1.Take good notes during the lecture

When you take good notes, it would help you to study effectively for exams – Image via Slideshare.net, Aiden Yeh

While this may seem like an obvious point, many students are reduced to groggy, sleepy zombies that would more likely see drool on their paper from falling asleep on it rather than any actual writing. Pay attention during the lecture and take down good, organised notes. Start a new page for every new lecture. Grab key words and concepts that the lecturer mentions (You won’t have time to copy down full sentences). Then, when class is over, expand on the notes you took down, giving you a second run-through of the same lecture.

2.Gather all your notes in one spot

Putting all your notes into one spot will save your time when revising for exams, instead finding them at the very last minute – Image via Pinterest.com (Jodi Lemoine)

How common is the sight of Xeroxed papers all thrown about, carpeting your room floor (Hey, at least you HAVE a carpet now, right?). Then, one night before the big exam, you spend a good hour tracking down the one sheet of paper on which you wrote down that one very important point on. Save time and keep all your notes tidy and neat, arranging them in folders and if possible, according to subjects or even teachers. That way, you know exactly where every single sheet is.

3. Group study

If you are considering forming a study group, don’t discuss about your favourite movies unless it’s related to the topic of your study

Now this one is not for everyone. However, many students who say group studying is not for them may have never even tried it. Get some of your batchmates to get together, and give it a shot. You have to be really disciplined of course, and find people who are willing to work instead of goof off. But you may find that the members end up teaching and pushing each other to achieve some remarkable grades. Either way, don’t totally discard it until you’ve tried it.

4. Get somebody to test you

Asking your friend or classmate to test you might help you remember better – Image via nextweb.com

Don’t be the nervous wreck who’s too afraid to ask someone to test him, worried you’ll get some questions wrong, and thus making you question if you studied anything at all. Almost no one gets a perfect score, and people tend to learn the most through mistakes. Who knows, a question your friend poses to you that you end up answering incorrectly, may even come out for an exam, and this time, you’d know the answer for sure!

5. Learn the basic concepts first

In order to solve complicated problems later in the workplace, one must grasp the basics – Image via ludensfaber.wordpress.com

It’s tempting to jump ahead to the more complicated stuff, the content that’s more directly related to what you’ll be doing after graduation. For example, a year one medical student taking on a 3rd year medical book such as Harrison’s Internal Medicine. Don’t be that student. It always helps to master your basics before anything else. One you have a strong base, even if you encounter difficulties later on, the base will be there to break your fall and help you get back up again faster.

6.Vary the way you study

How well you study depends on what kind of person you are. Therefore, it’s better to understand yourself when strategising study techniques – Image via blog.law.uconn.edu

You might be someone that learns by doing things; in that case record yourself reading out your notes and listen to it over again. If you’re someone who remembers song lyrics easily, check to see if there are relevant podcasts available of your course. The reason many students don’t like to study (I’m looking at you!), is simply because they can’t bear to sit down on a study table for hours on end, staring at mundane, black-and-white notes, hoping to absorb something via osmosis. Well, we got news for you, change it up. That isn’t the only way to study. In university, you can try our various methods. Organise your notes into charts, maps or diagrams, if you’re a visual learner. If you are a student who can’t stay still for too long without getting fidgety, then pace up and down as you clutch that ream of notes as you study. People may think you’ve gone insane, but the marks you’ll eventually earn will mean you don’t really care if you’re actually going mad