Your Mind & Studying

Everyone talks about how amazing the mind, all the weird and cool associations it makes with objects and actions around you every day. People know of a few ways that you can study a bit better, but most people never listen to them, and the majority of people certainly don’t know all of the little things that you can do to make you’re studying more productive. A little background information on my studying I guess. Firstly, I despise studying, I avoid it as much as I can, but I do realize the benefits of studying. People ask me all the time, “do you ever study? I never see you studying?” Sure, I don’t study for a long time, that’s just because I don’t need to. When I study, I study properly, I study smart. With that, you don’t need to do a lot of studying, because you’re going to remember the stuff you study with a higher degree of retention. So for this post I’m just going to talk about of some of the things I know that help you study or remember things better, and why they work. Then I guess you can use any of them if you think it will help.

Firstly, studying is a unique thing. As is everything else, there are different things that work better for different people, some of these concepts are pretty universal though, so try them out and see if they work. Lets get started shall we?

Location

Your mind works a lot like Foursquare, it checks into different places and thinks differently when it’s there. These location associations don’t go away, because you go to those locations enough and do the same task ritually when you’re there. So let’s make a list. In your bedroom you sleep. In your living room you party. In your lecture halls you learn and take notes. In the library you either socialize or study. And in some other halls you take your exams. Let’s look at which ones would be best to study in. Your room? No. You can say things like, “but I study in my room a lot, shouldn’t my mind associate it with that?” …. Are you kidding me? Youve been studying in your room for maybe a few months, you’ve been sleeping in your room for almost 20 years. Just because it’s a new room doesn’t mean anything, your mind associates the general term ROOM with sleeping. So studying there is no good. Same deal with your living room. Your lecture rooms wouldn’t be bad, because your mind associates it with initial learning of the concepts, so that’s not a bad option. The library is definitely good, as expected. But the halls that you’re taking your tests in is by far the best. If you know your exam schedule, study in the halls that you will be writing in. This is because you’re mind not only makes the association that subject X is taken in hall Y, but it also makes the connection that your exam X is here. This means recollection is easier because your mind has only remembered things for that class in that hall. So give that a try, there’s a possibility it could help.

Now maybe that’s not an option, or you’re just not a fan. So it’s back to the library for you, there’s still things you can change around to improve your studying. Do one subject, in one location. For example, do math on the first floor, science on the third, and marketing in the basement. Your mind will associate each floor with a subject of studying, so each day you come back to that area, your mind will be more prepaid to study that subject. Or do a combination. Study the hardest subject in the library, the easiest at your house, and other ones in different buildings. Your mind will be predisposed to the location and ready to study those subjects. Location is an important thing to consider when studying or memorizing.

Colour

Your mind loves colours. Don’t underestimate this, because it’s exactly like location thing. Give each subject a colour. For me, I have finance as green, marketing as pink, information tech as orange, and decision making as blue. For finance, everything is highlighted with a green highlighter, green sticky notes litter the pages, and everything is tucked away into a green folder. If possible, match the course colour to the distinct colour of the textbook, your mind will make stronger associations if everything is the same colour. Now this doesn’t necessarily help you when it comes down to recalling information on the exam, but it should help you retain information better when studying. Now maybe this concept doesn’t suit you, here’s another colour option.

Make the same types of material the same colour. What i mean is highlight all definitions in yellow, all important terms in blue, all dates or numbers in green, etc. That means that no matter what course you’re studying for, your mind will know and associate the colour with what it represents. So this isn’t a bad colour option, however I think the individual colours per subject is a better choice, it creates a better distinction between content.

Writing

Uniform writing. That’s the key. Now obviously you may have to written differently for accounting than you would for philosophy, but the fundamentals are the same. Keep a similar structure with your writing, no matter what you’re studying for. Subheadings, bullets, page layout, however you take notes or write review, do everything the exact same. Use subheadings if you use them, use the same bullet notation, don’t change your writing. This becomes your learning writing. When taking notes in class, write them the same as you would write your studying notes. This means that right from the get-go, your mind is associating in-class content with something it’s going to need to study, and this will be a great help when you’re studying afterwards.

If you remember nothing else, remember this concept here. Never, ever, scribble out a mistake. If you’re writing in pen and make a mistake, either use white out, or put a single (or double) straight line through the word. This is because of the way your mind reads and follows thought process. If you scribble out a word and make everything messy, your mind will think you’re disorganized, and your train of thought afterwards will be messy and not convey what you wanted it to. Ever been writing an essay, scribbled out a word, then not know how to continue with that sentence? It’s because your mind just got jumbled and caught up. However, if you put a single line through, your mind accepts it as a simple motor control mistake, and your train of thought will continue. The rest of that sentence will come fluidly and rapidly. Don’t give your mind a reason to become chaotic, because it will. This helps in studying, but it also helps when actually writing an exam. If rushed, put a simple line through it and continue writing, it will help with your flow. That’s a concept that’s saved my life continually.

Other Tips

Sme other things. Studying while it is light outside is better than darkness, we’re predisposed to relate darkness to sleep, or things that aren’t learning calculus. Study in the bring, your mind will be more away. Study with natural light. Turning on a desk light doesn’t fool your mind that easily. Fill your stomach and empty your bowels. Bring water, and small, noiseless food. Don’t fucking brings carrots, that’s stupid. Bring something quiet and filling, so you can focus on your work. Keep your desk organized, don’t have paper everywhere. Again, simply keeping your surroundings clear keeps your mind clear. Say things out loud, if you pair the sight of the words with the sound of the words, you can remember them better. The more senses you can involve, the better. Create cue cards from memory. Don’t simply write information onto them. Write your notes, read your notes, then see if you can create cue cards of the concepts from memory, because if you can, that basically means you’ve already memorized the bulk of the concept. And if you didn’t get the hint, make cue cards. Do practice tests and RATE YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF EACH CONCEPT. That means when you study next, you can focus on the things you don’t know very well. On a practice exam, literally put 7.5/10 beside questions you didn’t quite master, so you will study them again later.

That’s about all I have right now, if there are anymore I can think of I’ll throw them into another post later. But for now, happy studying, and productive studying.

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