Become a Topper: Tips to Study Smartly for Exams

Words like syllabus, exams, grades, results, and academic success seem overwhelming during the exam season. For decades, the inevitable question seems unanswered:

How to study smartly?

Because most students struggle to handle exam stress as they do not know how to study smartly. Let’s break down the important aspects of this topic with the most effective tips to study smartly.

If used well, these smart study tips can save several hours of cramming. And make your study duration more productive. Let’s figure out how to be smart in study using these best smart study tips.

Be with us!

Invest Time in Understanding Concepts

Here’s a golden rule-

To ace your exams, you need a sound understanding and not a surface level knowledge. Deep dive into the information, and understand theories and concepts to retain these well during exams. Students who know how to be smart in study focus on creating pathways and identifying patterns instead of memorization.

Do make a note of this one!

Create a Workable Study Plan

To understand how to study smartly you must get into the habit of planning ahead with a realistic study plan. Remember this is purely YOUR STUDY PLAN fully customized as per your strengths and weaknesses. So, avoid using a readymade planner used by some friend or classmate (traditional or online school students).

When you have a proper planner, it gets easier to study smartly. Because this planner is great for tracking progress. And aligns your academic goals with a proper roadmap to achieve these. Include practice time, set aside a duration to review notes, and manage your workload as per the weightage of each topic. Try to mix things up to beat monotony.

You can get a fair idea of creating a timetable schedule for studying by using some printable templates, readily available online.

Be Proactive

One of the best smart study tips for you is to clarify doubts proactively and collaborate with other students productively.

Other than this, there are some unsung advantages of explaining concepts to friends or family members.

Take a look at some facts to know how teaching others solidifies your understanding levels.

Some Related Facts:

It is fascinating to note that practices like reciprocal teaching (student in charge of teaching) improves classroom comprehension from 20 to 60%. And in a span of 12 days, the student teaching others improved from 30 to 80% (skills related to teaching and understanding of concepts).

Fascinating isn’t it?

Go Beyond Recognition

Want to learn how to be smart in study?

Be an active learner, and go beyond recognition!

If you simply read again and again, you might be able to recognize information during exams. But engaging actively in your studies with different strategies, and following the smart study tips takes your learning beyond the simple recognition level. Active learning makes it easier for students to recall information better (with a background) during exams.

Try it this way, plan good revision sessions, and go back to your topics periodically.

If you revise actively, practice, and keep testing yourself, your study sessions will be highly effective.

Use Strategies to Study Smartly

To learn how to study smartly you must trust the researched methods and club these together.

For instance-

Incorporate the Pomodoro technique and keep the study sessions short. Take a break after every 25 minutes. Now get back to the same topic using the 2357 revision rule (revise on day 1, day 2, then on the 3rd day, and on the 5th day again).

Add techniques like summarizing, making notes, and smart tools (such as the ones used in an online school) to your carefully planned study schedule.

Utilize Visual Engagement

You can also study smartly by connecting to concepts and information visually. Using colored pens and highlighters to create color cues (green for most important, blue for examples, yellow for detailed explanations, etc.). All this is great to study intensely in less time.

You can also try techniques like mind maps (arranging a central idea with other associated ideas around it for better comprehension), make diagrams, and use flashcards to revisit key concepts regularly.

21^st-century learning is all about improving understanding and retention through the power of visual learning approaches. Make use of visual engagement and learn how to study smartly with visual resources.

Facilitate Learning with the Chunking Strategy

Chunking means breaking down content into subunits. It is highly effective to teach and learn at a deeper level.

You can use the following ways-

Create categories
Mention steps to solve problems (such as in math)
Divide lengthy paragraphs into digestible chunks
Create summaries to reduce the brain’s cognitive load

The best part is that this strategy can be used across varied subjects and topics easily. So, learn how to study smartly by using the chunking strategy. And master more academic content in less time.

The Bottom Line

Schoolwork, relationship challenges, and the hustle-bustle of everyday life makes a student’s lives tough.

These smart study tips are not only a need of the hour for students, but a wise choice to combat tough situations and beat the exam stress mindfully.

We hope these tips helped you learn how to be smart in study. Get ready to prioritize focused learning. And make an efficient use of your time to pass your exams with flying colors!

Thanks for Reading!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a smart study technique?
Most students fail to understand how to study smartly. They must follow a study schedule, and take frequent breaks to rejuvenate their minds periodically. Students must always follow smart study tips such as spaced repetition, and make the most of visual engagement to do well in exams.
How do I study smart in less time?
Go for intense study sessions, use colored pens to highlight important points, and collaborate with friends for their smart study tips.
How can a student study smartly for board exams?
For board exams, students can use supplementary material like previous year question papers, practice tests, mock tests, etc. to prepare well for exams. It is also important to understand the syllabus breakdowns well to do well in board exams.