Creative Study Methods

Exams are coming up, and I thought this would be the perfect article to read about different ways to effectively study for them! I wanted to include ways that aren't basic or overused, like making flashcards or writing notes. I didn’t come up with any of these myself, but I dug deep online to find unique methods. These are still easy to do, while being more creative than the typical and more popular techniques. 

1. The Perfume/Gum Method

 Spray a perfume or body mist, or chew a piece of flavored gum while studying. Using the same stimuli helps your brain to remember the notes. Some studies have shown that chewing gum improves memory and cognitive performance. For the perfume, it can trigger vivid memories! 

2. Mirror Method

Place sticky notes with the vocab words or terms you need to remember for an exam on a mirror so that every time you use or pass the mirror, the sticky notes are the first thing you see. Bright colored sticky notes specifically would stick out and catch your attention more than bland yellow ones. When you brush your teeth, brush your hair, do your makeup, etc, your eye will catch on the words written on the notes, and eventually, from seeing them so often, you will memorize them by heart. 

3. Candle Method

Light a candle where you are able to see it and study until the candle goes out! This could take hours depending on the size of your candle, but it’s a good strategy if you want to add a challenge aspect to your studying time!

4. Traffic Lights Method

Color code your study notes! You can use any variations of colors, but this method specifically uses red, green, and yellow. Highlight the material you don’t know red, yellow for the things you know but may need to review more, and lastly, highlight the things you know very well green. Highlighting can help you pick out the more important information, and this way organizes your work into three sections based on your knowledge of the material. 

5. Feynman Technique Method

After studying a topic, pretend you are a teacher teaching about this topic. It helps your brain when you speak what you have learned out loud. You can “teach” to no one and just pretend, or grab a friend or family member, and they can ask you questions based on what you have explained to them. That way, if you don’t know how to answer their question, you know what areas you need to study more! 

6. White Noise Method

     For this, you just use Spotify or any other app or device to play white noise. It sounds almost like soft static, and it is used to help calm down and sometimes to fall asleep. If you don’t want your brain to be all over the place, you can also use headphones or earbuds to block out any other outside noise. Usually, music with lyrics can be distracting and make you want to focus on the beat of the song instead of the work you're trying to study. 

7. The Loci Method

This method is mostly for subjects like Global History, Government, etc. After you study a unit, associate a room in your house with an event from the unit. For example, if you are studying World War 1, you can use, let's say, your room. Every time you walk into your room, think of the war. Maybe your room is the battlefield. This way, you can recall information about the war whenever you see or walk in the room. 

8. Kahoot Method

Use your notes to make a Kahoot on the topic you’re studying! Take the Kahoot yourself until you get all of the questions right, or do the Kahoot with your friends. Making a Kahoot can be an independent or group activity, depending on what you prefer. 

9. Scribble Method

Grab a pen or pencil and scribble continuously while reading material. It helps to keep your mind from wandering and improves your multitasking skills. You can scribble in a circle or in a random pattern, whatever works for you!

10. Password Method

 A lot of teens struggle to stay off their phones when studying and can’t resist just checking their notifications, which can easily lead to chronic scrolling on social media. That scrolling can take hours off of time that could’ve gotten you that A+ you really wanted. So, instead of shutting off your phone before studying, which isn't very effective and still tempting, purposely lock yourself out of your phone. Spam random passwords in your password keyboard until it locks you out for up to an hour or more. That way, it doesn't matter if you turn on your phone or not, because either way you can’t actually get into it and access your social media.