I just finished the first semester of vet school, WOOHOO! Which included a partial examination in the mid of the semester and final exam. I’ve tried a number of study techniques in these 4 months and found some to have not only helped me enjoy the process of studying but also perform well in my examinations. Like I’ve said in my main page and in other blog posts, I’m not a study guru or the best and smartest vet student out there. So see me as a friend who’s with you on this journey. One who is always trying to be the best version on herself, and at the same time encouraging you to do the same.
Without further ado, I’d like to split the techniques into 2 parts:
- Getting into focus mode
- Consistency and sustainability
Getting into focus mode
Often the hardest part is getting started. But once the ball is rolling, it’s much easier to get into flow state.
Setting up a happy study space
Getting into focus mode involves setting up an environment that welcomes you to get to work. A must-have is a clean and neat work space with all your study essentials. To add a little happy boost, find your happy must-haves. It could be a plant or even a quote pasted in front of your study space. For me, it’s nice hot cup of coffee/tea/chocolate, that’s it! Something simple and easy to have with me.
Sticking to the same study space — my dorm desk or library. Something familiar helps me get into focus mode much quicker. But it’s never my bed. Separating our work space from others where we sleep/eat/relax gets our mind into the right state quickly.
However, sometimes changing up my environment worked wonders. Going to a nice coffee shop or somewhere conducive to study or work. I’ll do this when I can’t focus at my usual work space. I did it once, not to study but planned the itinerary for my 9 days travel in Romania. Have been procrastinating on it so I decided to go to a cheesecake shop, got a cheesecake (with my coffee of course), sat at the cafe for the whole day and finally completed it!
My must-haves: coffee/tea, tidied work table, chair, tablet, pen, paper
My must-not-have: phone (out of sight or kept in an inconvenient location), notifications (turned off)
Listening to focus music
I’ll only do this when I really can’t focus or when I need to block out some noises around me. It could be any sounds or music: nature sounds, lofi, jazz. But ideally not with lyrics as it can interfere with the information we are trying to understand and memorise. I mainly listen to classical or instrumental (on Youtube), with my bluetooth earbuds connected to my phone and my phone kept out of sight or in an inconvenient location.
The best environment to help with retention of information is one that simulates the examination environment: silence with slight rustling of papers and occasional coughs. But this disregards our current state when trying to study. Hence, music is there to help. It just makes studying a little more enjoyable and relaxing — helps with motivation and mood.
Pomodoro
The actual pomodoro technique calls for 25 minutes of focus time and 5 minutes break. For me, when I can focus longer, I do 45 minutes work, 5-10 minutes break. It’s great to use when I can’t really get into the mood using the first 2 techniques.
5 minute rule
I just tell myself: just 5 minutes of work. I do this when I can’t even bring myself to get started. It’s the idea of starting small and acknowledging that every step counts. Often, it’s the inertia of starting that stops us. So get the ball rolling, the rest will play out.
This method can be tweaked for anything that you find difficult to even start doing. I do this for workouts, writing, reading. For workouts, sometimes I change this rule up to “just 10 pushups”. Most of the time, I’ll end up doing way more than just that 5 minutes or 10 pushups.
Studying with friends
Find an accountability buddy or a study group. But for this to be effective, you can’t just find anyone, they have to be of similar study habit/focus as you. They can’t be easily distracted while you are trying to focus, or vice versa. Everyone may be studying the same thing or completely different subjects, that’s fine. Set a time, place, what you would be studying, and get work.
Pomodoro with a group of friends works as well, if you guys want to have some sense of togetherness though studying completely different subjects. I have yet to try this out but maybe I’ll try it in the next semester.
Pre-planned study sessions help too. Create a list of questions you have that you want to ask your friends. Create flashcards to test each other. My friends and I did this for agronomy to identify the plants. We made sure everyone had time to think and the last person who got the answer will say it.
‘Teach’ your friend. You know that you’ve truly understood a topic when you can explain it to someone. It helps with memorising too (active recall). Have been doing this for anatomy in which we take turns to present the bone, joint or muscle. The others can then add on or correct the person who’s presenting.
Consistency and Sustainability
As vet students, we have to accept the fact that learning is a never-ending process. To be honest, no mater what profession or what we do, we are always learning and growing, that’s true living. Now that we’ve gotten into focus mode, the real question become: how do I sustain this?
Understand
I cannot emphasise this enough. Understanding is so so important. Before I go on to memorise large chunks of information, I ask myself: can I explain this to a friend who is new to this information? If I don’t, then I’ll do extra readings, search up more information, collate my questions to ask a friend or professor.
See the bigger picture of why you’re studying what you’re studying. It’s not about grades or taking the module in order to graduate. Maybe it is, but what is your bigger why? Be curious and genuinely interested in what you’re studying. That’s when you hack the code of learning. However, if you still don’t see purpose in it, maybe it’s time use the quitting framework.
When we don’t understand, we’ll end up in either 2 situations: memorising word for word OR only remembering general information. Memorising word for word is just not helpful. You’ll either forget it easily or it’s too much for your brain that the chances of burning out is much higher.
Whereas, when we understand, we’ll memorise it with much ease. That’s when you try different techniques to memorise — where a new realm of fun begins. (I’ll try more memorisation techniques for my next semester’s exams so stay tuned!)
Active recall
It’s basically testing yourself. Memorising is not about passive reading or highlighting, it is about asking yourself questions. It is not about stuffing more and more information into your brain, it is about retrieving information. That’s when your brain starts to organise information so that it can be stored better and retrieved quicker.
Do it your way and eventually you’ll find your preference — write your questions on paper or digitally on excel/notion/google docs. Answer them your way — verbal, typing, writing.
After memorising, without refering, I come out with a list of questions in the form of flashcards, on a piece of paper or notion. I try to answer them and if I can’t, I’ll refer to the answer in the slides of my notes. Then, at the end, I’ll test myself again with the questions I got wrong.
This method not only saves time in passively creating notes after notes, but is effectively simulating the examination. Don’t be afraid to ask yourself questions. Making mistakes is how you actually learn! When you can’t answer a question, your brain highlights it and it works harder to organise it better for future retrieval.
Space repetition
Heard of the forgetting curve? The moment we learn an information, we will start forgetting it as time goes by. That’s when spaced repetition comes in to counter this phenomenon. It is a technique involving repeatedly reviewing learnt information at increasing intervals to ensure that the information remains unforgettable.
Best spaced repetition intervals:
- 1st repetition: 1 day after the initial learning session
- 2nd repetition: 7 days after the initial learning session
- 3rd repetition: 16 days after the initial learning session
- 4th repetition: 35 days after the initial learning session
But of course, you don’t have to strictly follow this. Easily recalled information can be spaced further apart, whereas harder to recall information can be spaced in shorter intervals.
Active recall goes hand in hand with spaced repetition. Review using questions. Test yourself. The more you test yourself, the easier it gets.
Balance
As a slow living advocate, it’s something I strive for and aim to continue improving.
What are the 3-5 main areas of your life? Fundamentally, the 3 areas should be: health, relationships, career.
Each day, we should try to contribute a little to each area. I have 5 main areas but I try to contribute to at least 3 each day. For example today, my day can be broken into 3 parts: writing (personal growth), video calling mom and dad (relationships), kickboxing (health).
I’ll explain more about the different life categories in my blog post on bullet journaling but I cannot emphasise enough that balance is the key to sanity. We are not robots or machines. We play different roles in our lives. Each role has its purpose. And with roles come responsibilities.
All areas are interconnected. What’s student life without all the brainless laughter with friends and being passionate about what we are studying? Without health, how can any other area of life flourish? Without practicing to pique our curiosity and learn effectively as students, what are the chances of any breakthroughs in our career as graduates?
Create a system that works for you. Make it easy to follow through but difficult to pull back. Be it signing up for gym membership, having an accountability buddy and rules set up to meet friends and family (blocked out evening times for a meal, Sunday family-only day) etc.
Ending words
Finding the right study techniques takes lots of experimentations. So don’t be discouraged when you feel like you’ve reached a plateau or that things do not seem to be going as planned.
Decide. Experiment. Reflect. Repeat.
Decide on a technique by finding out what techniques are out there or refining one which you’ve tried.
Experiment by taking action.
Reflect using these questions:
- Does this technique help me become a more effective learner?
- If yes, when shall I use this technique?
- How can I refine this technique?
- If it’s not helping me and I can’t refine it, what other techniques should I try next?