STUDY TIPS FOR THE NOVEMBER TO DECEMBER SCHOOL YEAR!!!

Written by Zoe Levesque and Eloise Bramer 06/11/2025.

Well York, we’ve made it two months into the 2025-26 school year, and it feels as though we are already drowned in assignments. To help stay on top of the stack, Eloise and Zoe have been considering what study methods really work best to keep you getting those IB 7’s. Here is their comprehensive guide to all things academic weapon. 

To begin, there are a few attributes to different methods of study that must be considered, before choosing what is most applicable to your study session. With this first method, accredited to physics Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman, you work to study both quicker and more efficiently, memorizing and thoroughly digesting the content. 

The Feynman technique can be broken down into four principle points of learning; 

1. You begin by selecting your topic, then, on a blank piece of paper, list out all that it is you know about the given subject.

   1. When writing, use either different color pens or highlighters to further distinguish and break down different topics/areas of knowledge

   2. It is imperative that you also only write the areas of knowledge and facts that you are sure to be correct  

2. Once you feel that you have recalled all of the information you can, out loud recite that information, though in the manor you would explain the concepts to a child who knew nothing of the topic 

   1. You may refer to your notes in this explanation

   2. Anytime you feel that you are missing an element of knowledge that would allow you to comfortably simplify your topic, or you make a mistake, note it down

3. Once you have finished, go through your resources and target research the missing knowledge you noted, writing them down to solidify your understanding and memorisation 

4. Finally, test your understanding of the information by once again, reciting it in a simplified method, but this time to a real person, maybe a friend or family 

   1. In this final explanation method, ensure that you are going entirely off of memory, not using your pre written notes, but again jotting down the information you miss for later review 

Repeat all of these steps until you feel as though you have fulfilled your understanding and are adequately prepared. You can complete this method over the course of a couple days, or all in one, as it is incredibly adaptable and fast acting. 

Now studying (for long periods of time especially) can be incredibly draining. It's difficult to maintain both motivation and energy without crashing, but this next method can help you to work without losing your mind, or your focus. 

The Pomodoro technique is both easy to follow and incredibly rewarding, helping to boost both your productivity and minimalism procrastination, in a process of six initially defined steps. 

1. Begin by very intentionally and specifically mapping out what you need to achieve or what topics you must cover, distinguishing broken down steps. 

2. Next, set your first timer: 

   1. The Pomodoro technique involves intervals of (traditionally) 25 minute - 5/10 minute timers

   2. The former, times your period of uninterrupted focus work, encouraging productivity

   3. The latter, times the intermittent study breaks between your work 

3. Begin your 25 minute timer and put yourself on task, diving into your work 

4. Once your timer goes off, begin the 5-10 minute timer and give yourself a break

   1. On this break, you should not be putting yourself online and scrolling, but instead allowing yourself to get a snack, speak with family or friends, take a quick walk

   2. You should be taking yourself away from your work, but not entrapping yourself in activities that will reduce productivity 

5. Continue this process three more times, until you have had four total uninterrupted work periods

6. Once you have completed those four work periods, set another break timer for yourself, but this one will be a length of 20-30 minutes, then set another 25 minute timer and repeat all of the steps until you have completed your tasks

This method of study not only allows for you to work efficiently, but addresses your assigned workload without succumbing to overwhelm, avoiding procrastination. 

Now learning very efficiently is great, but useless if you can’t recall any of the information by the time of your assessment. To help increase your ability to memorise and call back any information when under the pressure of a test or timed assignment Zoe and Eloise recommend the SQ3R method.

This method can be split up into five separate steps to help boost your memorization of texts;

1. Survey the text by finding bolded words or headings and reading these over. Also read the introduction and summary of the text to help understand what topics you will be learning

2. Make Questions about what you want to learn from the text

   1. Use the headings that you read as a guide to formulate the questions

   2. Examples of questions you could write down include “How did the French economy affect the French Revolution?” if one of your headings was about the causes of the French Revolution

3. Read the entire text, looking out for the answers to the questions you have written down as well as re-reading any confusing parts of the texts

4. After reading the material, recall your questions and try to answer them in your own words

   1. Try writing down the answers to your questions as if you are explaining them to someone who has never heard of the topic, similar to the Feynman technique 

   2. Use a lot of detail when answering these questions to show your full understanding of the topics

5. Finally, review your questions and check the answers to them by looking over the text to see if you grasped the main concepts

Once you have finished the five main steps of the SQ3R technique, you can repeat steps 3-5 if you were unable to answer all of the questions. If there are any questions you still have about the text after answering the questions write them down and try to answer them after the second time you read through the text.

The SQ3R is helpful to memorize large amounts of information in a time effective method as well as helping you to scan passages for important topics.

This method is helpful for subjects with a lot of text such as history or geography but less useful for the sciences or subjects that have a lot of terms you need to memorize. To help with memorizing a lot of similar terms, active recall is the study strategy you need. This method is a way to bring information from your short-term memory to your long-term memory using active studying.

1. Practice Tests

   1. Your teacher will probably give you a practice test with the test review packet and this is a great diagnostic for your abilities. 

   2. By taking this test before you start studying, you can find out what kinds of questions you should be paying special attention to and what topics you can focus less on

2. Flash Cards

   1. Start by making a list of all the terms you are going to need for the test and writing them down on a piece of paper

   2. Next each of these terms on their own flash card (hand writing them is important because it helps you remember information)

   3. Look through the class slide shows or other lessons to find the explanations of these terms (try not to look up the answers because the ones your teacher has provided are more accurate to what could be asked on a test)

   4. To test yourself with these, read the term and try to say the answer outloud. As you go separate the cards into two piles: the questions you do and don’t understand

3. Practice with past papers

   1. Ask your teacher for past papers of this test to help you with longer and more complex questions. These tests could also help with questions that connect more than one topic

   2. If you are in an IB course, you could also ask your teacher for your past papers to help review your past mistakes and improve for the next test or exam