The Biggest Mistake to Make
Let’s get it out of the way – READING IS NOT STUDYING. For many, this will be difficult to take, but unfortunately, it’s the truth. All you are doing by reading your notes, is re-reading your notes.
There is no new information to be gained from doing this, and the stuff that you do get out of it tends to be lost quicker than other forms of study. In many exams and tests, there will be questions that you might not have studied in your lessons, but they are related to the topics that you did, and if the only preparation you did was reading your notes, ultimately you won’t be able to answer that question.
That is why, and I repeat, reading is not studying. That’s not to say, however, that reading your notes isn’t useful at all, because that is a lie. It’s just that reading your notes falls within pre-studying, rather than the actual bulk of the studying itself, where, in order to study effectively, active engagement with the material is required.
Reading is not considered active engagement as this involves constructing meaning around the information by making connections, forming personal examples, as well as making sure that what you need to learn, is what YOU need to learn, not what you’ve been told to learn, or what other people need to learn.
So, the first step in learning how to study at maximum efficiency is that reading, and re-reading your notes is not considered good study.