High school for many students can be stressful and overwhelming with the amount of work that can be assigned. Many students fall behind quickly, especially if they’re taking advanced level classes. Managing and developing effective study techniques is essential for academic success! In this article, I’m going to break down 5 effective study techniques for high school students that you can begin applying today! So, without wasting anymore time, let’s jump into the first study technique:
1. Active Recall: The Power of Self-Testing
Active recall is a popular studying technique that involves you actively stimulating your memory of information you’re studying. In this technique you’ll be engaging with the content in a new way that helps stimulate your brain, which in turn, makes it easier to retain information. The reason this works is that it strengthens your memory, helps identify weak areas, boosts overall exam performance, and more! So, what are some active recall techniques? All of the following are effective ways to implement active recall during your studying time:
- Using Flashcards
- Creating/Taking Practice Quizzes
- Explaining Concepts Out Loud
- Creating Your Own Questions
While reviewing content passively can help, implementing these active recall strategies will allow you to engage with the content in a new way! For this reason, tutors everywhere implement active recall strategies into their lessons with students!
2. The Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro Technique is a kind of studying technique that has the student study for 25 minutes, then take a 5-minute break. The main benefit of this technique is that short bursts of studying not only help prevent burnout but also enhance your focus and discipline! When using the Pomodoro Technique, you are avoiding the risk of procrastination and the negatives that come with it. Many schools, such as The Tenney School, incorporate the Pomodoro Technique into their curriculum. At our one-on-one school we designed our classes to only be 27 minutes long to maximize student retention before giving them a break before their next class. We’ve found great success with our students using this technique and highly recommend each student incorporates it into their studying routine!
3. Spaced Repetition: Retaining Information Long-Term
Spaced repetition is a technique that involves reviewing information at increasing intervals over time. So, what does this mean? Let’s breakdown how content should be studied day-to-day:
- Day 1: Learn a new concept from lesson
- Day 2: Review the material you’ve learned
- Day 4: Test yourself on reviewed material
- Day 7: Review only the parts you struggled with
This technique is best implemented early on in the school year too. The idea is that you’re studying while learning new content so when the test rolls around, you’re already up to speed and ready to tackle it. This technique is best implemented with the Pomodoro Technique as well. The main difficulty when implementing this strategy is having a routine built around it. It’s going to be hard at first, but once you’ve built your routine, it becomes easier to study a little bit each day! (and helps you avoid burnout too!)
4. The Feynman Technique: Learning by Teaching
The Feynman Technique is another great study technique for high school students. This technique involves you ‘teaching’ the content you’re studying to another peer. This technique works because you’re engaging with the content in a new way. This helps your brain build new associations with the content which helps in understanding and retention of said content. You can maximize the benefit of this technique by sitting down with a friend or peer. You want to make sure you don’t study with someone who will distract you though! Once you’re sat down, begin teaching the content as if you’re the teacher in the class. It sounds funny at first, but with time it will feel more natural while giving you the above benefits!
5. Tutoring
The final technique I want to discuss is tutoring! Tutoring is a great way for you to not only study but improve your academic habits! A tutor is able to identify areas of weakness and employ personalized strategies that will work for you. Nothing beats a personal tutor since the way they tutor is completely molded by your academic situation. The important thing to note about tutoring, is that it’s best to schedule recurring appointments early on. While getting a tutor while you’re struggling can certainly help, there’s only so much they can do in a short amount of time. We recommend scheduling a tutor early on in the semester (ideally at the beginning) so that you have plenty of time to get to know your tutor. The tutor will also have time to understand your weaknesses and strengths which in turn will help maximize your tutoring sessions.
If tutoring is sounding like an option for you, I highly recommend checking out our tutoring program! All of our tutors are real, one-on-one private school teachers at our school: The Tenney School. This gives you the expertise of a private school teacher in a session of tutoring. You can check out our full list of tutors HERE.
Effective Study Techniques for High School Students
Well, that wraps up our top 5 effective study techniques for high school students! Do you have success using these techniques in your study routine? Let us know in the comments below! We always love hearing from you, and we’ll update this article with any techniques you personally use that aren’t listed here! I also want to state that the more of these techniques you implement, the better your studying becomes. It doesn’t happen overnight either! It will take a lot of hard work to develop a consistent routine that works for you. Stick with it and I promise you’ll begin to see results!