Tips to Study Smarter

Happy Monday!

With Midterms looming in the near future, it's time for us to start getting organized. With so much study material, handouts, and previous exams to review, it can be easy to become overwhelmed and get lost in the clutter. Today, I want to share with you how I have successfully managed midterm season throughout my high school career. My preparation process can easily be summarized in three steps. First, gather all of your study materials. Next, create a study guide. Finally, study the material in an environment that is conducive to your study habits. Let's go a bit more into detail.

Gathering all of your study materials can either be the easiest or the most challenging step, depending on how organized you have been throughout the semester. I personally keep handouts and homework categorized in Google Drive folders as a receive them, but if not, a brief bookbag dump should suffice. Teachers usually post what topics will be on the midterm, so try to find content that is related to those topics, and organize them into separate piles.

Once your piles have been created, the most crucial step is to create the ultimate study guide for your exam. Here is where you transfer the chaos you have just taken out of your bag into one neat document that you can quickly refer to when studying. Making a study guide lets you ensure that you have all of your study material in one place so you don't miss any critical topics that may appear on the test. It also helps you have a skeleton in your mind of what you'll be studying before you even sit down to go over the material. I like to create a collaborative document with some of my classmates to get the most out of this.

Once I have the study guide created, I actually have to sit down and study what I've just written. Although seemingly simple, my procrastination can get the best of me, so I try to study in an environment where I know I will succeed. Some people enjoy going to coffee shops or the local library, while others review with a friend. However, I prefer to do this in my room, where I will have no distractions.

In this week's #MakeItHappen Monday, try to begin organizing all of the study material that has accumulated in your bookbag. The earlier you start, the more likely you are to succeed! As always, let us know how you plan on thriving this midterm season by emailing us at info@yteach.com or share your story and tag us on social.

Go make it happen, Stefano & the YTeach Team

“A good system shortens the road to the goal.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson