Theory on Narrowing Your Focus With Flashcards
Not a lot of people would understand this but to a certain extent, studying mainly flashcards can actually narrow our focus to a certain degree when studying a large quantity of material. If it feels like material is just not sticking and you have gone over just about everything: the book, slides, guidelines, etc. Then, it would be safe to say brute flashcard memorization would be a helpful key, however, lazily creating flashcards of everything is as helpful as highlighting every line in a book. I'm guilty of this myself tired at the end of the day not wanting to fully understand material and would rather batch all the material into flashcards. The problem with this method is what if everything you are reading is important?
How do you differentiate what is important for that test or exam? The solution: you should read and understand first. Seek to understand first, then what cannot be understood can be then memorized. After spending my whole day going over flashcards, I feel as though I do better when I study flashcards on material that has been already narrowed down for me specifically material that would require brute memorization to understand. As a pharmacy student, I need to understand certain disease states then memorize different medicines that can be used to treat it. Notice how I started with understand bolded in that last sentence because once again it's important to understand first before brute memorizing everything. Just because you feel like you can get through material at a fast pace doesn't mean you understood everything you just read.
Based on my personal experience, flashcards cannot get you the grades you desire on every test. I have tried a large variety of flashcard methods including written flashcards, Quizlet, and Anki. I can definitely say the ability to focus in on difficult topics and truly be able to understand and apply it is a skill that will make studying much easier in the future. Some people try to resolve this problem by writing everything out by hand. This may work for powerpoint slides but what if you are studying from a textbook for a board exam. Suddenly rewriting the whole book becomes a less attractive option and understanding and memorizing shines a light once again.
The way we spend our time dictates how ready we are for the test to come so spend it wisely and as usual remember to take breaks to space out your studying. As I am typing this, I have an exam in 2 days and am typing this post out during one of my study breaks. I find that flashcards can be a bit overwhelming especially if you have a lot to study. I'm guilty of having more than 1000+ flashcards due on Anki but that just shows how much I value creating questions and how much flashcards became the method of choice for me. I try reading to understand but my mind slowly drifts away, so I would say that the key to success would be optimizing my flashcards for higher yield and probably trying to get better sleep on exam day. Another good idea though is on exam day don't forget to read material one more time but this time try to get through them all faster. I find that going through slides on my phone helps me read faster. This is a method I will try to employ for this upcoming exam and will update this post when that time comes.
Update: The method described above worked I ended up getting a B+ on my exam which later got bumped up to an A+ due to some exam errors. Of course, this method worked for me but everyone's style of studying is different so be sure to find one that works for you. I wish you the best on your future exams!
If you found something helpful on this blog please consider subscribing, I do my best to post regularly with new content. Please follow me on Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter for more insights!
How do you differentiate what is important for that test or exam? The solution: you should read and understand first. Seek to understand first, then what cannot be understood can be then memorized. After spending my whole day going over flashcards, I feel as though I do better when I study flashcards on material that has been already narrowed down for me specifically material that would require brute memorization to understand. As a pharmacy student, I need to understand certain disease states then memorize different medicines that can be used to treat it. Notice how I started with understand bolded in that last sentence because once again it's important to understand first before brute memorizing everything. Just because you feel like you can get through material at a fast pace doesn't mean you understood everything you just read.
Based on my personal experience, flashcards cannot get you the grades you desire on every test. I have tried a large variety of flashcard methods including written flashcards, Quizlet, and Anki. I can definitely say the ability to focus in on difficult topics and truly be able to understand and apply it is a skill that will make studying much easier in the future. Some people try to resolve this problem by writing everything out by hand. This may work for powerpoint slides but what if you are studying from a textbook for a board exam. Suddenly rewriting the whole book becomes a less attractive option and understanding and memorizing shines a light once again.
The way we spend our time dictates how ready we are for the test to come so spend it wisely and as usual remember to take breaks to space out your studying. As I am typing this, I have an exam in 2 days and am typing this post out during one of my study breaks. I find that flashcards can be a bit overwhelming especially if you have a lot to study. I'm guilty of having more than 1000+ flashcards due on Anki but that just shows how much I value creating questions and how much flashcards became the method of choice for me. I try reading to understand but my mind slowly drifts away, so I would say that the key to success would be optimizing my flashcards for higher yield and probably trying to get better sleep on exam day. Another good idea though is on exam day don't forget to read material one more time but this time try to get through them all faster. I find that going through slides on my phone helps me read faster. This is a method I will try to employ for this upcoming exam and will update this post when that time comes.
Update: The method described above worked I ended up getting a B+ on my exam which later got bumped up to an A+ due to some exam errors. Of course, this method worked for me but everyone's style of studying is different so be sure to find one that works for you. I wish you the best on your future exams!
If you found something helpful on this blog please consider subscribing, I do my best to post regularly with new content. Please follow me on Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter for more insights!
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