I talk a lot about studying techniques and efficiency. I write here on Medium and for two other sites on the subject. Sometimes it’s as simple as answering a short question — other times we get into the obscure weird stuff because I’m a fan of min-maxing my studying personally so I might as well share.

But sometimes?

Sometimes, simplicity is the best solution.

This isn’t my advice (I ramble more) but it’s worth a read. Sometimes simple advice is all you need to vastly improve your studying performance.

Let me just share my story about how I arrived at the techniques that finally allowed me to study effectively for the first time in my life leading up to my IGCSE exams.

Since I was about 11, I had been trying to find the answer to this question by devising and trying new wacky and complex ways to study effectively for the exams leading up to my Primary School leaving exam. However, I tripped up every time including for that crucial end of Primary education exam as well. Every method I had tried fell short and I constantly did poorly.

However, with about 3 months left to spare before my IGCSEs (end of Secondary education exam) when I was 15, I realised I did not know enough to do even averagely well. The bad part was that I was still lazy and now desired studying in a very simple way just to save energy. I was fed up with weird and complex ways such as having millions of post it notes all over the place, everything in varying colours, fonts, shapes and sizes, odd mind maps, flow charts and diagrams bursting out of nowhere going to who-knows-where etc…you get the idea. Perhaps beauty and complexity was not related to effectiveness?

Then, just out of sheer laziness, I started studying in a new way because it seemed simple to implement and follow. I did not think it would take me far or give me great results, I just expected it to get me by. However, it did quite the opposite. Perhaps laziness does have its perks.

Quick note here: I’m always a fan of effective study over something looking pretty for the sake of it. If you want the best of both worlds download the Printable Plannrs Studying pack (free). Easy results, less effort and (bonus) it still looks good.

I used this method and managed to get 7A*s and 2As for what I did. I am not saying this to boast but rather just to show you that it worked for me (someone who had never done great in exams and desired a simple approach).

For my study process, it just involved two simple parts where everything else hinged upon. Many people like to overthink different ways of studying for your exam but for me simplicity is what worked best, based on hard work. Also, try not to listen to music when studying as it tends to distract you and prevents information being absorbed, the same goes for multi-tasking.

What are the two simple parts of how I studied?

1. Note taking.

Your brain is not going to remember every bit of information so don’t even try to walk into the exam hall thinking you’re an expert because ‘you remember everything from class’. You may think you do, but you probably don’t, unless you’re a genius, which I by the way am not.

When you are in class, Listen!

I am not saying take down detailed notes in class or write down every word the teacher says…

No. Just listen, listen, listen to what the teacher has to say and take down very brief summary notes of what is most important such as a key concept or an equation for example. Your exercise book should not be filled with more than a page and a half every lesson. Anymore than that, and you probably have not been absorbing or listening to what is going on as much as you should.

When you are at home, Write!

Once you get home, everyday, review your work and what exactly you have learnt in class, refer back to the textbook or whatever you did that day and refresh yourself on what you learnt. From that, and referring back to the syllabus (to see what you must learn and what topics you are unsure of), textbook and your school notebook every now and then to grab the key takeaways, write or type up a document of what you should know for that topic based on what you learnt that day.

Do this everyday and it should not take more than half an hour. Leave it to the last minute, and you are going to be swamped with 101 topics from 101 subjects and its just not going to work at all. Do not carry on with your notes if there is something you are unsure about, only move on if you understand everything you write. If you are writing page 3 of your notes, you should understand Pages 1 & 2 inside out. If not, stop, re-read the chapter and seek help from your teacher.

Regarding the notes, they absolutely do not have to be colourful, in your face mind maps or exquisitely designed flow charts (Depends on what works for you though).

As for myself, I am not sorry to admit that mine was simply a word document built on sub-headings, bullet points, short explanations and diagrams. That’s it. I used limited colour, a very small amount of shapes, and virtually no smart art or word art whatsoever. And yet, it worked well.

I just filled my document with the core content of what needed to be known and put it into visible easy to read point form. This allowed me to easily refer back to it if I forgot or did not clearly understand something. The biggest problem I have with exquisite mind maps and notes is that it is difficult to pinpoint something and refer back to it quickly when I needed to, it also is extremely time consuming which for a set of revision notes, in my opinion, is unnecessary, but again, whatever works best for you. Remember, your notes is not a graphic design project.

2. Practice Papers

I am not an advocate of too many textbook questions, they are usually too simple and are nothing like what appears in the exam, so only do textbook questions to test your really fundamental understanding of the topic at the beginning, but bear in mind, simply acing textbook questions is not going to get you very far in the exam.

In terms of practice papers, try not to wait till the last minute and cram 3 per day. That is just unsustainable and bloody tiring. Same as with your notes, try and do your practice papers over a pro-longed period of time, 2–3 papers a week of alternating subjects worked well for me, however I increased that frequency to 3–4 per week in the final month of the exam just to make sure I left no stone unturned.

You may ask how are there enough practice papers to keep this going? Simple. Find the exam papers and answer keys online then print them all out starting from a few years back such as 2008.

When you do your practice papers, have a copy of the answer sheet too. The point of this is because what you may begin to notice is that the questions they ask tend to repeat and be pretty similar across the years, therefore, their answers will also tend to be very similar too, the answer sheet will expose first hand to these ‘model’ answers that will come up and again and again and will also show you exactly what answers the exam board wants to specific questions, hence, even if you go into the exam and have a familiar question but you don’t fully understand the concept, you should know the model answer and therefore could just put it down and have a high probability of getting it right simply because you’ve done your background work. This also puts you at an advantage above the people who may understand the concept but lack the ability to articulate it in the way the exam board wants you to do so.

After finishing every paper and learning from your mistakes, file it away somewhere so when you refer back to it or refresh yourself before the exam, it will be easily accessible.

Once you have completed refreshing yourself with the work you have done, do no work at all up to the day of the exam. Enjoy yourself and do what you want, you have worked hard. There is nothing to fear.

The above content was mostly for content and word-based subjects such as Biology, Chemistry, Literature etc… rather than a number based topic such as Maths. After all, you cannot really take good quality notes for a subject like that.

Therefore, I came up with a logical step by step study method that I’ll share with you meant just for Maths which somehow got me an A* and an A even though I have never in my life been great at it:

Get a copy of the syllabus to get a clear view of the exact topics and their components that you will be tested on. Make a little mark beside the topics you do not think you are very confident in. Get your textbook again and focus on those topics you are not too sure about. Do about 10–15 beginner/intermediate questions ensuring your foundation is there. Then move on to complete all the hard questions in that topic to ensure you can handle the tougher stuff. You will probably run into difficulties along the way and that is when you seek help from your teacher. Once you have finished the topics you are not confident in and have become comfortable with them, move onto all the other topics you feel neutral and confident in. Do about 5–7 of the beginner/intermediate questions in those topics just to make sure your foundation is still very much intact. Once again, move on to do all the ‘hard’ questions even if you think they are easy. This will ensure you are comfortable with those topics and can handle the harder questions there too. Do not be complacent and skip topics as that is where you will lose easy marks. Find and print out all the past year exam papers from all the different time zones along with their respective answer keys. Start work on the past year exam papers under timed conditions. Do all the questions that you know how to do. Leave out the questions you do not know how to do. Once the paper is done use the mark scheme to mark yourself and to fill in the questions that you did not know how to do and learn from and understand your mistakes. If unsure, seek the help of a teacher. Never move onto another paper without understanding every single question and every single method used in the previous paper. This part is very important as it gives you an idea of the types of questions the exam board likes to ask and also shows you how the questions have evolved over the years. The answer key shows you the answers and methods the markers like to see and also gives you an idea of how the answers required have evolved over the years. Knowledge of these will give you a big advantage on the day of the exam. Once all the papers are completed, go through each of the papers to review what you have done and to ensure you remember and understand why you have done what you have done for each question. Just make a little mark on the question if you do not understand why you did something and then seek help from a teacher. Only move onto the next question when you fully understand why you have done what you have done for the previous one. Spend the remaining time before the Maths exam; relaxing and having a good time. Do no work at all. No more maths. No more school material. Behave like you are on holiday. Go out with friends, exercise, start a business, get a job, do whatever makes you happy. Most importantly, get tonnes of sleep as there is no better preparation for a Maths exam than to be well rested and have a clear, quick mind. This part is absolutely fine to do and actually good because you have spent the past time working hard and understanding everything, therefore if you were truly diligent about it, everything should make sense to you and there is no point going over stuff you have already completed hence, you are prepared for the exam. On the day of the exam, remain calm but focused and alert. Understand and have the confidence that you have put in the hard work and that the results you aimed for will follow as a result of that. After you finish the paper, check your answers thoroughly. There is nothing worse than coming to terms with the reality of careless mistakes undoing what you have spent the past time practicing.

Finally,

For any exam, try to enjoy the journey! I struggle with this immensely too, possibly because I do not see myself as an academic guy, but I try to find a source of enjoyment somewhere inside the world of exams and grades. Make sure you exercise and have a good time in between as well as it will help to clear your mind and study more efficiently. Try to do the same, it definitely helps.

And I’m always going to be suggesting proper planning for studying. There’s nothing more you can do to improve your studying effectiveness than knowing what you’re actually going to study rather than just sitting at the desk for a set amount of time.

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