Study. This verb has many people against it and many people for it. Some people like to study, and others don't, making it very difficult. The truth is that we seem to try to find a strategy to overcome the situations in which it is necessary to study. Obviously, we want to rule out those dishonest solutions, such as cheating on exams. What are the study techniques I used as a teenager? Please allow me to answer.

Understanding in the classroom. I think I was able to enunciate this one when I had already finished high school. Understanding it made me implement it better in college. We can often see students who are looking for someone to explain something they didn't understand in class, either from another classmate, the professor himself in his office hours, or even paying for a course (sometimes taught by the same professor, crazy isn't it?). But wait a minute, why use more time and effort to understand something if we are already in a classroom where we are supposed to set aside time and resources to learn what they are telling us? And that teacher in front of us is supposed to be the one who will evaluate us, right? So, he is the best person to explain well, and for that he receives a salary.

So I would try to understand the subject matter in class, take all the notes I needed and ask all the questions that came up. What would be the advantage of that? Well, for me, it was something I understood, and now I just needed to brush up on it with the notes I was taking so I could answer whatever I was asked on an assessment. So I wasn't one of those students who spent hours and hours and hours reviewing and reading notebooks and books before an exam. I had simply understood and memorized something in a timely manner. I just needed a few minutes to refresh.

Listening to music. Obviously, there were times when I did need to study something extensive at home. Maybe because of a teacher who didn't want to explain everything, or maybe I didn't attend that class, or we just knew there were extra questions coming up on the evaluation. At those times, I used to put on some record that I liked, and have those songs playing while I read, studied and memorized.

At one point I was told that what I was doing was in accordance with some studies they had done where they showed that some frequencies help the brain to fix what we are studying. I never found out if that was true. But at least it worked for me. I can't say for sure that I memorized things better, but at least it made me feel good while I was making an intellectual effort, and I think I survived in the attempt.

Avoid studying in groups. Sometimes, assessments were in groups, like preparing a written paper, or maybe a group presentation. At first, we would meet at someone's house or at a public library. But both had one thing in common: a lot of time was spent unnecessarily. In addition, those who were not good students had a golden opportunity to make the others work and it practically counted to be present. That's not fair! There are usually one or two working there. The others, painted on the wall, and they would have the same classification as me. So I decided at one point not to spend any more time, money and energy on those kinds of unproductive meetings.

From that point on, I decided to study alone. Of course, I was willing to help my classmates understand something they had difficulty with, but as long as we both avoided getting distracted and could make the most of the time. We usually did this while we were on site, no going to other people's houses to spend more time and resources. We were already on site, let's make the most of it.

Do these techniques work? You be the judge, but I passed my bachelor's degree. However, today I have modified some of my study techniques. Although during a secular study session a playlist might be present, when I study spiritual matters, I try to be in a calm and quiet environment.

What are your study techniques now or in the past? I read them in the comments. Thanks for making it this far, see you next time!

I invite you to take a look at INLEO' s initiative to find interesting ideas to publish this April.

_{Cover: Made with the free version of CANVAS
Images: Of my property, edited in GIMP and captured with my Canon EOS Rebel t3i.
Banner: Made by me in GIMP with my own images and free resources from the site pfpmaker.com/
Language: Post written in Spanish and then translated into English through DeepL}