How to study for exams (step-by-step)

Studying for exams can be stressful and daunting, especially if you don’t already have a structured approach. Thankfully, high school is a great time to try new things and experiment with different ideas to see what works for you

Below is a framework that I used to do well in high school, undergraduate physics and medical school. It has been developed from trial and error and observation of state-topping students for over 5 years. Use this as a base to experiment from. I encourage you to tweak and tinker with your own method until you find something that works for you

Note: This guide is more applicable to STEM subjects. Use in other disciplines may require prior adjustment

🔑 How to study for exams in 6 steps 🧠

1. Make a list of all the topics that need to be covered
2. Set small and achievable goals
3. Make and read study notes
4. Memorise and understand your notes
5. Do practice questions and past papers
6. Bonus: Teach your friends

⌛ Before you get to the exam 🏛

Try your best to attend class, and to actively participate. Take notes, then immediately try to apply them in exercises. This can help you mentally sort through new content and develop a base level of understanding early. Consider having two separate books for each subject, one where you write notes and one where you do exercises. Alternatively, use the front of your book for notes and worked examples, and the back for practice exercises. This makes studying a lot easier

📝 Make a list of all the topics that need to be covered (5% of your time) 😧

Look at the course outcomes, and syllabus, then make a list of the most important things to learn. Spend the most time on topics you are not comfortable with. A rough indicator of importance is the time your teacher spent on it during class

🏆 Set small and achievable goals (5-10 minutes) 📈

Take 5-10 minutes to set some mini-deadlines and goals towards each topic. Having targets to work towards can help you be more productive

"Success in exams isn’t about giving everything up. Maintaining balance is key. Give yourself a reason to be efficient, because if you give yourself four hours to do something that takes one, that’s how long it’ll take"

⌨ Make and read study notes (15% of your time) 📖

Ensure you have read or watched all assessable content. If you have done well during the term to attend and participate in class, you’re likely already up to date

The next step is to make study notes from your class notebook. Most students go wrong here by copying the notes they have written again. Instead, summarise concepts in 1-3 sentences, and topics in half a page. Summarising dense content makes you think deeply about the core concepts and ideas. Sometimes you’ll find that you can’t summarise a concept because you don’t completely understand it, at which point you can get help or revisit your textbook

Avoid going overboard with things like multiple different highlighters and perfect drawings. If this works for you and you have evidence to support it, then go for it, but if not, don’t stress - your notes only have to work for you

🧠 Memorise and understand your notes (25-30% of your time) 🚀

This is where you memorise key definitions, and then focus on understanding the key ideas. A common mistake students make is trying to rote learn everything. Memorising everything word for word is difficult, confusing, and won’t help you apply it. If you summarised well in the previous step, you’ll already have a basic level of understanding and will be on the right track

Further, enhance your understanding by applying concepts to real-life situations where applicable. As an added benefit, this will also improve your ability to remember the information

Another evidence-based retention method worth trying is spaced repetition. Spaced repetition is the practice of reviewing learning materials at increasing intervals. Initially observed over 100 years ago, there is evidence to show that the technique significantly increases memory retention. This can be done with flashcards or with applications, such as Anki, Remlet, and Quizlet. Additionally, if you take the time to understand the concept in class, the power of spaced retention helps amplify any subsequent revisions

If you want to learn more about ways to improve your memory and retain information, check out our referenced posts on “evidence-based methods to help with memory”, and “the myth of learning styles”

🎯 Do practice questions and past papers (50-55% of your time) 📚

You can’t win Wimbledon by watching tennis videos, no matter how well you understand them, you have to play tennis. Exams are the same, you need to do practice questions

The difference between students who do well, and students who top the state is often the number of questions they have done. In fact, if I had to give one piece of advice to students it would be - once you have a basic understanding of the concepts, start doing questions, and do as many as you can

This is important because practice questions show you what you don’t know. You may think you understand something, and then find it doesn’t come together when trying to answer the question. If you’re anything like me, this will happen frequently at the start, so have your notes next to you. Early on, if you can’t answer a question, use your notes to help out. As you progress through questions, you’ll start realising you don’t need your notes as much. Use the oldest or least relevant resources early, e.g. past papers from 5+ years ago, or textbook exercises. Save the recent past papers for when you’re more confident

When you feel comfortable with 80-90% of the questions, it’s time to put your notes away and start practising under exam conditions. This full dress rehearsal will accustom you to the time pressure of a real exam. If you have limited resources, save your two most recent practice papers for this. After every practice exam, give yourself a break for an hour or so, then mark it, learn from your mistakes, or ask for help with understanding concepts that didn’t click

As you work through this process, it’s important to identify and spend more time on areas of weakness. Repeatedly practising the same questions makes your study inefficient

"Excelling in high school requires balance and consistency. When studying, don't waste time repeating problems you already know. Instead, you can amplify your knowledge gain by spending twice as much time examining problem sets and improving weaker areas"

👨‍🏫 Bonus: Teach your friends 😎

Teaching is one of the fastest ways to identify and address weak points. This hack helped me score well in high school, and university while studying less than my peers. Whenever possible, use first principles to teach someone a concept that you are learning or have recently learned. Teaching a concept from the ground up requires a high level of understanding, and is one of the fastest ways to pick up holes in your own comprehension. Learn a concept, apply it in a few exercises, attempt to teach someone, address any holes in your understanding with a teacher’s help, and then repeat. Doing this correctly can considerably shorten your learning cycle

🥴 How to cram ⌚

Sometimes things don’t go to plan and you find yourself needing to cram. You can still follow the approach above, with a few tweaks to shorten your learning time and maximise efficiency. Keep in mind, cramming probably isn’t going to get you a 90% mark, but it can get you out of jail if done right

💻 Review or watch content. Don’t make study notes 🚫

When cramming you don’t have time to follow every step. Ensure you have at least read or skimmed through assessable content in your textbook. It’s important to leverage what you have. Assuming you paid attention in class, you may already have good notes in your notebook. When cramming, that’ll do. In case you don’t, print slides, or textbook pages and annotate over them

🧲 Skip memorising notes. Focus on application and understanding 🌉

Don’t worry about memorising notes when cramming, you’ll start remembering important things as you do questions. Focus on understanding important concepts and applying them to real-life situations. This is also a great time to apply the teaching hack above, if possible. Once you have a base level of understanding, move to practice questions as soon as possible

📚 Do practise questions 🧪

Work through as many practice problems as you can, leading up to recent past papers under exam conditions. It’s especially important to prioritise questions in weak areas when cramming. Once you get 3-4 similar questions correct on any topic, move on to another type of question. Upon finding a weak area, use your makeshift notes, ask your teacher, or search online until you understand how to solve it. Follow this by doing 3-4 more similar questions until you feel confident, then move on. After a few hours, return to it, do another 3-4 questions, then repeat if needed

🛌 Utilise sleep 😴

This is another hack that served me well, and can be especially useful when cramming. When studying for a test or exam, use sleep as a study tool, and include it in your study plan. Sleep is a key factor in moving content from short-term and working memory to long-term memory, and decluttering thoughts. Take a nap after learning a large section of notes, or doing questions. In fact, any time your head feels full of new info, it’s a good sign to sleep. It isn’t wasted time, even if it feels like it. During medical school, I would sometimes change my entire sleep schedule around planned sleep, and it worked a treat. Don’t forget to maintain a continuous 6-10 hours of sleep at some point in your 24 hours too

👨‍⚕️ Your teachers are a resource 👨‍✈️

It’s can hard to see your teachers as regular people when you’re a student. However, teachers usually have experiences far beyond the scope of what they’re teaching. Remember, they’ve gone through your struggles themselves, and have helped students with them too. Ask them questions about what usually trips students up in exams, and what to expect - remember the worst you can get is “I can’t tell you”

📑 Recap 💰

Studying for tests and exams can be difficult, and having a process can be extremely useful. Use your time efficiently, and break it up to ensure you have a study plan, make concise notes, memorise and understand your notes, and do practice problems. You can also add the hacks of teaching, spaced repetition and planned sleep to speed things up and boost your retention

If you have spent time doing all of these things, and focused on understanding concepts and applying them in problems, you’re on track to do very well. If you’re still looking to improve, consider things reviewing your exam technique (a new post about this coming soon)

Finally, remember, this is a base framework to experiment from. Spend the time now to figure out what works for you. If you found this useful, please share it with your friends, and let us know about it. All the best, you’re going to do great!