How I Study For Exams

So, since I have a bio exam coming up on Thursday (eek!),  I'd thought I'd share how I study for my exams.

To start, I make a study plan, which looks something like this. I tend to do this two weeks in advance, get unmotivated and not follow it, and have to redo it for a week's worth of studying....oops....

Then I start reviewing my lecture notes, which I print off of Blackboard. I highlight all the vocabulary and the headings while we cover it in class. Then, I go through and make flashcards for all the terms. Each chapter gets a different color highlighter for it's flashcards, which corresponds to the color I'll use on the study guide sheet she gives us. Here's what my notes and cards look like:

Then I read through my lecture notes again obsessively. I underline as I read to keep myself from just skimming. This helps me stay focused. I do each read through with a different colored pen, so it ends up looking like a rainbow. An example:

That's my third read through of those notes. I doubt you can tell because of my lousy phone camera, but there is blue, lime green, and purple underlining on this one so far. 

Then I go to my class notes. I highlight terms and headings, redraw all the diagrams on clean sheets of paper, and summarize each chapter's notes onto a single piece of notebook paper so I have all the concepts easily at hand. Here's the notes after the first go round:

A Redrawn diagram of the the reproductive cycles of Zygomycota and Ascomycota (we're studying fungus and plants right now. Bleck):

And my summary of the notes:

I do this chapter by chapter (each test covers 4 chapters). My professor takes her test questions directly from her lecture and class notes, so I don't really have to worry about what was in the textbook, but I'll go over any diagrams in there that she's referenced in class.

This leaves me feeling well prepared for each exam. I hope this helped some of you, and thank you for reading! If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for post topics, please leave me a comment below! I love reading them :)

Have a blessed and wonderful rest of Monday (please pray for my exam on Thursday!),




sCa