What am I doing wrong?

Today I had a change of heart. I wanted to prove to myself how dedicated I was that I went to my school’s library right after school. I used a textbook. No phone in sight. Complete peace as there was only me and one teacher in the room. Just me, my textbook, book and pen and all I managed to do was write a few notes which I was able to barely memorize in 1 hour. You heard it right, in 1 hour I did not even do a page worth of content! Honestly I just want to know, what is my problem? Shall I just give up? That was the most disappointing worth of studying I’ve done and I haven’t done much studying in my life to know. My GCSEs are around the corner and I can’t be getting good if my revision will carry on like this. Please help me, there’s clearly something wrong with my technique. I basically just write notes off a textbook and I repeat them to myself multiple times until I remember them. It’s clearly wasting time that I don’t have!

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 1

penguingirl18

Use active recall or revision videos. Writing notes works for some people, but it isn't generally very effective. Flashcards, practice questions, past papers, etc. are good resources. When you miss a problem, figure out how you could have gotten it correct - this is very useful. If you're losing focus, try listening to music. Also, if you make notes, using diagrams and color will make them more memorable. Good luck!

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 2

Lost Kid

I keep hearing about active recall. Could you walk me through on how to do it? And what resources I should use. And idk how to explain but the prospect of not taking notes is completely hard to take for me. Like from how else am I supposed to get my information from and not get overwhelmed?

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 3

Endola

Original post by Lost Kid

You get your information from the same place you'd get it from when you're taking notes :smile:

but if that really is something that you struggle with, then take notes but make them very concise and straight forward - and you don't need to give every single point down because there will be some things which are basic and easy to memorise, so no need to write them down. For active recall, it's simply like a method of using flashcards. I'd recommend flashcards over notes tbh. Write down questions and their answers on flashcards for every topic, and test yourself every now and then. E.g. today, after 3 days, after a week, after a week and a half etc.. till you find yourself able to regurgitate all the info

Infact, because you're tight on time, I highly recommend the online flashcards on Physics and Maths Tutor. They have everythinggg you need to know and saves you time from having to write them out.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 4

spectrum84

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Universities Forum Helper

Original post by Lost Kid

Find alternative ways of learning.
I tend to find note taking is time consuming and I don't remember it anyway, for my GCSE's I used freesciencelessons, it's really good, he uses diagrams and explains in a really simple way, you might find it easier.

Good luck :smile:

Reply 5

Lost Kid

But how did you memorize what he said?

Reply 6

penguingirl18

Original post by Lost Kid

There are different ways to do active recall: make flashcards or use existing ones (based on textbook/specification information) to test yourself and then memorize the ones you missed; write out pages of your textbook until you can recall for instance 90% of the information on the page; do practice problems (and if you're forgetting how to do them, reference the textbook intermittently until you remember instead of getting lots wrong). What subjects are you doing? I've found Physics and Maths Tutors's resources really useful, like Endola said. The information is all based on the specification so it should be the same as the textbook, except it may not include the "extra" pieces of information in the textbook that you don't need for exams anyway. You can still take notes, but active recall is basically just an alternative way to memorize the same information; it's like learning-by-doing instead of passive learning which is less effective. (Alternately, you could check the textbook after doing active recall to make sure you haven't missed anything.) What do you mean by getting overwhelmed?

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 7

Lost Kid

By overwhelmed I mean seeing too much information can discourage me. Btw what do you mean by “write out pages of your textbook”

Reply 8

penguingirl18

Original post by Lost Kid

By overwhelmed I mean seeing too much information can discourage me. Btw what do you mean by “write out pages of your textbook”

Oh, I see what you mean. Flashcards are actually good for that I guess because they only contain relevant information and can be broken out by topic, plus you can easily eliminate things you already know from the information you're testing yourself on / memorizing.
I mean that you read the page of your textbook and then close the book and write out as much of the information as you can recall onto a sheet of paper.

Reply 9

spectrum84

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Universities Forum Helper

Original post by Lost Kid

But how did you memorize what he said?

Just by listening to him and understanding what he was saying rather than learning facts

Reply 10

inanotherlifeee

Original post by Lost Kid

By overwhelmed I mean seeing too much information can discourage me. Btw what do you mean by “write out pages of your textbook”

just curious, while note making did you use mind maps and bullet points?

Reply 11

Lost Kid

Original post by inanotherlifeee

just curious, while note making did you use mind maps and bullet points?

Not really

Reply 12

inanotherlifeee

Original post by Lost Kid

Not really

soo how is your usual note taking method? if its in paragraphs, and if you wanna continue notemaking, maybe switch to bullet points and mind maps?
cause im kinda there like you, when i see paragraphs of strings of texts , it feels too much info idk but when its broken down in bullet points/ mindmaps , i get this sense that its lesser in quantity to go through

Reply 13

Lost Kid

I just write sentences I feel are worth knowing

Reply 14

Medic Mind

Original post by Lost Kid

Heya! I know it seems tough but I'm sure you'll do great for your GCSE's, there's still plenty of time! Also please remember to take care of your mental health and not to pressure yourself too much to memorize the material :smile:

If you keep doing that then you might overwork yourself which will have a toll on your health, so please remember to take care of yourself.

Regarding revision, do you have a plan how you approach it? I would recommend dedicating certain days and hours to specific subjects so that you could focus on them and doing past papers during those times. As well as this, perhaps note taking is not the best method for your revision? Have you tried other methods of revision such as drawing mind maps or watching external videos on youtube? Those tend to help me revise and mind maps made me memorise the material better (especially when coloured!) :smile:

I would additionally take notes but I would also make many drawings so that I could memorise the material better! What also helped me is having subjects colour coded e.g. biology was green where I used green highlighter and etc.

I would also recommend trying to get more online resources, here is a link to some free resources that might be helpful!

Hope this helps!
Milena G.
Study Mind