How do you study from your notes?
Don't just reread your notes, that feels productive but barely sticks. Cover them and try to say each part out loud from memory. Whatever you blank on is exactly what to study. Turn those gaps into questions or flashcards and test yourself again. Once you can recall most of it, shrink everything down to one page in your own words.
The mistake almost everyone makes is reading notes over and over until they feel familiar. Familiar is not the same as known. You recognize the words on the page, but in the exam there's no page to look at. So flip it around. The point of studying is to practice pulling stuff out of your head, not putting it back in.
Here's the loop that works. Cover your notes and recall a section from memory, out loud or written down. Check what you missed. Those misses are gold, they tell you exactly where you're weak. Turn each one into a question or a flashcard and test it again a day or two later. Keep doing the bits you keep getting wrong, skip the bits you already know cold.
Once you can recall most of a topic, force yourself to fit it onto a single page. Picking what matters and writing it in your own words is half the learning. That one-pager becomes your final review the night before, and if you can rebuild it from memory, you're ready.
- 1Cover your notes and say or write a whole section from memory. No peeking.
- 2Check against your notes and mark every gap.
- 3Turn each gap into a question or a flashcard.
- 4Wait a day, then test yourself on those questions without looking.
- 5Drill the ones you keep missing, drop the ones you've got.
- 6Squeeze the whole topic onto one page in your own words and try to rebuild it from memory.