Schooled for Life

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Schooled for Life - Helping students excel through tried and tested principles in a passionate and engaging manner

Tag Archives: studying

12 Hacks to Increase Your Study Productivity

Does your study productivity ever get dragged down by your desire to find the best possible solution? As you seek the easiest or fastest route to your goal, you may find yourself stopped entirely. Sometimes you may even do this on purpose, to keep from having to make a decision.
The importance of working heuristics

Study Productivity (Photo credit: quinn.anya)

However, there's a work-around. Maybe you've heard of the term, "heuristic." Heuristics are rules that allow a solution to be found more quickly. With a heuristic, a resolution can be found even when the entire path isn't clear from the onset. For example, if there were no roads, but you lived in New York and wanted to make your way to California, a heuristic might be:
1. Walk west as far as you can. 2. Walk around any obstacle, if possible. 3. If faced with a mountain range, walk toward the space between 2 small peaks. 4. Repeat until reaching California.
Does this heuristic give you the most efficient solution? No; however, it will get you where you want to go, and you won't waste a lot of time trying to make up your mind. Try these behavioral heuristics to increase your productivity: 1. Choose the right time. Nearly everyone has times of the day when they are most effective and times when they tend to drag. It's smart to schedule the most critical tasks for your most effective time of the day. 2. Toss it. If a task doesn't really need to be done, just get rid of it altogether. 3. Get the bad stuff out of the way. Do the unpleasant items quickly and as early in the day as possible. 4. Set a goal each day (or night). In the morning, decide what you want to accomplish that day. This can be even more effective when planned the night before. Once you have a sense of direction, you can spend all your time getting things done! 5. Eliminate all communication. While you're working, turn off the phone / cell phone, and don't check your email. Hang a sign that says, "Do not disturb," if necessary. You don't have to do this for all your tasks, but at least do it during the more difficult items. 6. Batch similar tasks together. Do all your emailing at one time. Make all your phone calls at another. Open your snail mail during a set block of time. You'll waste less time by doing your work in this fashion. 7. Set a timer. Even if a task might take hours, starting will seem easier if you simply give yourself 30 minutes to get as much done as you can. A time limit seems to help many people concentrate and work better, too. 8. Set targets. Regardless of what happens, refuse to stop until you hit your target. 9. Use the Pareto Principle. This principle states that 20% of the actions you could take will provide you with 80% of the benefits. So focus on the tasks that will accomplish the most. Unfortunately, these are frequently the tasks that are not enjoyable. You might be surprised how little you really have to do if you focus on the critical 20%. 10. Delegate some of your work. Is there anyone else who can help you? The people around you are resources. When appropriate, use their time and talents wisely to get things done more quickly. This can't always be applied to cramming that information into your brain! But it can be used to help make sure the house is study-friendly this coming Wednesday night, for example, when you need time to prepare for that term paper. 11. Set a deadline. Having a specific endpoint will really help to focus your time and energy. If a task doesn't feel necessary, chances are that it won't get done. 12. Increase your speed. It sounds silly, but this can really help. Try doing everything a little faster. Walk faster, talk faster, type faster, and read faster. Implement these heuristics into your studies and you'll find yourself getting more done in less time. The ultimate secret is to stay on task and not waste any time. These rules will help you do just that.  
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Seven keys to motivate yourself to study

New semester series part three

How do you get yourself back up and running again in the new semester? Your exams were good, bad, indifferent or a mixture. You're happy, sad, or an unusually complex combination of both. Here are seven keys to help motivate yourself to get back into study mode again.  
Study

Study (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Start small

Start with baby steps. Don’t expect yourself to be able to dive right back into maximum study mode and volume. Plan a gradual build up of your study program in terms of time and effort. But don’t use this as an excuse to stay walking like a baby.  
English: Students need sleep in order to study.

English: Students need sleep in order to study. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Work in batches of 15 to 20 minutes

Take 5 to 10 minute breaks. Study for 15 to 20 minutes. Learn in batches of between 3 and 9 facts. Take a half hour break every 3 hours.  

Keep yourself well hydrated

It doesn’t matter if you need to run to the bathroom fairly regularly. Keep yourself hydrated. Only use coffee if your system is used to coffee (long-winded medical explanation forgone again). Use fruit as part of keeping yourself hydrated. This includes citrus, mangoes, pineapples, and watermelon.  

Don’t study on a full stomach

Most of your blood will be re-directed to your gastro-intestinal tract in order to digest your food, especially if the meal was rich. Rather eat light meals such as salads with low-fat dressings, and tuna.  

Make your study habits consistent

Do something every day for thirty days and it will stick for life. Well, almost. There is a truism in this. Be consistent. Discipline in study will serve you well in the real world in any case.  
emotion icon

emotion icon (Photo credit: Łukasz Strachanowski)

Try deal with emotions before you study

I know this sound may sound a tad unrealistic, but the more emotional baggage you bring to your study desk, the less you effectively you will study. Find your study “Zen”, whatever that might be - go and rake some Japanese garden sand or something.  

But use emotions in your studying

No, I’m not contradicting myself. What I mean is you must try bring emotion into the actual material you are studying to make it memorable. The difference is that the previous point was made to prevent you from letting outside emotion interrupt your studying.   Do these help you focus? Please let me know if you have any others....   Some related articles 88 Surefire Tips for Succeeding in College 50 Tips for College Students College Dorm Checklist & More  
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3 Ways a Failed Exam Helps You

New Semester Series Part Two.

Failure by Saudi Julia at http://www.flickr.com/photos/31078766

One of the hardest things about getting back to university or college is having to deal with failed exams. How on earth can they help you? Fortunately, they can, and if you attack them with the right attitude, they will help you. I'm going to show you three ways that you can use failed exams to help you improve your grades.
Old Man with his Head in his Hands (At Eternit...

Old Man with his Head in his Hands (At Eternity's Gate) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It forces you to be honest with yourself

I know, this one sucks and you are going to hate me for saying it! Sorry to hurt your feelings, but, a failed exam does force you to start asking questions of yourself. And this is a good thing! Don't view this as a bad thing! The only way you can improve is by learning from errors and correcting them. You will need to start asking yourself questions like "Were my study techniques for that particular exam and subject-type correct?" For example, I wouldn't be using pictures to memorize information when you are preparing for a practical Accounting exam where there are going to be doing a lot of calculations and formulae-application. So, ask yourself questions about your preparation for that exam. This includes an excellent revision timetable correctly formulated right from the start!

Take advantage of your professorsProfessor Moriarty

Contrary to what you may believe, your professors and lecturers (with a few exceptions) actually want you to pass and do well. And when a student shows up at their door genuinely asking for help, and showing diligence, they will be more than willing to help. You will be amazed at how few students do this, and you will also be amazed at how willing your professors are to help you out. Remember, they were once students just like you. They DO remember the stresses involved in studying and taking exams. Approach them. I can almost guarantee you they will be very glad to help you. BUT, don't expect them to just give you quick solutions - you are still going to need to work hard - but their help will be invaluable
English: German-born theoretical physicist Alb...

English: German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Take advantage of the "boffins" in your class

This has to be done very diplomatically. Identify those in your class who have done very well. Depending on how well you know them, see if you can glean any information from them about how they were able to do well in their exam. Some of the really clever student tend to down-play their marks, others deliberately hide their techniques because of their own insecurities and desire to be top of the class, so you need to "walk on egg-shells"! But try make head-way and see if any of them can help you. You never know! These are also the people that often don't think in the normal pattern of thinking. They truly do think "outside the box" and their approach will stretch you beyond what you thought possible. Go with the flow! It is well worth it! I hope these help you.I've got some more coming up in the next post. Any more suggestions?  
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The top 5 distractions to studying and how to defeat them

Johannesburg General Hospital in the foreground

  When I used to work at Johannesburg General Hospital, first as a medical student, then as a Community Service Doctor, one of the things that I used to do if I had a few moments was to look out the windows and view the whole of northern Johannesburg. Sometimes it would be during the daytime, and sometimes it's would be at night. One thing never ceased to amaze me. No matter what time I looked out over the huge expanse of the metropolitan area, there was always movement. Cars, planes, helicopters, lights, people. We live in a world of constant movement and activity. New York is known as the city that never sleeps. I think that most major cities in the world are like that. And the busiest age group are late teens through to late twenties. This includes students. Add to this delicious dish the fact that school-leavers at college have new-found freedoms. So, when it comes to the act of studying, there are so many distractions. And if you are not prepared for these distractions, they can take you by surprise and torpedo your study efforts and your parents' money. A word of warning. For the most part I am going to be fairly lighthearted, but some of the points are dead serious and blunt. Some things are difficult but need to be said and discussed.
Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

1. Social networking

We live in an age where checking Facebook, Twitter, and all the others is a deeply ingrained habit. It is so deeply ingrained that people can get withdrawal symptoms from not using them. It is now being called Information Deprivation Disorder. And this social networking can be a huge challenge to students while they are studying. It is an extremely common sight to see students studying with their iPhone or iPad or Blackberry right next to their textbooks, and every minute or two they check Facebook. Social networking is a huge distraction to your studying.

 2. Social Life

Those new-found freedoms I was talking about above? Yip, they can be a terrible distraction. Imagine a police dog that has just been released from its leash and it blasts off towards its target. That's what it is like for freshmen as they embark on their first academic year after school. They have immense new liberties, and the social life can be an incredible temptation. Parties, gatherings, pub-crawls. The list is endless. But one big aspect that often suffers is academics.
English: Diagram of the HIV virus.

English: Diagram of the HIV virus. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

3. "Romance"

The reason I put this title in parentheses is because I really meant to say "sex". I had to say it because, as a doctor, all too often I have seen the aftermath of the combination of number 2 and number 3. Usually, when there is lots of number 2 above, there is little preparation and little precaution, and I have young adults, barely out of school, sitting in my office terrified either of two lines on a urine test or of a few positive blood tests. Unwanted pregnancies and Sexually-transmitted Diseases happen. A lot. A lot more than you realize. If you think they are uncommon, either you are being naive, or deliberately ignorant. These can not just ruin your academics, but they can seriously alter your life-course. Be warned.

4. Loneliness and isolation

This is especially true if you have had to move to a city far from home and don't know anybody. I really struggled when I moved to Johannesburg to study medicine, and it really did affect my studies quite drastically. These can easily lead down the road to anxiety and depression.
Buckley and Eddie.

Buckley and Eddie. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

5. Poor living conditions

Sharing a house with well-motivated, neat, helpful students is great. But, all too often you end up with one or two slackers who don't pull their weight. They don't cook. They don't do the washing. They don't do the cleaning. They leave the place a mess. Their portion of the rent is always late. Trying to study while dealing with difficult digs-mates can be incredibly distracting.

Defeating Distractions

I'm going to defer this til the next post! Ha! Sorry!
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Studying : in it for the Long Haul : Part 2

Image from an MRI examination of the knee with...

Image from an MRI examination of the knee with a displaced patella (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I remember her very well. She was about 15 years old at the time, and she could hardly walk. She hobbled into my office, hanging onto her mother's arm. She was a longstanding patient of mine (excuse the pun), and she had hurt her knee the day before during a hockey match. She managed to climb onto the examination couch with my help and showed me where her knee was painful from the twist it had sustained. When I asked her to move it voluntarily, her range of motion was extremely limited. But then I told her to relax completely, and I gripped her leg and knee firmly and promised I would not move it suddenly and would stop the moment I hurt her. Slowly, I began moving her knee. I gingerly moved it past the point of her maximum voluntary range but continued. As I moved it further and in different directions, the expression on her face changed slowly from being scrunched up expecting pain to one of disbelief. Finally, after I had moved it fully, she said "I felt no pain". She got up off the couch and walked normally. Her brain was so used to the pain from the twist that it anticipated the pain to such an extent that it actually partially felt the pain. Her brain had tricked itself. Today, we are going to look into ways you can learn to trick yourself in order to help you survive studying for the long haul.

Use your mind to trick yourself

Visualization

I don't want to get all pop-psychology on you, but there is some evidence to show that visualization does have some value when we need it. Try to imagine yourself at your graduation, and in your dream job afterwards. Picture your family and significant other congratulating you and surrounding you with love and affection.

Become an Incremental Theorist

Say what?! An Incremental Theorist believes that their abilities are malleable and can improve (which research shows is the case, by the way). This is opposite of Entity Theorists who believe their abilities are fixed and can't be improved (which has been shown to be false by research). You can improve. You can get better at your studies. You can develop newer skills. These are the central themes of an excellent book called Mindset : How you can fulfil your potential by Dr Carol Dweck. So how do you become an Incremental Theorist? Essentially, instead of accepting something bad happening to you as being the end of the world, rather ask yourself, "What can I learn from this experience?". Those who are Entity Theorists think that "risk and effort are two things that might reveal your inadequacies and show that you were not up to the task." How sad it would be if you let that type of mindset control your studying!
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Studying : in it for the Long Haul : Part 1

Roasted coffee beans Español: Granos de café t...
Roasted coffee beans Español: Granos de café tostado (natural). Bahasa Indonesia: Biji kopi alami yang telah disangrai. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I have a big confession to make. I absolutely adore coffee. I cannot stomach anything except filter coffee at the very least. At home we often grind our own coffee beans, and we source our beans from different shops. There is a farm in our area that makes coffee called Assagay Coffee which, in my opinion, could compete with the best in the world. It is earthy, rich, and deeply flavorsome. About a year ago my wife and I with my in-laws had the chance to visit a coffee farm and see how coffee is made, from seedling to cup. It is a looooooooong process! But, the end result is well worth it! So it is with studying. Whilst studying, it can seem like your studies are a life sentence behind the prison bars of the college campus, but it is essential you keep the end result in mind. Let's kick off this series of helping you keep that end-goal in mind.

Turn it into a Game

Thanks to the book Mindhacker Location 3721 and following on Kindle for this reminder. See also my post How I Conquered Russia. This was one of my favorite ways of keeping myself going. I created a wargame out of my studies. Each town I conquered correlated with a section studied. Mindhacker : 60 tips, tricks and games to take your mind to the next level has some really good ideas.
LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 26: In this photo ...

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 26: (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

First

The website www.stickk.com allows you to bet against yourself failing at doing certain tasks.

Salvador Dali

Second

A game called Metaphorming allows you to create your own reality around you, essentially to make your whole environment a game of your own creation by creating your own experience of life your own metaphor. You can read the original article here. So, you can become your very own Salvador Dali, weird mustache and all (except you ladies).

Third

Another game is called Oulipo Groceries. This originates from the French literary collective that is short for "Ouvroir de litterature potentielle" or "Workshop of Potential Literature". This means writing a short novel without, for example, the letter E. The application here would be to photocopy a chapter of your textbook, then blank out an often repeated keyword, and then try study from those pages. Sounds crazy huh? But you would be amazed at how your brain will fill in those blanks and stimulate you to make extra special note of their importance!

 Fourth

Do not think about the story of the tortoise and the hare. I told you don't think about it! Sorry, it was impossible for you not to after I had mentioned it. But this is a bit of a game. There was a moral to this story that was taught us when we were kids that was supposedly noble. We must be noble and plod like the tortoise. But, come on! Who wants to plod like a tortoise? No, you need to be a strategic hare. Another game to play. Develop strategies in your study plans that allow you to be a plodder at times, and also allows you the freedom to do a hundred metre dash in 9.8 seconds if need be.

Five

Create a study group and act out skits that teach the sections you are studying to yourself and others. Make it fun! See Surprise Yourself!

Rationale

So, what is my reason in this first post in this series for suggesting you help yourself keep the end in mind by turning your studies into games? Quite simple. We need to mix pleasure with business. By doing this you are reducing your overall stress levels, which in turn increases your Serotonin and Dopamine (your "happy hormones") in your brain. This also causes your Amygdalae to function better because their neurotransmitters are being replenished quicker, thus increasing your ability to learn. And, Voila'!
English: Salvador Dali with ocelot and cane.

English: Salvador Dali with ocelot and cane. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Learning in 20 minute bursts

Nose of a Handley-Page manned by three men
Nose of a Handley-Page manned by three men (Photo credit: National Library of Scotland)
Anyone who is familiar with the First World War will know that in the early stages of the flying part of the war, the aeroplanes were notoriously difficult to fly, and their weaponry evolved from rocks being thrown at
English: Royal Flying Corps Sopwith Camel in 1...

English: Royal Flying Corps Sopwith Camel in 1914-1916 period. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

each other, to the use of hand-guns, and finally to the fitting of machine-guns. The planes then evolved into different types : bombers would drop their deadly load and fighters would protect them. But the life-span of new flying recruits averaged 20 minutes. Hence the name "The Twenty-Minuters". Quite sad. But in our context, 20 minutes is about the best length of time for you to spend studying a section. We have mentioned before, the Amygdalae in the brain are the gateways to your ability to memorize information, but when the neurotransmitters inside the Amygdalae dry up, your ability to learn more information shuts down. That's when you need a change of scenery.
English: St John's church, Hilltown (2) The cl...

English: St John's church, Hilltown (2) The clock is only two minutes slow. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Why Twenty Minutes?

I'm not actually making 20 minutes an exact number here for you. It will vary from one person to another, but the average length will be 20 minutes. These are the steps to follow in the 20 minutes.

1. Gather your chunk of information.

This will be the chunk of information of between 5 and 9 facts. Make sure that they flow in the grand scheme of your studying progress. They mustn't be isolated. If they are isolated they are doomed.
Information overload

Information overload (Photo credit: Martino!)

2. Connect the information with previous information.

Make obvious connections before learning and memorizing the information.

3. Make sure you understand the information.

It's pointless learning the information if you do not even understand it. Memorizing something for the sake of rote learning makes your brain a simple USB flash-drive. It stores information. It doesn't make it a fully-functional integrating, thinking and solving, living entity it was made to be.

4. Memorize the information in as many ways as possible.

Don't use just one way. If you are good at drawing, draw crazy pictures. For example, when I was studying Psychiatry, when I was learning about the medication called Sertraline, I drew a Search-Light : do you see the connection my brain made? Sertraline sounds like Searchlight? At least it did to me. Maybe I'm just crazy. Anyway. Moving along. If you draw good mindmaps, then use those to their maximum potential. Write a quick rap song. Act out the facts in a small skit. Use multiple ways to learn the facts.
John_Deere_4630_Tractor.jpg

John_Deere_4630_Tractor.jpg (Photo credit: file039)

5. When your eyes glaze over, stop.

Teachers will recognize this point very easily. Eyes become glazed over, bodies change positions and become slumped, people begin looking elsewhere. If you notice your mind start wondering, then stop. If you haven't finished your total number of facts - this has given you an idea as to where to set the bar for how much to learn in one sitting. When this happens, those Amygdala neurotransmitters have been all used up. This whole process usually takes around 20 minutes or so, but can vary widely, depending upon each individual person, subject being learned, and the type of exam being learned for.

Take a Break

This is essential. If you were to try and carry on learning now, your Amygdalae would simply bounce off all incoming information away from your learning centres. This break should be about 5 to 10 minutes and consist of you physically getting up, moving around, refreshing yourself with something to eat and drink (I personally don't have an aversion to good filter coffee here!). Go outside into the sun, stretching your legs. But don't do this for more than about 4 or 5 minutes.

Do the same again but differently

Now that you've given your neurotransmitters a chance to rebuild, you now go back and do the exact same section you have just done. The difference now is that you are going to do it in completely different ways to ways that you have done before. If you learned the facts in , let's say 3 different ways previously, I want to now to find 3 or 4 different ways to revise it. They must be crazy, different, and way-out. You must feel out of you depth and you must feel way out of your comfort zone. This is when you will remember your work.

Keep doing this over and over

Keep this cycling over and over. Give yourself a 30 minutes break for every two hours of studying you have done. After studying for about six hours, you must give yourself at least one hour's break and you must go out somewhere and do something different.
Replica of Vaughn's Camel F.I currently displa...

Replica of Vaughn's Camel F.I currently displayed at the National Museum of the United States Air Force (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Developing friendships

FRIENDSHIP

FRIENDSHIP (Photo credit: Woody शक्ति Shakti)

During the most difficult times of your studies, it seems like it could be easier to lick the inside of a rusted tin of German hand-grenades dating back to the First World War whilst walking the path of the Paris-Dakar Rally blindfolded,
Jutta Kleinschmidt, BMW X3, Dakar Rally 2007

Jutta Kleinschmidt, BMW X3, Dakar Rally 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

than it would be to open yet another page of yet another textbook as you prepare for yet another exam. Indeed, many of you would opt for the former rather than the latter - and quite readily at that! So, this is where friends come in. Right from the outset you need to develop deep and lasting friendships. friendships that ... fill in all the cliche's that are true about friendships. Friendships cannot be forced, and cannot be defined. But I do want to give you a few guidelines when you consider developing friendships. a. Consider which gender. It is a lie that you cannot have true friendships with the opposite sex. I had a number of "girl friends" when I was at university. I would never have wanted to date them, precisely because they were very good friends and I had no romantic feelings for them. By the same token, don't only have the same gender friends. Guys, don't have only guy friends - you are going to need platonic female friends in your life to help restore some normality to your already crazy male brain! Girls, don't only have girl friends. Too much oestrogen = BAD. b. Consider which religion. As you know, I am a Christian, but I had some very good Muslim friends at Varsity. However, my best friends, the ones that understood me the best, were fellow Christians. This is not being discriminatory, it's being realistic. They understood my feelings on certain issues. We could discuss issues easily and we could prayer together.
c. Consider romantic involvements. Sometimes you have to move on from a previous romantic involvement, and that means moving on from a group of friends. This can be extremely difficult. But hey! you're an adult now! Act like one! Move on! If you've broken up with someone, and you can't be friends with you ex, and you can't comfortably be friends with your mutual friends, then act the grown-up and move on. Let it be known that you are the adult, and carry on with your life. Get professional help if you need, but move on! d. Consider timetables and course. Sometimes timetables and courses will be a major problem. If you are on a huge campus like Wits University in Joburg, and most of your friends are at Medical School, you are going to have to re-evaluate. Your time together may then be limited to weekends. And may not involve any of your studies at all. d. Consider diligence. Some people are simply not good friends to have in regards to studying. They might be fun to have as friends, but when it comes to the nitty gritty of studying, Elvis has left the building, baby. So, you need consider how diligent your friends are in their studies. Are they good at their studies? Are they willing to help? Are they willing to share their knowledge? If they are brighter than you, are they willing to tolerate you (to put it bluntly)? You need to be able to answer all these questions.
"Friendship"

"Friendship" (Photo credit: BroGuggs)

e. Consider your own willingness to give. This is of paramount importance. How much are you willing to give to you friends? Are you willing to give of your time and energy to them? Are you will to be there for them when their girlfriend breaks up with them? Are you willing to help them prepare for their Viva the weekend before it happens? Are you willing to help them do some research for a paper they are writing? For as much as you are willing to do for them, they are going to be willing to do for you.
French troops using a catapult to throw hand g...

French troops using a catapult to throw hand grenades and other explosives during World War I (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

f. Consider the group dynamic. Amongst my fondest memories were the times when me and my friends went to the Vaal Dam for a few long weekends and did some water-skiing and braaiing and having a lazy time. It was special time. But we were also able to spend time together studying and helping other out before exams. I hope this has helped you understand the importance of friendships during your studies. Do you have any other ideas about why friends are important during studies? Or fond memories of times spent recently or in the past with groups of friends whilst at college/varsity? Please share....
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Revision Rehabilitation

neuron fractal 1
neuron fractal 1 (Photo credit: Anthony Mattox)
Today we continue from the previous post on revision. Last post we looked at the factors that can influence how you implement your revision program. Today we are going to look at how to put together a revision program.
Neuronal dendrite formation

Neuronal dendrite formation (Photo credit: TheJCB)

We have already established that our minds can only handle between 5 and 9 connected facts at any one time, and that it is a good idea to study those number of facts in one sitting, with a break between each study session. Now that we have confirmed these points, let's now look at some of the theory behind revision.
When we learn a chunk of facts, our neurons immediately build new dendrites in a region of the brain where it can connect the new information with old information. The research that showed us that information also showed us that if we leave that information as is and don't revise it soon, those dendrites will disintegrate. But, frequents bouts of brief rest during your study sessions are important to replenish the stores of neurotransmitters in the gaps between your neurons. Even more important though, is that the most amount of build-up of these chemicals takes place during sleep - and especially during your deep sleep, rather than  during "dream sleep" (or Rapid Eye Movement or REM Sleep). So, that is why it is absolutely essential that you get at least seven hours sleep a night, and that there is no such thing as "catching up on your sleep" from a studying point of view. So, let's look at some guiding principles that you can follow when drawing up your own revision timetable. 1. Your first revision must be immediately after the rest period that follows the study session itself. So, if you have just learned a chunk of information related to Acute Myocardial Infarction and have just had a three minute rest, revise that same information, but... 2. The first revision must be done in a totally different way to the way you studied the material to begin with. This is where creativity comes in handy! If your study session has employed mainly drawing and talking, when you revise, use singing and acting. This first revision session may end up being longer than your original study session, but don't stress! All your subsequent revision sessions will be much shorter! 3. Try and do a second revision the same day before you go to sleep. As mentioned above, your dream sleep is the critical time during which the brain transforms that newly imbibed information into long-term memories by building and extending the dendritic branches.
Photo by Bob Jacobs, Laboratory of Quantitativ...

Photo by Bob Jacobs, Laboratory of Quantitative Neuromorphology Department of Psychology Colorado College http://www.ColoradoCollege.edu/IDProg/Neuroscience/ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

4. Revise the next day. 5. Revise the next week. 6. Revise a month later. 7. Revise a week before a test or exam. 8. Revise the day before the test or exam. Easy? Good. Now start getting creative with a calender!
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Revision Surgery

Femur fracture around hip implant from UMass Aches And Joints Blog

The other day I was in the operating room assisting Dr Roloff once again. This time, the patient was in a predicament very similar to the patient in the X-ray above. She had fallen and broken her thigh bone (femur) below her prosthetic hip joint. She must have been in a lot of pain! It took us about three and a half hours to get the old hip joint out, as well as the cement, and get the femur ready for the new prosthesis. But the femur was in such a bad state that we had to create a cage of metal wires around it so and leave it for six weeks to heal before we go back in and insert the new prosthesis. That procedure is called a Revision Hip Replacement. Quite ironic, I think! Seen as we are dealing with surgery to your revision planning.
The timetable

The timetable (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As already noted here, when we learn a new piece of information, the brain grows new dendrites on neurons, thus hard-wiring the new information. But if we do not quickly review that new information, we will quickly lose that information. The rest of this post is going to deal with the factors that will influence how you will structure your revision planning, and the next post will give you some ideas of how to structure your revision planning. I'm not going to be dogmatic like Dr House about how you should structure your revision timetable because there are a number of factors that will influence how you will structure your revision timetable.
1. The duration of each study session. If each study session is one hour,  then you are going to be extremely unlike to follow an intensive revision timetable. By the same token, if your study sessions are only five minutes, your revision timetables are going to be so complicated that not even Tom Cruise (excuse the background hurling noise) in Minority Report would be able to keep track of. You need to find a study time of about 20 to 25 minutes because it means for each subsequent revision session, the amount of time you spend on that section decreases by about 50-60%.
"]Cover of "Minority Report [Blu-ray]"

Cover of Minority Report [Blu-ray

2. The number of facts learned per session.This is a very similar concept to the first point and for the same reasons. Bear in mind here that the optimum number of distinct learned facts that should be learned at any one sitting that are directly related should be between 5 and 9. If you can learn more per session, then go ahead - everyone is different. 3. Your existing schedule. This is an obvious one. There are only so many hours in the day, and you have got a certain number of commitments and activities already scheduled. You will need to plan around these events.
Late Night Sessions

Late Night Sessions (Photo credit: candyschwartz)

4. Your own rhythms. What I mean by this is that each of us is unique in the way we function during the day. For example I can stay awake very easily late into the night but struggle to wake up in the morning. Whereas my wife is the opposite. She can hardly keep her eyes open beyond 9 pm! During the day, some people have a mid-afternoon slump. I don't seem to have that. You need to take note of what your own rhythms are.
A patron of "Sammy's Bowery Follies,"...

A patron of "Sammy's Bowery Follies," a downtown bar, sleeping at his table while the resident cat laps at his beer, 12- - NARA - 541905 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 
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