Popular Studying Techniques

[Shorty]

I'm curious as to how other IB students study for big tests/exams/orals/ etc.

I'm more of a repetition kind of person, so I find that reading things over and over helps quite a bit. As of now I would like to experiment with a couple different techniques to see if there is anything better for me.

Share away!

[spaceisland]

Personally, I talk to myself. I do a lot of memorizing for voice and theatre by doing line read throughs, and sometimes I find that reading notes and problem areas aloud to myself helps me to remember it.

Edited October 13, 2007 by spaceisland

[cixelsyD]

For me it's just understanding. Once I understand how something works, all that's left to do is memorize the terms/dates/names that go with it.

For bio, I get kinda like an animation in my head of how things function.

For history, I make the series of events into a story/mental movie and memorize names and dates.

Math is all about understanding for me, then I do a couple of the hardest questions available to make sure I understand and know how to apply the concepts

For chem, it's like a cross between studying for bio and studying math.

But then again.. I absorb things reallly well.. err.. when I'm pressed for time/ procrastinating haha.

[Bandev]

For Chem, Bio, Maths, Geo, I write notes on each doova of the syllabus. eg. 14.2.2. it have found it really helpful in showing me the topics and ideas that I don't know as well as I should.

Then I follow it up by doing questions on the topic.

For English I order to properly understand a piece of writing I have to write a commentary on it, but after that I don't have to do anything to try remember the literary techniques etc. used in the piece of writing, it just sticks in my head. Also it helps me to understand the structure of the piece of writing.

For Spanish I verb card in which I have conjugated every verb in every tense I know. Then I have a vocab book where I write words that I encounter that I don't know and then I look at it every so often. I also write vocab and verbs into subjects as shown on the syllabus.

Edited October 13, 2007 by Bandev

[Dooga]

I have a problem with studying. I need to either understand it so I can recall it intuitively, or I don't understand it at all. There is no "I sort of understand it" allowed, because a sort of understanding will kill me doing a test as I would spend too much time on single questions, trying to get an intuitive understanding. Think of it as an all or nothing. If I do understand something, it will last for years. If I sort of understand or don't understand something, I won't remember it in a few hours.

An example of what I call intuitive understanding is knowing one question, and EVERY SINGLE way you can modify, change, or use the question to the extent that it will touch on other subjects. I need to understand fully all the subjects related that I will ever think about. I often don't use formulas or ways taught by the teacher except to show work, because usually I have an intuitive and unique method I use using visual imagery.

I often have mental movies in my head representing what I am learning. I've found zeros in my head by graphing them. Sometimes it gets bad when I can hear a narrator explaining stuff in my head and special effects and music . Maybe I watch too many documentaries...

Edited October 14, 2007 by Dooga

[ffaholic]

For math I like to do as many questions as I can as I feel that the more I do the more I'll know the material. It has worked out somewhat well for me but not as well as I would have liked. I've found that making notes for each until helps tremendously as I'm not only making studying for the test easier for myself, I'm also reviewing in the process. After I've written down all the steps I am able to go through them will little or no difficulty.

For history, french and other sciences I like to talk outloud to myself. I also make notes on the units in these subjects too but talking outloud to myself seems to work the best.

What I don't have is a method to study for english. There is no real memorization, except for literary terms, required which throws my studying ways out as they are all based on memorization.

[Soy]

I have a semi-photographic memory so that helps. Flashcards, Flashcards, I have them for everything, from remembering formulas to french terms, they really do help.

[Shorty]

I have a semi-photographic memory so that helps. Flashcards, Flashcards, I have them for everything, from remembering formulas to french terms, they really do help.

I just started using flash cards and chem_kid's idea of compression for a few of my subjects and let me tell you...it works wonders! When I have free time during classes I just take them out and sort-of play a study game with myself. It actually gets quite entertaining after awhile.

For those who have trouble studying I would definitely recommend it.

[Soy]

Oh and also i didn't state this before, but when i can't find my flash cards, i enter alot of my IB material, like shorthand notes into my Ti-84, and that kind of helps too, haha studying while in math class. It does wonders.

[Dooga]

I'm making this up on the spot, but lets see if this works. Imagine numbers, formulas, people, dates as items in your house. Place them in your house (in your head) and walk through your house with these items (in your head obviously).

I tried this with a list of random items 4 years ago, and I can still remember a few of the items on the list.

[Shorty]

I'm making this up on the spot, but lets see if this works. Imagine numbers, formulas, people, dates as items in your house. Place them in your house (in your head) and walk through your house with these items (in your head obviously).

I tried this with a list of random items 4 years ago, and I can still remember a few of the items on the list.

So...like a toster= a^2+b^2=c^2 ?

[catchme.kittens]

haha....i think it is very common for ppl to talk to themselves a lot in IB...i apparently prefer to talk to myself for any subject coz that way i am having a convo with my own brain and i tend to understand the stuff easier... math: practice practice practice once you are done with the understanding so that you actually feel realli confident...other subjects: understnad & then memorize!!!

[Lil]

I talk to myself, take notes, trying to understand the lesson or just learning by heart

[Dooga]

So...like a toster= a^2+b^2=c^2 ?

Well no, but a toaster could have a picture of Hitler on it. You can imagine 3 squares, with a, b, and c on it etc. hanging in your bedroom. I haven't tried this for 4 years, but it might come in handy...

Another thing is if you don't use a personal planner, make memory bombs. Make vivid images of for instance, your physics test that is on the 13th by telling yourself that each time you see your physics textbook you will remember it. Perhaps imagining a small version of your physics teacher standing on your textbook. And keep the physics textbook in an obvious place. Try it sometime!

[Shorty]

Sounds good,I'm going to experiment this method with french. Seems like a very good idea though.

[Guest majofc]

well, I actually do not study much because I am a little bit lazy. What I do, is understanding the topic during class and then I only read my notebooks before the exam. My real problem is memorizing information but I usually visualize the part of the book where it was and then I usually remember the answer

[Ashika]

I have this weird habit of writing things out over and over and then trying to do it in my own words.

[Survivor Rob]

I've been told I have a photographic memory, I just read something and it goes in. I hate making repetitive notes, it doesn't help. All I do is think back to the page in the text book where the answer is and I can usually remember it. So yeah just reading for me, I guess I'm lucky! It really helps for french vocab!

Edited November 7, 2007 by ShiverShiva

[supbhang]

I try to take notes as much as possible. When reading texts I mark them with different colors and I try to structure them putting them into different segments. In my opinion, it is useless to learn one day before the exam. One has to learn things for the long-term memory. This is how you actually remember things.

However, when I study too long and I just can't do it anymore, I do something completely different (play guitar, play rugby). After that, my head is free and I'm ready to tackle the next assignment.

[snowday]

I study completely differently for each subject:

For English, when it comes to things like commentaries, practice is really the only way to get better. Of course, you should first memorize a solid list of literary terms and understand how they work, but once you've got that down all you can really do is start analyzing random excerpts from texts. I've tried a lot of different ways, but this method is (in my opinion) the most dynamic and best prepares me for the IB exams.

For bio, the majority of my studying consists of mindless memorization. Since I take SL, I understand the basic concepts and that gets me pretty far in terms of prepping for the IB exams; however, my teacher insists that a lot of the HL material is necessary and therefore she teaches it to us (and tests us on it). I simply can't find the time to try to understand these more complex concepts, and my teacher does not have the time to adequately teach them since it is an SL course. Subsequently, I basically memorize all the extra information and regurgitate it on tests. This is a really flawed way of studying/learning, and I wouldn't recommend it.

For econ, its all about understanding the concepts. You can try to memorize, e.g. memorizing all the factors the shift AD, but in an exam situation you will be finished because you won't be able to apply what you've learnt. This class is thus one of the most time-consuming, only because once I grasp a concept I have to spend time fully understanding how and why everything works (i.e. why the Keynesian model is shaped the way it is, why demand-side policies are disliked by supply-siders). However, once you fully understand the concepts there is a real sense that you've learned something that you can apply to the real world, which is why I really like economics.

Chemistry is really a blend of memorizing and understanding. There are a lot of basic concepts that you have to memorize (i.e. what are strong/weak acids/bases), and having seen the SL syllabus it seems as though memorization can pretty much carry you through the course. However, in chem HL a lot of the HL topics are much more application-based (an example being the acids and bases unit, in which pretty much all the calculations are HL). If you don't truly understand the topic, you're not going to know what type of calculations or which method you should use to solve the problem.

Basically, studying techniques really depend on the subject. Just do what you find works, and you should be alright.

Hope it helps.