Hello Diamond Lovers! Welcome back to Diamond Blog! I hope you missed me, I certainly did! I will dedicate this post to my friends and all the students out there. Today, I will be focusing on how to study efficiently. being productive and actually learning what you’re studying.

Ready to dive in? Keep reading!

I need here to mention that not everybody has the ability be productive or have an efficient study session like someone else. Each one of us is unique, which makes us different. Do not try to follow through “that girl” on YouTube that has her life on camera being perfectly organized and gets top grades. Remember: the illusion here isn’t that you’re not good enough, or that you don’t try hard enough, but that nothing in this world, especially the virtual one, is real.

Let’s get started. First of all, you may have heard people say these: active recall, blurting method, spaced repetition, note taking, etc. The list goes on with so many different ways to have an effective and satisfying study session. One tells you to make everything aesthetic, another tells you to strictly use a single pen colour for everything. Someone else says that iPad notes are the perfect solution. Which of these are actually true, if any of them are?

1. Note taking:

Note taking can be both beneficial and a very dangerous tool. That is because it is often done incorrectly. Nobody taught us in high school that if we rewrite notes over and over we’re not gonna learn a single thing. It’s not your fault, partially. But here’s that: if you knew this already, yet you keep doing it because you feel like you’ve got nothing else to do, then it’s time to stop.

Note taking IS NOT a bad thing. I do not know why so many people on social media present it like a crime. One’s ability to learn differs from another’s. Let alone that you need to take the subject you’re studying into account.

Note taking becomes effective when you paraphrase and translate the content you’re studying into your own words. You know, it’s like you add your own signature. You’re allowed to use as many colours as you want. Highlight all you want. BUT. (there’s always a but) Do not overdo it. You don’t need to have colour coded stuff. I personally write my notes and it’s a literal chaos of colours. A single colour makes me bored so I change it up within a reasonable range.

Aesthetic, pretty, nice to the eye notes are usually the most useless. Time consuming, expensive and help you retain only about 10% of what you actually want to learn. If you’re someone that does this, it’s okay. But I’m here for you, because it’s time to level up your game.

Follow these steps. Simple, easy, directly applicable.
Step 1: Grab a piece of blank paper (with grids or not) or open your favourite note-taking app.
Step 2: Gather all your colourful or not pens and pencils you have. Figure out which you really need, put the others aside.
Step 3: Open your lecture slides, your textbook, anything you have to study.
Step 4: First read through the material, then understand it by writing it down. The same thing can be achieved by explaining things out loud. If that’s not your thing, your hands are at your service, basically.
Step 5: If you feel the need to colour your notes, or mention something important with a different colour, do it. But make sure you keep your words different from what you read, and use the same words only for definitions or when unavoidable.

2. Mindmapping:

Mind maps have been trending on the gram lately. Are they actually useful? Well, yes but also no. At least not for me. The purpose of mindmapping is to introduce yourself to the bigger image of what you’re studying. Think of it like doing a project and you present to an audience. There you need the audience to understand where the small bullet points fit in the bigger image. And of course, that IS possible.

This is how I mindmap:
Step 1: Find a blank A4 or A3 paper. Or, simply whatever you have. Even if this is your notetaking app.
Step 2: Draw a big box (any shape you like) right in the middle of your paper. There, write what you’re studying. For example, proteins. Write a couple of things under it, like what is a protein briefly, their different types, etc.
Step 3: Add to your notebook the bullet points you want to use in your mindmap. Then start adding above, below, next to the big box those bullet points in the way you want them. Add colourful arrows, clouds, drawings. Make it yours. It matters.
Step 4: Keep adding details to those small bullet points, until you’ve got nothing left to add. Remember: Do not copy your textbook. This is a divine technique to be used for active recall. You make sure you understand the content you want to study and remember it at the same time!
This works for some people, including me. But not all the times. Sometimes, I’m better off learning my messy in-lecture notes rather than doing mind maps.
Also, DO NOT GET DISCOURAGED. Active recall isn’t simple and easy. The reason why so many people like to make notes is because they learn, but passively. By learning actively you train your brain to recall what’s going on that very moment. It will be hard at first, but you will get it. Practice makes perfect.

3. Practice tests:

Practice does indeed wonders. However *crying in university student* many students do not have the opportunity to test themselves with their teacher’s own questions. University IS built different *nervous laugh*. This part makes me so sad, honestly. If we had unlimited practice material it would be a miracle. But, here’s to innovation and creativity. What do you do if this happens?
Use AI to your favour:
AI is not one of my favourite tools actually. Too generic, too abstract. You need something more specific right? I’ve got you. In the beginning of our term, we get a *very* long list of beautiful learning objectives we will be assessed on. And every lecture, has a slide with the corresponding learning objectives to be tested. Copy and paste those to AI, and ask: Please generate me [number] of questions with [long answer/short answer/4 options etc.]. There you go, based on these learning objectives, you’re testing yourself actively.
Want to spice up the game? Add difficulty level. Add points. Add a reward or a consequence if you don’t do as well. You’re learning, and that’s all that really matters.
– Some times textbooks offer e-services where you get support with MCQs, or other type of exercises. These can be useful, but based from my own experience: A single module is not going to cover a 2000 page book. Which means, learning objectives that are actually assessed in the book are different compared to those of your lectures. Which then leads you to needing to learn stuff that you’re not supposed to. Overall, use it, but avoid wasting your time with non-assessed material. What you need here, is efficiency and to maximize your productivity. Don’t be stuck with a textbook simply because it’s a textbook.

4. Blurting method:

Blurting method can be a curse but at the same time your savior. Let me explain how it works:
Step 1: Take a blank paper
Step 2: You must have already read/revised the material you want to test yourself with previously. This however, can be done as an exercise after your lesson/lecture too, before you decide to go through your lecture notes.
Step 3: Do not be anxious. Start writing everything you remember from what you revised in your paper. Make sure you include as much as possible. After spending approximately 5 minutes where you can’t recall anything else, congratulate yourself and it’s time for you to check!
Step 4: Grab 2 colourful pens, any colours you like. With the 1 colour mark the correct answers (can be a tick ✅, or whatever else you want it to be). With the other colour, mark the wrong/incomplete or slightly incorrect answers. With the same, or another colour, write down explanations and corrections.
Want an extra challenge? As you blurt, it’s very easy to just recall facts. You might want to talk about microbial growth and nothing would come to your mind. Happens! That’s why an easier way to train your brain, is to force yourself to connect all the facts you remember together. This can be by making a quick mind map, some bullet points, some arrows going here and there. Anything that you understand. For me it helps!

5. Spaced Repetition:

It might sound silly, but it took me a long time to understand this one. I, myself, haven’t mastered it yet. I believe that spaced repetition is not for everyone, but what is for everyone anyway? There’s always a way to make it happen in the extraordinary way. But first, let’s see what it is. I’m sure you’ve stumbled upon the term on studytok, studygram, youtube videos, the list goes on. Spaced repetition is you training your brain into jumping from one subject to another. This usually happens when you study [subject 1] for 2 hours, take a break and then study [subject 2] (that has nothing to do with subject 1) for another 2 hours at the same day. But it doesn’t only work this way. You can use spaced repetition every day separately, and continuously. I know, I know, WHAT?

Here’s what you can do:
Step 1: Have your favourite post it notes, and take 5 or 6 of them. Write several topics (specific and manageable) which you want to revise on each one. For myself, I limit those topics to 3 or 4 for each post it note. It can be very useful for your post it notes to be different colours. For example, have 3 green post it notes, set those as “easy to remember” topics. Do the same for “medium difficulty” and “hard” topics.
Step 2: Place those post it notes on your wall, window, wherever you like. This can even be your computer workspace, doesn’t even need to be from paper.
Step 3: Each post it note, is your day. Meaning, that you commit yourself to revising those 3 or 4 topics on your post it that day. Warning: I do not refer to a very broad topic. That is why I mentioned earlier that the topics need to be specific and within your own time frame. Why? 1. Because you’re human and cannot do everything in a day 2. Because rest is important too!
Step 4: Revised one post it? (maybe that’s like 10-20 flashcards?) Move on for your day. I probably need to mention here that you need to have 3 separate decks, each for each post it colour. A calendar or planner will help you organize the post it notes and write down the ones you already studied.
Step 5: Done with revision? Note this down: “easy” topics -> every 5 days “medium difficulty” topics -> every 3 days “hard” topics -> every 2 days. Use your calendar to help you plan, or even the back side of the post it note to write down the dates you need to be revising it.
Step 6: Relax! You might not get it right multiple times, but eventually, you’re going to get it, isn’t that right? You’ve got this!!!

And… this is how today’s article is complete! But if you really think that’s all the secrets I had to share with you, you don’t know me that well. A part 2 is coming NEXT WEEK! Which means, we’re going to focus on proper planning and maximizing our focus during the day and the whole week!

I also have another surprise. We’ve got an article coming tomorrow! What will it be about? Check my Instagram to find out!