How do YOU study?

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When I have to learn difficult material which involves memorisation rather than conceptual comprehension, I use a big poster board and write the information in a mind map, with different colours of marker. I add cartoons, thought bubbles, and different types of lettering using various colours. The colours have a legend so I know what each colour means, if there's an extra layer of categorisation required. If you can't draw cartoons or pictures, print what you need online and stick it to the page.

By using a mindmap I can remember visually as well as spatially. I might remember that a certain formula or quotation was in red marker inside a blue bubble on the lower left corner of the page. Then I can picture it more easily and see it with almost photographic memory. This was how I learned multiplication when I was eight, and I still remember which colour was for which set of factors, as well as how they looked on my map. My map was stuck to the ceiling over my bed at one point, so I would stare at it when falling asleep.

I also use mnemonics, and I "put" bits of information in certain spots in my brain. I might tuck a fact behind my left ear or behind my right eyebrow just for fun. I can retrieve it more readily when I picture it spatially in that way, like being on a rolodex in my head. Sometimes I can retrieve information by association. For example I might remember what song was playing when I learned a certain fact, or what I was looking at out my window at the time. Then if I think of the song or the window scene, it all comes back to me.

I have synaesthesia so maybe this isn't a normal way of learning, but it's certainly neurodiverse.

Another study skill is to say the information aloud, because that allows it to be processed in a deeper level of our brain.

Mind map example:



In my maps the lettering would be different colours and not just the lines, but this is a decent example of what I do.

I have very bad study habits....

I rarely take notes, and tend to learn “one thing,” which leads to “another thing.”

Rather like Piaget’s “schemas,” and also sort of like “Allegory of a Cave.”

Hello. I also like to take notes as dense as a textbook, but since I went to college, I have gradually tried to use new methods recommended by my teachers.For example, after sorting out and framing the knowledge I have learned through the application of APP software and clarifying the knowledge context of the whole book, I find it much easier to take notes.Since I am a liberal arts major, this kind of combing can help me remember knowledge points better.I hope my answer is helpful to you.


Best wishes ! !!

When I was in college I would sometimes read and walk at the same time. I took one class called "the history of science" which assigned a lot of reading. My room was always noisy, I was in an odd-campus apartment (just across the street from the main campus) and the library was always packed with people often chatting - there were a few "private study rooms" in the library but they were (nearly) always full. I read the assigned reading out loud as if it was an "adult" novel in the living room of my suite - at first people would come and sit and listen to me - the way I was reading it sounded like it might be interesting, when the realized it was really just dry stuff about the history of science the quickly lost interest and left the room. That was the only way I could find a place to read without everyone talking and breaking my concentration. Sometimes I would take the book and read out loud while I walked around campus - it was still noisy but no noise lasted for long because I would pass it. Noone nocied or cared what I was reading because I kept moving. For science classes I would do the homework and read the text book - in those days every class had a physical text book. I tend to retain most if what I read, but for hard formulas I would write up my noted on an index card - try to fit everything for one midterm on the frond of an index card and everything for the final on the back of it. I wrote small in pen - and used that to study. I would read the material and then close my eyes and try to repeat it. For some classes the professor would actually TELL everyone to write up an index card and even specify the size of the card - and you could bring it to the test as long as it all fit on that one card. My daughter uses apps on her iPad - one is flash cards, another allows her to take notes in color right on a PDF that the professor shares or a slide deck - she studies from that. My son is studying in Biology. I am trying to get him to try an app called Anki which is is really well recommended by pre-med and med school students. It kind of complicated to get used to using it at first but many many people really like it.
We also read a book about using mnemonic tricks like "pegging" and "elaborative encoding"
and "the memory palace" - I just used some of those techniques last night to help my youngest memorize the countries on the Central American land-bridge - we also use some of those techniques to help remember conversion factors for math class and the correct spelling of words for spelling tests. I recently read a study that showed using "memory palace" helped med school students do better on studying the "endocrine system".

Inefficiently

^ LOL

I study more and harder because I am also dyslexic, in addition to my Asperger's. And to now have to do 2 classes, I am unsure how I will juggle them both. I am going to do intro to sociology and multivariable calculus in the fall. I can be practicing math all day. When I did Calc 2, I needed 30 hours a week to study fully for it. I cannot do one, or I won't get financial aid. And I do not have $2726 to pay in one month when I barely get half that in income. The reading takes me forever.