The 5 minute review

There's a great studying method I've been used for a long time called the 5 minute review. It's pretty simple: just before you go to sleep spend 5 minutes to review whatever you learned that day. Flick through your notes, add post-its, underline, or do whatever helps grab your attention when you study later on.

This helps you in two ways:

1. It helps convert short term memory to long term
   The topics you think about and pay attention to will stay in your mind longer than something you just wrote down or only talked about once. It will also help make sure that you remember the right stuff: important topics instead of something funny that happened during class.
2. It improves your notes
   By improving your notes, you will also be able to study better later for exams or quizzes. Your attention will be drawn to the topics you underlined and you will also have dedicated time to add something in that you forgot rather than never doing it, or doing it on a later day when you might have forgotten some of the information

I would recommend starting off spending five minutes total. The main aim is that five minutes should be sustainable so that you can do it throughout the semester. If you find this method works for you, you can increase it to ten minutes or even five minutes for each class - it's up to you as long as you know you can maintain it. Also, try to do this just before you sleep so the topics are fresh in your mind the next day as well. If that's not possible, as late in the day as you can is the best way to go.

Try it out. Let me know what you think. (photo economics.ca)