It's the night before that big test and you've suddenly realised you forgot to revise the entire chapter on oxidation in your Chemistry text book – eek!
But luckily for you, you DID read a chapter about quantum mechanics (aka time travel) in a physics text book! So let's rewind the clock and travel back to a time before you were contemplating pulling an all-night cram session and find out if there is a better way to study.
Follow the advice in this video from learning scientist Dr Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel to help you feel prepared for almost anything a study session will throw at you… except maybe custard pies… you're students, not clowns!
Once you've watched the video, check out our highlights below… And if you really have left your revision to the last minute, don't panic! Here's some advice on what to do if you've left it late
Melody: Hi, I'm Melody, and when it comes to tests, I'm as guilty as anyone for leaving revision to the last minute. But that can’t be the best way. So today I'm going to be speaking to learning scientist Dr Carolina, to see what I can do about it.
Carolina: So leaving revision for the last-minute means that you're cramming a lot of studying into the last day or night and that is not only stressful. But, it makes you forget that information much faster. So a better way, is to plan smaller learning sessions and distribute those sessions over the course of time. How can I find a better way to work this year? You can look at when your exams are and then you would plan backwards. So you would schedule different study sessions. They can be half an hour long, an hour long or even shorter if you just want a short reactivation of what you have learned. That's absolutely fine.
Melody: So, once I’ve made my study plan, how do I actually start my session?
Carolina: So the first thing you should always do is try to remember information from memory. So do a quick quiz before looking at any of your notes or any of your material. Try to remember from memory first, as a starter, and then use your materials and your notes to get feedback, to see if you're right, or where you've got wrong answers and why they were wrong. So always use it as a kind of feedback. Also, when you do a study plan, always make sure that you also schedule some time for, for fun stuff. For stuff that you really enjoy, for hobbies, for meeting with friends and so on. That's really important as well, to keep you healthy and happy.
Melody: And if there's a day where I'm really busy, is there something I can do instead?
Carolina: If you only have five or ten minutes, that's what you're going to use, and it's absolutely fine. Do a quick quiz, try to remember information from memory, try to make different connections between different concepts that you learned. Do not stress. Just take it one step at a time and make sure that you're continuously studying.
Carolina: Thank you so much for your help.
Spaced practice
We'd like to introduce you to spaced practice… no it's not more guidelines on how to social distance. We're talking about planning your study sessions in advance and spacing them out into manageable chunks.
Instead of cramming all your studying into one very stressful last-minute study session, you should plan several, shorter study sessions over the weeks and months leading up to your exams or throughout your learning, creating smaller study pockets to study the same material. This approach not only has the benefit of being way less stressful, but it also lets you keep your knowledge up-to-date by revising the material as you go.
By using the spaced technique, you will hopefully remember the material better. This is because when you're exposed to information at different points in time and in different situations, the information usually sticks better in your memory. For example, you probably can't get that annoying advert jingle out of your head because you've seen it so many times spaced over many weeks. So, why not use this effect to boost your study routine?
How to implement spaced practice into your studies
Spaced practice requires you to make a study plan and stick with it. So, take out your diary and create study session pockets for revising material after school. These study sessions don't need to be long, but they need to take place on different days. It can be a good idea to come up with a study plan together with a friend – this can help you stick with it.
You might want to check out our guide on flashcards – they can be reviewed at different points in time during your shorter study sessions. Mix them up and revisit them over the course of weeks instead of cramming them into one session. When you go back to study older material, take a quick quiz first to see what you remember and then only re-read the material after.
And whilst we've told you that cramming alone is not the best way to study, scheduling a last revision session the day before your test or exam can actually be a good idea. Just make sure that you don't substitute sleep for studying. Getting a good night's sleep the night before your exam or after a study session is really important for learning – luckily for you we've got a whole section on how sleep can help studying – give it a read!
So now you've mastered a couple of effective study techniques to help with your schoolwork, you can combine these with other techniques from the pages below to help you on your way to becoming a study-superstar!
If you need support
You should always tell someone about the things you’re worried about. You can tell a friend, parent, guardian, teacher, or another trusted adult. If you're struggling with your mental health, going to your GP can be a good place to start to find help. Your GP can let you know what support is available to you, suggest different types of treatment and offer regular check-ups to see how you’re doing.
If you’re in need of in-the-moment support you can contact Childline, where you can speak to a counsellor. Their lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
There are more links to helpful organisations on the BBC Bitesize Action Line page for young people.
How to boost your resilience when studying
Dr Heather Branigan guides us through the basics of resilience in relation to studying.
Why you might be using flashcards wrong
We all know how to use flashcards properly, right? WRONG! It turns out many of us may have been using flashcards incorrectly all along...
What is metacognition and how can it help you?
We've asked developmental psychologist Dr Heather Branigan to explain what metacognition is and how you can use it to help you with your studies.
