Study How You May by Maria

Study How You May by Maria - May 2016 Scholarship Essay

The end of May can be a stressful time for students. Between final exams, moving onto the next step of their educational careers and the anticipation of summer, studying can be a struggle. Amidst that struggle, school can be placed on the back burner until you realize the night before that you have a final the next day and you haven’t studied. However, I have developed several study methods that help me cope with the end times. My methods of studying has helped me keep in mind the test that I am preparing for, without losing sight of the end goal and getting lost in the stress of it all. A few of those methods include, but are not limited to, flashcards, Quizlet, and study groups.
Flashcards are my best friend. It takes time and effort to go through and make the flashcards and determine what useful information I need to put on each flashcard. They help me because I can place all the information about one topic in one place. For example, for a US History Final, I would place the name of a president on one side, and on the back put the time he served, his foreign and domestic policy, and anything big that he was known for. This helped me keep the different presidents and policies separate from each other and reduced the amount of time I was flipping back and forth between chapters of notes. I also can quiz myself with those note cards, or have other people quiz me. They are an easy way to study during the three extra minutes of passing period in between classes or a few minutes right before I shut it down for the night. They are a tangible way I have prepared and studied for an exam.
If I was peanut butter, Quizlet would be jelly. Quizlet is hands-down the best invention since sliced bread. For the majority of the time, I can find Quizlets that my teachers have made, or that former students have made. I am able to use what they have already placed on the internet, and build off of that. I can add what I think is important, and take off what I think is not. From there, I can use them as flashcards, which I have already explained have saved my grades, or I can have Quizlet create a test for me containing multiple choice, true and false, and fill in the blank questions. Each time I create a test, the questions are different, and that minimizes the temptation to memorize word in the question and not actually learning the material.
Along with flashcards and Quizlet, I find that studying with other people helps broaden the material that I can cover. When I get together with a group of other students, we can divide and conquer the needed material. Also, as groups of people meet up for a study session, they can bounce questions off of each other and help up each of their weak points. It has also been shown that when somebody teaches another information, they learn it better themselves. A great way to test if you know the material is to try and teach someone else the information pertaining to it. Using this method will either solidify the information that I already know, or reveal to me the information that I am weak on and need to study more. The factor that I find most important by working in a group is that we can keep each other on track and we will be less distracted and less likely to take an hour study break after five minutes of studying.
It took me some time to find what study methods work best for me. There was a lot of trial and error and tips from teachers. However, as soon as I found my groove and the methods that worked best for me, finals have become a little less stressful and seem more manageable. Depending on the class, I tend to gravitate towards one of these three study method more. For math and language arts, I tend to use study groups. For science and social studies, I prefer flash cards and Quizlet. Each person studies better one way and not another. It is imperative to find what study method aids the most in learning the material because there will come a time when studying is completely up to the individual. That is the time that separates the good from the great.