Tips for Studying Psychology and for Preparing for Psychology Exams :
Psychology exams can be stress inducing for some students while it can be exciting for the ones who are thorough and regular with the subject. Following these simple steps can help psychology students learn new theories and concepts with ease, to help them achieve academic success.
1. Start with understanding your syllabus and its topics given for each semester. Students sometimes are not aware of the syllabus prescribed by the University. Being thorough with the syllabus and its topics helps students know how much time they need to dedicate to each topic according to the difficulty of the subject.
2. Jot down the topics and start ticking them as you begin reading the text. Text reading can be overwhelming for some students but to write your exams you need to understand the topics first! Inculcate the habit of reading and re-reading the text till you understand the concepts fully.
3. Take Notes: As you read the text, write down the key points from the textbook. Notes taking isnt about cutting down or cropping the original text. Its the flowchart-based point-wise notes which you write that helps in understanding the whole text better based upon each persons understanding. Therefore making your own notes is better than simply copying down the already written stuff of others.
4. Practice No Rote-Learning: We as students in India, irrespective of the field of study, have been accustomed to the traditional method of rote-learning. But as applied to all the fields, Psychology also can't be mastered by mugging up the topics or definitions. Psychology needs insight and meaningful understanding of the concepts. Unless you have understood the concept thoroughly, it is advised not to move onto the further. So, as stated earlier read and re-read the texts and try to create your own notes according to your own understanding of each topic of Psychology. Practice mindful learning and make it a habit instead of rote-learning.
5. Planned Hours of Study: Dedicating just a few hours of your day in studying Psychology daily will save last minute rush and confusion!
6. Study difficult topics first : Most students have a habit of leaving the least liked/ difficult topics for the last-minute study. These most difficult topics need extra attention and time compared to the easier ones. Leaving them for the last minute study gives no time to grasp the concepts nor do they understand any, which leads to facing high difficulty at higher levels. Plus poor understanding of the topics will lead to poor answer writing in your exams!
7. Self-Exams: Yes! After learning one chapter, before you move to the other, practice questions given at the end of every topic/unit and try to frame your answers for them. You can also refer to the previous years questions papers. This practice of solving questions and framing self answers helps you to evaluate yourself and also know how much of the subject have you understood. To evaluate you can might as well take help of your teacher/guide and understand where you need to improvise and which areas to focus upon to develop your answer writing skills.
Psychology exams can be stress inducing for some students while it can be exciting for the ones who are thorough and regular with the subject. Following these simple steps can help psychology students learn new theories and concepts with ease, to help them achieve academic success.
1. Start with understanding your syllabus and its topics given for each semester. Students sometimes are not aware of the syllabus prescribed by the University. Being thorough with the syllabus and its topics helps students know how much time they need to dedicate to each topic according to the difficulty of the subject.
2. Jot down the topics and start ticking them as you begin reading the text. Text reading can be overwhelming for some students but to write your exams you need to understand the topics first! Inculcate the habit of reading and re-reading the text till you understand the concepts fully.
3. Take Notes: As you read the text, write down the key points from the textbook. Notes taking isnt about cutting down or cropping the original text. Its the flowchart-based point-wise notes which you write that helps in understanding the whole text better based upon each persons understanding. Therefore making your own notes is better than simply copying down the already written stuff of others.
4. Practice No Rote-Learning: We as students in India, irrespective of the field of study, have been accustomed to the traditional method of rote-learning. But as applied to all the fields, Psychology also can't be mastered by mugging up the topics or definitions. Psychology needs insight and meaningful understanding of the concepts. Unless you have understood the concept thoroughly, it is advised not to move onto the further. So, as stated earlier read and re-read the texts and try to create your own notes according to your own understanding of each topic of Psychology. Practice mindful learning and make it a habit instead of rote-learning.
5. Planned Hours of Study: Dedicating just a few hours of your day in studying Psychology daily will save last minute rush and confusion!
6. Study difficult topics first : Most students have a habit of leaving the least liked/ difficult topics for the last-minute study. These most difficult topics need extra attention and time compared to the easier ones. Leaving them for the last minute study gives no time to grasp the concepts nor do they understand any, which leads to facing high difficulty at higher levels. Plus poor understanding of the topics will lead to poor answer writing in your exams!
7. Self-Exams: Yes! After learning one chapter, before you move to the other, practice questions given at the end of every topic/unit and try to frame your answers for them. You can also refer to the previous years questions papers. This practice of solving questions and framing self answers helps you to evaluate yourself and also know how much of the subject have you understood. To evaluate you can might as well take help of your teacher/guide and understand where you need to improvise and which areas to focus upon to develop your answer writing skills.
