Your college experience whether undergrad or grad will involve dozens of tests, quizzes, and exams over the years and knowing how to study for them is critical.

1. 3 Steps for Effective Studying
Your college experience whether undergrad or
grad will involve dozens of tests, quizzes, and
exams over the years and knowing how to study
for them is critical. I am finishing off my own
college degree and as I look back I have honed
my study habits and watched other students do
the same. From my own experience and the
experience of those I have spoken with here are
the steps to successfully study:
1. Discern Test Content
Before you begin creating a study guide you need to know what to include. This is the first and most
difficult part of studying for a test. Perhaps your professor was nice enough to supply you with an
outline of the study guide but most of the time they will not. Take whatever resources you have and
start building your study guide, but make sure that you speak with your professor during class and
individually to get a better feel for the content of the test. You can do the same with the TA (teaching
assistant).
When it comes to the amount of material to include there is definitely a tradeoff. If you put on
everything from the class you risk studying unnecessary information not to mention wasting time
building such a long study guide. However, if you don’t include enough no matter how well you go
through your completed study guide you will not have studied everything on the test. As a safe bet
include more rather than less information in your study guide.
On a separate note you should be doing this at least a week before the test to give you enough time to
study.
2. Create Your Study Guide
Generally, I choose to do this on a computer with Microsoft OneNote (Mac has a similar Notebook
program). Review the outline of topics you have created and then browse your class notes for the
information. From here it is simple drag and drop to have all of the information in one convenient
location. If you chose to write your notes on paper you may be out of luck (I can’t stand professors who
don’t permit laptops). On paper you can tear out pages, tag sections with sticky-tabs, or highlight the
necessary information. Remember that you don’t need to memorize each page as not everything will be
on the test. Continue browsing your notes until you are satisfied that you have enough information to
answer every topic listed in the outline.

2. There is a good chance that you will have holes in your notes so I hope you have made friends in your
classmates, especially those who care about their grade like you. Speak with these students and
exchange notes or create a Google Document between a group of you so everyone can contribute. This
makes creating a study guide much quicker (as long as everyone contributes).
3. Begin Studying
How you study really is up to your own
personal preferences. I will print out my
completed study guide and wander around
campus looking down at the papers and
muttering acronyms to myself like a nut-job
but hey that’s me.
Some general rules to follow include:
*Organizing your work. There should be
structure to the information you have
listed on the study guide. Similar to how humans can memorize a large amount of number that come in
sets of three but are terrible at memorizing an unbroken stream of numbers a hierarchy in your notes
will increase your recall.
*Acronyms and Models are very helpful as they both create Aided Recall to your memorization. If I say
name a vehicle you need to pause and think of one but if I say name a vehicle made by John Deere,
‘tractor’, should have popped in your head immediately. List out the information and create memorable
acronyms (the closer the acronym is to a real word the better you will memorize it). Models help create
a mental image to associate with the information creating aided recall like the acronym. The model
could be as simple as coloring the topics in different color or more complex like an image of a human
body with each part representing a topic.
* Limit the details you memorize. Unless you have an eidetic memory you won’t be able to memorize
everything you have been given in class. Pick the essential specifics to topics and make them your
priority.
* Make yourself comfortable when you study. For me that is walking around as I get antsy sitting down
but for you that may mean under your covers at home or sitting on a hardwood chair in the library.
Whatever it is you need to get comfortable and bunker down.
*Space out your study sessions. We are not robots and thus experience physical, mental, and emotional
fatigue. After a couple of hours of study your retention levels dip significantly. For you they may dip
after 45 minutes. Whatever your limit is make sure to take breaks between study sessions. This will
also help you retain the material as you have increased repetition.

3. *Start early with your studying. This is not only to slowly ingrain the material in your mind for the test
but to help you remember it after you leave class and enter the workforce. Remembering nothing from
college mean s you walked away with a diploma and nothing more.
*Don’t cram the night before! You may end up memorizing more information but the next day mental
performance will not be in fighting shape and fatigue will set in quickly so all that information you spend
memorizing will be very difficult to recall. Get a good night’s sleep, wake up early, and review the
material right before the test. If there is a difficult topic, keep it in your short-term memory by
repeating it to yourself right before the test.
*Spill the information on your paper the moment you get the test. If you have topics that you had been
repeating to yourself write them down immediately on the back of test along with anything you may
forget and then come back to them later for reference.
Whether you are in a St. George college or a NYC University these study techniques should prove
universal. They certainly have helped me over the past few years, best of luck!
Photo Credit: Mark Grapengater, Bindaas Madhavi,