the second item, the baseball. You’ll do this by visualizing the baseball interacting with the shoe in some totally crazy and ridiculous way. That’s the key to the Link System. The links have to be crazy, ridiculous, illogical or impossible. The crazier or more impossible it is, the easier it is to remember.

Really use your imagination on this. Maybe the shoe is a monster and it’s eating the baseball. Or maybe you could imagine a giant baseball wearing shoes. Know what I mean? Once you’ve got a crazy picture in your mind, stop thinking about it and move on to the next one.

Quick Tip: If your imagination is a little rusty, here are some shortcuts to get you started: Make one of the items giant. Give the items human characteristics. Picture a million of one item.

Next create an impossible association between baseball and lamp. Here are a few I can picture: A lamp with a baseball for a lightbulb. A baseball speeding across a living room and shattering a lamp. A giant baseball monster with a lampshade on his head. See, isn’t this fun?

Go onto the next item and the next, until you’re finished. Then go through your links and see if you can remember the whole list in order. You might be surprised how easy it is to recall each item in order.

The Link System is so great because it uses the same “machinery” that our brains use all the time to remember stuff. Simply put, we remember stuff that seems to stand out in some way. Boring, non-interesting things never stick very well in our memory.

Just like any other skill, this one takes time to learn. You might think this little exercise took longer than if you had tried to memorize the list the old way. It did because you were still learning the technique. Once you get some practice in you’ll be able to remember lists longer than that one in way less time!

For a little fun, come back tomorrow see if you can remember the list of items from this article. Then leave a comment telling me how you did. Good luck!

Image by macropoulos