We’ve prepared a post with the best study techniques for you to stay on top of all the best practices that will help you pass that dreamed contest. Keep following!
What is a study method?
Before talking about the study methods, we need to make a brief contextualization so that there are no doubts. That’s all we don’t need right now isn’t it?
The word Method comes from the Greek term methods, which means path or path, and represents the path taken to reach a goal.
The study method is the combination of techniques used to control aspects such as time, order of study, material, analysis of results and other things that will facilitate the student’s life and help him reach his goal.
It is very important that the method is chosen carefully. Knowing if there are obstacles such as lack of focus, time and environment will also help you make the right choice. Oh, if you think it’s not working, you can change your action plan. The important thing is to keep testing until you arrive at the ideal way.
We have prepared a guide that will help you make a more assertive choice, check it out:
Simple guide to choosing the best study method
Consider some points when preparing for your studies:
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- What is my weekly routine;
- Materials and contacts that can help me;
- Study site.
When creating a schedule, you need to know exactly what times are available for study and, if possible, combine them with the time of less agitation in the environment.
It’s no use putting a study schedule on Sunday afternoon when the house is full of relatives and you think you won’t suffer from distractions and noise.
If you have a very busy schedule, leave the more complex content for your best time, in fact we will talk about it later.
It is also important to know exactly how much time is left for the test.
Our study methods recommendations for concourses
There are study methods that focus on quick preparation, which address only the most relevant parts of the content and what always falls on the tests. But, in fact, the ideal is to be able to cover the entire content of the notice – and that is indeed possible! See how below:
1- The schedule is an ally
The schedule is perfect for scheduling all the content of the edict within the remaining time for study.
It can be used both by those who have a lot of time, being able to place all the content in a linear way and make revisions to fix it and by those who have a tighter deadline and need to cover the most important content.
Remember to leave spaces for unforeseen events in your schedule and try to visualize this routine as close to your reality as possible. We have a post about study cycles that is worth checking out.
2- ABC method
This is an extremely powerful technique that, combined with the schedule, can considerably improve your final performance in the test.
University professor and Latin American memorization champion, Alberto Dell’Isola, is the one who approaches this technique. He explains that the content must be listed with the help of letters as follows:
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- A: the one we know deeply and have confidence in him;
- B: the one we have already studied but still need to revise:
- C: the one we never saw.
Once you’ve done this task very carefully, put cadenced revisions into your schedule to turn B content into A content.
This method is extremely suitable for those who are already close to the exam because it takes a lot of time and effort to transform the C content into B and then into A, so focus on what you already have. But remember that the right thing is to study all the content.
And how do we know which content we have already mastered? The next technique addresses this issue.
3- Solve questions, many even
This technique is very easy to apply, as all you have to do is get access to questions from previous tests (from your competition, of course) and start solving them. You’ll find that some questions seem out of this world while others are super easy.
When running into a difficult question, remember to write down the topic of the question to look up later. So you will find gaps in your knowledge that can be filled. Be honest with yourself and try to resolve the issue without looking at the feedback.
4- Cadenced revisions
Here too, special care is needed when planning, especially since the lack of revision will only be noticed at the time of the test, when you see a question and know you’ve already seen the subject but can’t remember more than that.
For this reason, the review becomes as important as the study of the matter (or even more). We recommend a review template that follows a progression.
Review the content the day after your study, then within 3 days, 5 and increase until you realize you’ve mastered that subject. Use the previous technique to find out if you really made it.
5- The classic Pomodoro technique
This is a very popular technique these days, but it is sometimes overlooked. It basically consists of fractioning the study time between a period of high concentration, then a short rest, and back to studying.
It is recommended for people who find it difficult to focus on something for long periods of time. Being able to considerably increase the quality of the study and its use. See more details about the Pomodoro technique right here on our blog.
6- Abstracts and flashcards
Finally, it is worth mentioning the famous summaries, but here we will approach it in a different way.
After you study a difficult subject, try to explain it to someone else in a summarized way, covering the main points and giving examples that help visualization.
If you’re embarrassed or don’t have a guinea pig available, explain to the mirror and imagine yourself giving a class on the subject. So you will see if you really learned the topic, if you want, write down your explanation to read later.
Reading summaries is not the same thing as studying the content, and this is a very common mistake. The summary serves to recall the main parts of the content studied, which can also be done with the help of flashcards.
