How To Study For a Test The Easy Way

Is this you while you are studying?

Let’s face it, you know you need to understand how to study for a test effectively.

A lot of your plans depend on it.

You have spent a lot of time studying.

You know deep down there’s something wrong. 

It almost feels as if you are missing something.

Do you want to know what that missing something is?

This post will show you what it is and then some.

In this post, you will learn research backed study techniques only the best students use, you will learn how to study for specific tests (not all tests are created equal) and you will learn how to review for your tests so you can bulletproof your success on test day.

Are you ready to learn all of this and then some?

Get a pen and paper ready and let’s begin!

Failing a Test Is NOT An Option

Let me tell you a story to emphasize this point.

There was a class I had to take called “Dynamics,” which is viewed as one of, if not the most difficult engineering class in any engineering curriculum.

Many students complained about expecting to get an F and having to retake the class over again.

They thought it was over before it even started.

And this was the problem.

They thought it was over before it even started.

In essence, they counted themselves out before the battle even started.

This is a loser’s mentality that tricks most people from getting what they want.

They feel as if something is thought of as too hard, it’s automatically undoable.

This is NOT the mindset to have when you are facing any class, or anything in life, big or small.

There is a quote from a Bruce Lee movie called “Enter the Dragon” where Bruce Lee just finished beating a guy and he goes to his temple master for advice.

The temple master said something really revealing and it goes like this:

“The enemy has only images and illusions. Behind which he hides his true motives. Destroy the image and you will break the enemy.”

In this case, the image is this idea that you will fail regardless of how much you try.

The enemy is the class.

If you simply switch your mindset to “I will,” you will take the first step to cracking down your enemy.

And after that, it’s simply following the secret strategies in this post to knock your tests out of the park.

So switch your mentality from “I can’t” to “I can” and you will notice a tremendous difference in your attitude towards your classes and, eventually, your results.

Now here is an all time classic study strategy of successful students that you can employ starting today:

Active Recall To Crush Your Exams

Do you want to know why sitting in a classroom was not effective for learning new things?

Let me explain.

It’s because it goes against what all of the research says about learning things effectively.

According to a 2011 study, the researchers took the results of 4 different groups studying in different ways.

The first group read the material only once, the 2nd group read the material 4 times, the 3rd group read the material and made a mind map and the 4th group read the material only once and did active recall.

Not surprisingly, the group that did the best was the active recall group.

Why?

Because when you use active recall, you are forcing your brain to get the answers to the questions like it’s a test.

You push yourself to try harder instead of letting the book give you the answers like you would if you simply reread the material.

What will happen is you will become less dependent on the book/solutions manual and you will trust yourself to know what to do when you walk in that test to get the answers.

If you don’t understand, consider this:

Have you ever used flashcards before?

When you used them, do you remember when you would try to guess the answer before looking on the other side of the card?

Did you do better on the test as a result, especially when you drilled your cards over and over again?

The reason you did better was because your brain became used to having to guess what was on the back of the card several times before taking the test.

When you simply read the material, your brain isn’t forced to know what’s on the back of the card because the answers are given to you.

As a result, your brain doesn’t feel like it has to do a job of remembering things.

Hence, when you walk into the test, your brain blanks out since it has to do something it hasn’t done before.

See the difference between simply reading the book and active recall?

The human brain depends on repetition to succeed.

If you give it a task to repeat multiple times, you will get better at it.

If you just do it once, chances are you will be mediocre at best.

Understand?

Awesome.

This strategy will build upon itself when we go along in the post, but for now, instead of reading the answer when asked a question, close the book and the solutions and guess the answer yourself. Once you have an answer, then you can look at the reading or solutions for feedback.

You should only look at the answers otherwise if you are completely unable to come up with the answers after guessing many times.

Try it and you will see your brain become stronger each time you do it.

Your confidence will experience a noticeable increase.

This is the first phase on how to study for a test in college.

Comment below with your results. They are more than appreciated.

Now that you understand active recall, let me show you another research backed technique you could start using today to kickstart your grades into high gear!

90-20/90-30 Rule To Take Tests Like A Boss

This is the work schedule used by the most successful professionals in their fields.

What you do is you work in 90 minute intervals and you take a break every 20-30 minutes to recharge so you can work at your best every time.

Florida State University did a study on high performing professionals who used this technique, from singers to athletes to chess players etc. and the study concluded that everyone who performed at their best in what they did worked in 90 minute intervals.

You can see a summary of this study here.

If you clicked through the study, you noticed that the researcher recommended not working more than 4.5 hours. Obviously, that’s not doable for a lot of people, so tailor everything to your situation.

The reason why this works is because the body operates in 90 minute intervals in everything from being asleep to staying awake.

It’s called an ultradian rhythm and it dictates how we go through these phases on a daily basis.

If you use this 90 minute number, you are tapping into the maximum time we can use to stay focused and hence, you are producing the maximum you can with laser focus.

Hence, you make the most out of your time.

Try it for a few days and you will notice a considerable boost in your productivity and in your grades.

You’ll thank yourself that you tried it.

Now here’s something that’ll make your head spin! 

Close Your Eyes To Score Higher On Your Exams

That’s right, you will close your eyes and learn at the same time!

Let me explain how this works.

You will do the active recall strategy we discussed earlier, but instead of saying everything with your eyes open, you will keep your eyes closed and make it as if you are teaching a class.

It’s an imaginary class in your mind and you are the teacher in the moment.

There was research done at the University of Surrey which compared the comprehension rates of those who kept their eyes open and closed their eyes to recall the material they needed to recall.

The groups were told to watch a video of an electrician stealing equipment and recall as many facts as they could about what happened.

The results were extremely eye-opening.

The group who had to close their eyes recalled 23% more material than those who did not close their eyes.

This is a big difference when it comes to determining your grade.

This suggests that to boost your grades from a C to an A, closing your eyes to recall facts will help tremendously.

The reason for the grade boost is because when you close your eyes, your brain cannot see the material in front of it and it has to produce an image of what’s going on.

As a result of being forced to create what’s happening, your brain develops more neural connections between different pieces of information and your recall speed improves because of it.

When you close your eyes, you will feel as if your brain is getting heavier.

That’s because it is expending a lot of energy to retrieve the information you are trying to get.

This is extremely beneficial because when you get to the test and you have to write down what you know, it will be a piece of cake.

Your brain has recalled it so many times that it will not forget what to do!

This is KEY in knowing how to study for a test.

I encourage you to give it a try for at least a week and see how much more you retain over time. 

I guarantee you won’t be disappointed with the results you get!

You’ll be pleasantly surprised when your grade comes back!

Here is an overlooked secret more students than you think overlook:

Read The Textbook To Know Everything On Your Test

Reading the textbook (combined with the information in this post) might be the answer you are looking for.

In fact, there is a striking statistic you should see to REALLY get why you should read the textbook (of course, not all classes are the same, but for most, the textbook is the way to go).

A survey of 500 psychology students revealed that only 30% percent of those students read the textbook on a weekly basis.

That is mind-blowingly low considering almost all of the information you need comes from textbooks.

Of course, you have expensive textbooks and you have textbooks that flat out suck that should be avoided, but to completely avoid the animal altogether, that’s not being resourceful enough.

The fine print is where it’s at in most cases.

It’s THE source of knowledge for what you need to know.

YouTube videos, as great as they are, do not get the job done in a lot of areas.

You have to go beyond what your peers are doing to get great results.

Reading the book consistently is a great step in that direction and in knowing how to study for a test.

Now here is something most students neglect that is REALLY hurting them and could benefit you in the long run if you choose to do this:

Handwrite Your Notes To Become a Test Taking Superstar

You’d be surprised by how many students don’t do this.

Unless you have never been in a college class before, have you ever walked into a lecture hall and the first thing you saw was a bunch of students with their laptops?

And what was more or less the class average?

Pretty low or average at best, right?

There’s a reason for this:

It’s because laptops do not work for taking notes.

Let me prove it to you.

In a study from Princeton University and UCLA researchers, students were split into 2 groups where one group had to type their notes and the other group had to handwrite their notes.

Both groups listened to a TED talk and were tasked with taking a quiz on what they knew from the video.

For tests involving “conceptual-application,” meaning you had to know the concepts behind what was going on to properly answer the question, those who took longhand notes performed significantly better.

In fact, they performed so much better that they had a standard deviation difference of .29.

If you look on page 1162 of the study right here, you will notice the longhand bar being substantially higher than the bar for the laptop note takers with regards to the conceptual section.

This is pretty standard in college.

Let me tell you a story that clarifies this point.

I was in class one time where the professor was talking and there were people in the back typing notes on the computer.

Or were they?

When the professor caught them, he abruptly said “Are you taking notes or are you focused on something not related to the class?”

You can take a guess as to which one it was.

It’s very easy to get distracted when you are taking notes with a laptop.

That’s the first reason you shouldn’t do it.

The other reason is after the first or second test for the class since that incident, we got our test scores back. Take a guess as to what the class average was.

Ready for the answer?

50%.

Super low, right?

And most students were using their laptops.

This is the truth about taking notes with laptops.

Don’t do it at all.

It is bad and it will do you more harm than good.

Any student who tells you to use a laptop doesn’t know how to study for a test.

Period.

So don’t be fooled.

Now all of these things make up the ingredients for your superstar academic performance.

Do you want the recipe?

Read on to know what it is.

How To Study For Specific Tests 

There are 2 types of tests you’ll encounter in college:

1. Factual Based Tests

2. Conceptual Based Tests

A factual based test is a test where you need to memorize a bunch of facts in order to do well on it.

It has less to do with how well you understand ideas and concepts and how to apply them.

Think of a factual based test as one where you have to do something like write down all 46 US Presidents (as of this writing) in order from 1 through 46.

The primary thing you will do with this type of test is drill the facts multiple times and actively recall them.

You will write your notes down in your own words on what’s called a drill sheet (I’ll show you what this is in a bit) or flashcards.

Both work just fine.

After writing your notes down, you will read the facts once.

From then on out, you will briefly look at the question and close your eyes to recall what the answer is.

If you get the answer wrong, you will go back and read the answer again and keep repeating the active recall process with your eyes closed until you get the answer correct.

You will repeat the active recall process day in and day out with every question and answer (forwards and backwards) until everything is perfect.

If it doesn’t make sense now, do not worry. Let me give you an example to prove my point.

Let’s say you are drilling all 46 US Presidents.

You write all 46 Presidents down on flashcards or on a drill sheet and you are going through the list.

You read “1st President” and you read “George Washington.”

What you do here is you will close your eyes and ask in your mind “Who was the 1st President of the United States?”

If you say “George Washington,” you check to see if the answer is correct (which of course is the case here), and you will move onto the next president.

You will repeat this process for every president and you will not only do this going from 1st President to 46th President, but you will go backwards from Joe Biden all the way back to Washington asking the question “Joe Biden is what number President of the United States?”

Once you say 46, you’ll move on to Trump where you’ll guess his number (45) and on and on from there.

Another useful thing you can do is mix up the items so you get used to being uncomfortable come test time.

After all, chances are you wouldn’t be asked any of these questions in order. They’ll be mixed up.

So you can shuffle your flashcards or have a friend quiz you and you won’t necessarily be asked who is the 1st President right off the bat. You might be asked “Herbert Hoover was the what numbered President of the United States?”

For him it’s 31. If you said it, you’d move onto the next card where it could ask “Who was the 9th President of the United States?”

If you didn’t get William Henry Harrison, you’d read it and close your eyes and rehearse it over and over again until it sticks.

Wait at least 1 hour before drilling that fact again to see if you know it and internalized it.

You repeat this process over and over for each test and you should average in the mid to high 90s consistently.

You might miss one or two facts when copying things down because you have to get a lot of information in a short period of time, but that’s okay.

Every successful student does not take all of the notes down word for word.

That’s why if you use this strategy, you can expect to consistently score in the mid 90s to the upper 90s on your exams.

You might get 100 if you do have time to go over every little detail (which is recommended if it’s possible).

If not, don’t despair.

A consistent showing of mid 90s through upper 90s will get the job done all across the board.

By the way, here is what a drill sheet looks like:

Yes, it’s a mess because it’s in a way I understand it.

Let it be a template for what you do, but don’t copy it exactly.

You will shoot yourself in the foot if you copy it exactly.

But you should have the general structure of having numbers with corresponding questions and answers.

Like we talked about before, cover it up and guess.

And when in doubt, go with your gut (aka: your hunch). 

You’ll be glad you did.

1. Conceptual Based Tests

Conceptual based tests are popular in subjects like math, engineering, computer programming and even essay questions for history and English.

This kind of test doesn’t test your memorization skills.

It tests how well you understand something.

In essence, it tests the “why” behind something.

To do well with conceptual based tests, you need to know why a concept works a certain way to get the questions correct.

There are 3 different processes to this:

1. How To Read Your Textbook (or watch your YouTube video if that’s what you are using)

2. How To Do Your Homework

3. How To Review For Your Tests

When studying for this type of test, you will follow this procedure for reading:

How To Read Your Textbook

Step 1: Read the book (or the appropriate reading material for the class) with the active recall procedures discussed above.

What you’ll do here is read, close your eyes and summarize what you just read.

Then, you’ll take notes about what you just summarized.

That’s it.

You will repeat this step for everything you read over and over again.

Guarantee you’ll retain a lot of information.

Step 2: Actively recall what you just read for the 1st 15-20 minutes of the study session

You will take study breaks every 90 minutes.

Upon returning from the break, you will review what you had previously read for 15-20 minutes with your eyes closed, verbally saying out loud your summary of the material and closing your book and notes.

This is designed to force your brain to quiz itself on what it knows and to identify any gaps in your knowledge that need to be addressed.

Upon completing your summary, you will then open the book and your notes to see if you got your answers correct.

If you got the answers correct, very good. You learned something.

If not, you will write a summary somewhere convenient for you in your own words describing what’s correct.

While writing, you should use active recall during this process to retain the material better.

You can write the notes and then use active recall or pause on writing your notes, use active recall and then continue your notes or you can write your notes and then use active recall to get the material in your head.

Additionally, you can use this strategy of active recall and note taking at the same time when you are taking notes like normal.

You will really see results when you do this and what you’ll find is that you’ll guess correctly on the majority of your guesses when you do your review.

Do not skip this step.

It’s extremely important.

All of this builds up to your review when you go through all of your homework again, which I’ll explain as a separate process.

How To Do Your Homework

Step 1: You will go through your homework once.

Do every problem assigned.

Do not skip any of them.

Doing well on the test depends on you understanding your homework.

You can use active recall here, but bear in mind that because you won’t be able to on the test, you shouldn’t do it when you do your homework the second time around.

If you get stuck, try thinking it through in your head.

If you can’t recall anything and you’ve tried doing the problem multiple times, recite the concept in your head. Look at your notes once you’ve finished guessing and you still didn’t get the answer.

If you recited the concept, looked at your notes and you still don’t understand enough to do the problem, flag it and go to office hours.

This shouldn’t happen for too many problems, but it can.

Use office hours when needed to clarify any doubts. It’s also a good opportunity for you to develop a relationship with your professor that could benefit you down the road.

At the end of each problem, write a summary of the problems you just did with what you feel is important to know.

Actively recall this information.

Once you get all of your problems, do this:

Step 2: Review your homework problems as much as you can

This is to keep the concepts in your head.

You don’t have to do the problems again because you just did them.

This step is to combat the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, which governs how we remember things.

The more you review, the more you’ll retain.

If you don’t remember how the problem works, do the problem again.

If you don’t know the problem, identify the appropriate concept and reread it and/or look at your notes to determine what the concept is about. Use active recall to relearn this.

Then, do the problem again. Go to office hours or ask a classmate for help if you need more clarification on that problem and/or concept.

Now, you might not be able to review everything every day.

That’s okay.

That’s what a review is for and I will show you how to review for your test right now:

How To Review For Your Test

Step 1: Do all of your homework again.

You will do this 1-2 weeks before test day.

At the minimum, stuff you haven’t seen in awhile and you need to refresh.

Do the problems again.

If you get the problems correct, you are ready for your exam.

If not, you will go to the solution manual and skim over it (don’t read it) and try to get a hint as to how to solve the problem.

Your brain might give you a light bulb as to what to do.

In most cases, this is what will happen.

Once you get that light bulb moment, try solving the problem again.

Once you get it correct, note it.

For every problem you get incorrect, you will repeat this procedure and write a summary of what you did incorrectly and what you did correctly to rectify these doubts.

Write these notes in bullet point format and keep them in a separate space from the problems themselves so you can access the notes in an organized manner.

If you get REALLY stuck, consider rereading the concepts and use active recall to relearn the concepts.

Then, do the problems again and summarize your notes about any problems you got incorrect. You can summarize your notes about the problems you got correct if you so desire.

Actively recall all of your notes just as if you were taking notes of these concepts for the first time!

If time permits, I heavily recommend doing additional problems beyond what’s assigned.

Professors use homework problems to get you to understand concepts.

But as for refining them even more and perhaps getting lucky in the process (aka: knowing the questions on the test), you’ll want to do additional practice problems to get this job done.

You won’t regret it.

Now, up until test day, you will do this:

Step 2: Actively Recall Your Problem Summaries

Close your notes and guess as to what you did.

Everyday up until test day (there are exceptions to this like if you are studying for another class, but your gut will tell you this).

Do NOT skip a single problem.

If you skip a problem, you risk skipping important concepts and details that can show up on the test.

You want to bulletproof your success, not harm it.

Note, you don’t have to do all of the problems again from scratch, but you need to go through it like a run through to make sure you know the details behind them.

Remember, you already know how to do these problems (in general).

You just need to fine tune the details so you don’t trip up.

Close your eyes and actively recall the details of each problem and how they work in general.

And that’s the procedure on how to study for a test.

If you follow all of the steps in this post, you should know everything involved with the successful student approach on how to study for a test.

In other words, you’ll be good to go for your tests!

Now knowing how to study for a test is extremely important, but it is not enough to get the grade you want.

You need one more ingredient.

Do you want to know what it is?

Knowing how to take your test.

Lucky for you, I have a guide completely dedicated to that one subject alone.

If you click on the link, you will know the secrets to avoiding common mistakes students make on tests and how you can improve your test scores by up to 10-20 points if you follow the steps in that post.

You’ll save yourself a lot of trouble if you do what it says.

And you might get some of these along the way:

That’s everything you need to know on how to study for a test and remember everything you need to know come test day.

If you have any questions about ANYTHING in this post, definitely leave them down below in the comments section and I will be more than happy to help you out.

Thank you very much and happy studying!

Until next time,

This is Evan signing off.

PS: On a scale of 1-10, how do you rate this post?