Effective Study Strategies

Rehearsal Tips

Explain the information in your own words

• Being able to transcribe the material in your own words can not only prove mastery of the subject but also improve your own understanding, illuminating what concepts you may not be fully comfortable with.

Copy and take notes over several times

• Repetition is one of the most basic and effective ways to memorize.

Predict test questions

• Using your working knowledge to imagine test problems will help understand the material from an application standpoint.

Elaboration Tips

Form associations

• Using personally tailored associations can help your brain recall the information you’ve stored.

Explain to peers

• Being able to explain to peers and friends expands upon explaining the information in your own words and helps yourself and others strengthen their understanding.

Create acronyms & mnemonics

• These devices, similar to associations, add an additional layer to your ability to recall information you've studied.

Organizational Tips

Outlining

• Outlining your notes not only works as additional repetition but helps your conceptual understanding of the material.

Ordering

• Ordering in your notes can be utilized in many ways, such as by ordering your notes by what you need to study the most.

Comprehension Monitoring Tips

Self-test

• Self-testing incorporates many of the strategies listed and is one of the most comprehensive ways to test your understanding and memory.

Overlearn

• The best way to reinforce what you’ve learned is to keep on learning it. Even when you understand a concept and are able to retrieve it from memory, further mastery will only help.