3 ways to make sure your teen's study notes are as effective as possible
What do effective study notes look like and how can your teen make them?
Hi there,
Today I want to make sure that your teen understands what effective study notes look like, and how they can go about making them during their exam study.
Study notes almost need a different name, don’t they? They don’t exactly make you leap to your feet with excitement or enthusiasm!
I think the functional name of ‘study notes’ is weighed down with associations of reading a text book and writing out scrawls of black and white text and spending hours at a desk with only the ticking of the clock punctuating the silence…
But — I’m here to tell your teen that study notes need not be the bore they might think.
Your teen’s study notes should involve much more than just mindless copying of notes from a text book. They should be more like an interactive art piece than an old-English transcript.
While making their study notes, your teen should utilise a variety of different study techniques — bullet points, diagrams, flow charts, mnemonics, print-outs, paragraph explanations, key facts — anything that helps your teen to process and retain information.
The result will resemble a book of sorts, with all of the information your teen needs for their exams, presented in a way that aids their understanding, processing and retention of information.
With all of this in mind, here are 3 THINGS I suggest your teen should be thinking about when they’re making study notes during their exam study.
1. Using your Learning Style
Whatever techniques your teen ends up putting to use when making their study notes, the overall idea is that they should be using techniques associated with their predominant Learning Style.
If your teen has already taken our Learning Styles Quiz they will already have a good idea of what their predominant Learning Style is (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, reader/writer) (and if they haven’t they can take the Quiz and learn about the different styles here over at cramlab.org)
Different Learning Styles are associated with different learning techniques, meaning a study technique that works for your teen’s friend who is a visual learner might not be as effective for your teen if they are a kinaesthetic learner, and so on.
Your teen can put their predominant Learning Style at all stages of their study and exam preparation, including when they’re making study notes.
For instance a visual learner might include more diagrams in their notes, while an auditory learner might record themselves reading their notes out load and listening to the recording, like their very own podcast!
There is no point in your teen spending hours making study notes that don’t work for them, and so using their predominant Learning Style is a good way to make sure they are engaging in productive study.
2. Being mindful of what’s working (and what’s not)
When your teen is preparing for exams, it’s obviously important that they use their precious study time wisely.
When you spend even just a couple of hours going over something without making any progress, this is not only a waste of time, it is also really demoralising and de-motivating.
I don’t want your teen to waste their precious study time writing out study notes if they’re not actually learning anything, or if they feel like nothing is actually going in.
The purpose of study notes is to help your teen:
better understand their subjects;
prepare for exam answers; and
remember what they’re going to need to know in their exams.
If your teen’s study notes aren’t helping them achieve these aims, then they need to think about what’s not working.
They might need to try incorporating some different study techniques into their study notes.
For instance, if your teen is at least partly a visual learner but they have just been copying our notes from class, they might want to start drawing their own diagrams in their study notes.
The bottom line is, there are no particular ‘rules’ when it comes to making study notes other than making sure they’re working for YOU.
3. Focus on the key topics
Because making study notes should be one of the main features of your teen’s exam preparation, it’s absolutely critical that their notes focus on the KEY TOPICS of their curriculum (especially when your teen is low on time).
In other words, they want to make sure that their study notes cover all of the major topics that are most likely to come up in their exams.
Of course you can never be certain of the exact questions you’re going to get asked in exams, BUT — your teen should be able to make good educated guesses about what topics they’re going to be examined on.
An exam might contain a few questions that catch you off guard, but overall it shouldn’t contain too many surprises.
In the interest of maximising study productivity and getting the most marks possible, I suggest your teen doesn’t waste time spending too much time studying what we might call ‘peripheral topics’, that might not even come up in the exam.
Don’t go down obscure rabbit holes. Nail the key topics and the marks will follow.
Why all of this is so important
All of this — thinking about the different types of study techniques your teen can utilise, being mindful of what’s working and what’s not — all comes back to the main goal I have for your teen — that they learn how to study in a way that works for THEM; that they figure out their unique Study System (more on this along with free resources for your teen here over at cramlab.org)
Once your teen knows what their Study System is, every time they sit down to study and prepare for exams, they will know what steps they need to follow to get the grades they’re capable of.
They will know what study techniques and methods work for them, meaning they can study with the CONFIDENCE that they’re doing the right things to get prepared for exams.
I hope these tips guide your teen in making effective study notes. Studying does not need to be a scary mystery. Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Thanks so much for reading.
Clare