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Highlighting

For quite some time now I’ve highlighted key bits of information as it helps me remember the key parts of a question or text. For my maths homework we got a 90 page booklet to help us revise for our mocks so I highlighted the info that was important in each question. My teacher got very annoyed at me for highlighting and I argued that if it helps me shouldn’t that be the most important thing for her? She then went on to say it doesn’t help and it’s not scientifically proven. Now, I’ve heard many times that highlighting is a bad study technique but I’ve also heard it is a good study technique, at the end of the day people are different I said. They learn in different ways. If I don’t highlight the key bits of a question I always tend to do something wrong so I asked her “when I get my GCSE results back who will be more disappointed if I don’t get the grade I want?” Obviously it’ll be me and she didn’t know what to say after that.

I’m now looking back on it and I’m wondering if what I said was valid? Is it her decision if I highlight or not?
Reply 1
Avatar for lia_r18
lia_r18
19
If it really helps you then go for it, but it is typically quite distracting and means you may only learn the things you've highlighted (the parts which you think are important) and could mean that you don't actually need to learn everything you need.
Reply 2
Avatar for IkathleenI
IkathleenI
OP
17
Yes that’s a valid point but when doing questions in maths would it be okay? I only highlight what the question is asking me to do, eg: ‘work out’ or ‘evaluate’ and then the numbers. I may sometimes highlight information that the examiner is looking for such ‘round to three significant figures’ but to be honest I do good on my exam papers so it must help in some way.
(edited 4 years ago)
Reply 3
Avatar for Strelzo
Strelzo
20
Imagine being shouted at by your teacher for highlighting information to remember... Stupid if you ask me.

Highlight what you want if that's how you study; some people learn that way, it's not uncommon. Just make sure that you don't waste too much time highlighting information from a question, as time is vital in an exam.
(edited 4 years ago)
Reply 4
Avatar for IkathleenI
IkathleenI
OP
17
Yes it’s really ridiculous to be honest. She was really angry and it didn’t seem like a big deal to me. I only spend like 2 seconds highlighting 3 bits of info because of that reason. Sometimes I’ll forget my highlighter and I’ll miss out key bits of the question and get it wrong.
Reply 5
Avatar for gjd800
gjd800
20
I only ever do it to remind me to go back to that specific thing and look at it in more detail
Reply 6
Avatar for IkathleenI
IkathleenI
OP
17
Yeah that’s why I do it too

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