Study Methods That Work For You.

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Here are some I use:

- The teacher approach.

I find that writing out my notes as if I were about to teach someone else about the subject helps. Writing the text addressed to someone else. I pretend that I am teaching a person who knows absolutely nothing about the topic. By doing this I can notice where there might be a gap in my knowledge. If you were to walk in on me studying, you might see me reading out my notes and talking to myself.

"Does that make sense? Hmm, it's not entirely clear how I got to point A to point B here. Sorry, that's my fault. Let me just reword my points and expand on this part".

Rest assured, I'm not insane. There is method to my madness. Besides, it's a well-known approach. You could even put this into practice by teaching someone else in person who doesn't know your subject which could be a good test to see if your notes are effective.

-Sensory associations.

I stumbled upon a theory several years ago about how studying with a certain smell and using that same smell when you need to remember information can help. Back when I was taking my GCSEs I used to use vanilla spray for memorising German. Rubbing it on my hands, keeping the bottle on my work desk etc and then spraying a little on my school uniform and hands.

This method led to me greatly improving in the subject. I actually went from a D to a B in my speaking tests. Unfortunately I failed my German overall since I had to focus on my Business Studies instead. Due to an error in the system I'd been taught the wrong material in Business Studies and had to learn two years worth of content in the space of one year during exam season. I had to give up on certain subjects to have a chance at getting good grades on anything.

Apparently certain smells work better than others, so if you're considering this method I'd suggest looking into what is recommended and what is not. It seems to work for me which is understandable since I tend to make a lot of sensory associations. However, I will say that vanilla has been ruined for me to a certain degree. Sometimes I smell it and suddenly I remember being fifteen wearing my old uncomfortable uniform sitting on a plastic chair behind an old wooden graffiti-covered desk. I might even remember a random phrase in German or trivia from a different subject that decided to resurface from the depths of my mind.

-Visualising the situation beforehand.

The parts of my brain responsible for making sensory associations and visualising situations seem to be in overdrive most of the time. I use this to my advantage when preparing for a presentation or a pitch for my idea. When preparing my work I imagine myself in the room I will be in during the event. I imagine having a conversation with the teacher / clients and consider what questions they might have. This also makes me think about their attention span, and what their focus will be, so I trim or expand on parts accordingly. Of course, you can't plan for every possibility but going through the event mentally does make me feel more prepared and consider things I might not otherwise. However, it does give me some major Déjà vu at times.

What methods do you use? Do you find them effective? Why?

If you really want to learn a subject well, teach it to another person who can point out whenever you do something wrong in the subject matter. Trust me, it does work. I got thrown into that in one of the areas of chemistry that I was a bit rusty in on my first job. It made me very aware what I did and did not know. In my case, i was forced to teach certain biochemistry topics to future medical students. The original professor got sick and was forced to retire in the middle of the semester. I am no biochemist, but learned quickly how to teach the material to them. It was rough at the start, but it got much better with time.

I am a very visual thinker, so it is much easier for me to learn something that I can “see” in my mind rather than something I cannot. In grad school, I was forced to learn excessively large amounts of data in short periods of time for cume exams. Because I could often relate the data to visual meanings, I often did much better than my peers on them. However, there are limits to this too. I found my limit once in a subject while trying to mentally digest a 400 page review paper on the chemistry of certain minerals. I just could not put the visual pictures in my head in only one day of study time. I gladly waved the white flag on that cume exam to be done with it.

I used to get a big poster board and write different bits of information in different colours of marker like a mind map.

I could visualise what I'd written where, what colour it was, and the size or shape of the words / equations. I still remember that my notes about JJ Rousseau were on the bottom left of my poster board in a cartoon bubble, and they were in red marker in cursive writing.

I did the same to learn multiplication. I had different colours for each set (e.g., 7 times tables) and put the lists everywhere around my house so I'd see them. They were stuck on the mirror where I brushed my teeth, on my placemat where I ate breakfast, on my closet door where I got dressed, etc. After a while I could just visualise them. I was seven years old when I could write over 100 multiplication answers in a minute (timed testing).

Hoodie
Ballcap
One of those cubicle-type tables (table with small walls)
Headphones/Earbuds
Heavy Metal Music
A place where I can bounce my leg, drum my fingers, without bothering anyone
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Occupies one part of my brain, while another does the reading/memorization
Success!
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Only took 40 years to learn this... repeated College Basic Algebra 4 times...
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Also finding someone who can understand that I need to break down things to their parts then put them back together in order to retain how/why they work.
I found this particularly helpful in mathematics.
I don't do rote memorization well at all.
But... if I can break down an equation and understand what each part contributes and why, to the working of it... I get it!
Had the head of the maths dept. tell me once, "You're overthinking this. Just remember... blah blah blah...".
One of the professors told me, "You're just like my brother! I can teach you how!"... and she did!
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Also... when reading and trying to memorize... I break it down into smaller modules. Take a short break. Then back at it, perhaps with my own style of review of what I went through previously.
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Chemistry...
Just looking at structural formula diagrams didn't do squat for me. Why did they connect at that side instead of the other blank side? On and on...
Maneuvering things in 3D helped me out. Not so much in 2D. I had to also visualize the bonds individually, as they were connecting. Like a movie.
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I have found that teaching a subject to someone else does help me solidify what I correctly know, and highlight any errors in my thinking/understanding of the subject.

"If you were to walk in on me studying, you might see me reading out my notes and talking to myself."

That makes sense and I believe many Aspies do this or they might mouth the words without actually speaking. It helps to absorb the information.

"I imagine having a conversation with the teacher / clients and consider what questions they might have."

This is an excellent approach. There was a time when I made a 40 page viewgraph presentation (nowadays that would be considered a powerpoint presentation. But I also prepared a 100 pages of viewgraphs to cover possible questions. My sponsor was in core mode and questioned everything I presented. There were over 100 people watching the presentation. In the end I had to use all the backup viewgraphs and my presentation went on for over an hour. But every time he asked a question, I responded. At the end of the presentation, my sponsor said "I want you to understand that I am not picking on you. But rather the opposite, you are the only one in the room that answered all my questions."

One other thing I do when I give a presentation, is I bring something tangible to the discussion. During the presentation, I pick up my show-and-tell item and explain it. I use it as a teaching tool. It really wakes up the audience. And it is good to hold something in my hand that is real and tangible. I generally pass this around the audience so they can hold it also.

You have to find your own way, but here is what I do:
1) Read the text( either from books/ presentations) like a novel, just to get an overview of the material( 5-10% retention)
2) Then I read carefully ALOUD,highlighting the most important info and underlining the not so important stuff with a pencil/pen. This time, if I find a connection or something really complicated, i write it on sheet of paper(this happens rarely and I write mainly terminology). While reading, I also make mind maps to help me connect all the things.
3) After I'm done, I read only the highlighted parts and my short notes(these are the big concepts).

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Thanks
B19
Moderator

I tried various studding methods when I was in school but I haven't found any that really worked for me. I think the problem is my dyslexia & other related learning disabilities. I either understood & learned when the material was discussed in class or I never grasped it.