How to Study Math and Science

One of the things our schools struggle to teach is how to actually study.  Teachers lecture, give opportunities for practice, and help struggling students; but what do you do when the teacher is not there?  How can you effectively study for a test without wasting your time?

Studying history or English is hard, but you can mostly get by on memorization.  But math and science?  Those often need more than memorization.  So what should you do? How do you study effectively for a math or science test?

Study like you eat

Your body needs consistent sustenance, so you eat multiple small meals a day to keep your energy up.  You don’t eat one big meal a week and then hope that holds you through. 

The same is true of studying.  Studying, reading, and learning are like food for the brain.  Gorging yourself in one sitting leaves the brain starved later.  And that hurts your retention.  

To actually learn what you are studying, you need to study often in short bursts.  15 minutes a subject every day throughout the day with frequent breaks in between.  

You will learn and retain more if you spend 15 minutes before breakfast reviewing flashcards, 20 minutes after school reviewing your notes, and 15 minutes before bed going over topics you need to memorize; than you will sitting down and studying for 2 hours straight.  

Build studying into your routine, just like you have built eating into your routine.  5 minutes here, 10 minutes there, wherever you can fit a micro-study session do it.  Make sure you don’t go more than a full day without reviewing each topic you need to study.  Even if you only spend 5 minutes. 

And never study more than an hour at a time without taking a break.  Those breaks give your brain time to digest the material and move it from short term to long term memory.  Switching topics also help your brain retain information.  So every 15 minutes switch what you are studying and every hour take a break and get some food or take a nap.

Make flashcards

Flashcards are great to help you remember rules and tidbits of information.  In math and science, we are flooded with lots of little bits of information we have to remember to be able to solve problems.

Put those little chunks of information onto flashcards and review them when you have a couple of minutes to spare.

When making flashcards it is important to make them yourself so you understand what is on each card.  Using premade flashcards will actually increase the amount of time it takes to memorize each tidbit.  Approximately 50% of the retention comes from looking up the information and turning it into a flashcard.

Make sure your flashcards are portable and always keep them with you so you can study them in spare moments (like waiting for a bus).  The easiest way to do that is to have them on your phone.  There are lots of ways to do this but my favorite is with the Quizlet app.  It is free, there are lots of pre-made cards that you can copy and customize, and it has little memorization games and quizzes to make things more interesting.

Make charts or infographics

Sometimes the best way to memorize information is to represent it in a picture or graph.  Take the information you learned in your notes and distill it into a chart, picture, infographic, or other visual media.

The act of creating the chart and drawing a picture will help you memorize the information and will help you find it later in your notes while studying.  

Don’t copy a canned chart from a book or the internet.  Make your own.  The act of figuring out what to do with the information is what helps you understand and memorize it.

This technique is also particularly helpful for history.  Making your own timeline from the notes/ chapter you are studying will yield connections you may not have otherwise thought of.  Again, the studying is in making the timeline yourself instead of looking it up.

Any time you can graphically display something, even if the graphic only makes sense to you, will solidify the information in your mind.

Problems, problems, problems

The number one way to study math and science is to do as many problems as you can.  

Do all the homework, then do the problems the teacher didn’t assign (there are always problems leftover).  Try to design the test the teacher may give and then solve those problems.  

But don’t go problem happy until you know you are solving the problem correctly.  If you practice incorrectly, it will take you even more time to correct your mistakes.

Start with only one problem with a solution you can look up.  Do the problem and then check the solution.  If you did it correctly, move on to the next problem.  Repeat this process until you get 2 or 3 in a row correct without help.  Then do problems of that type until you can’t do them wrong.  

The more problems you see, the more you will become wise to any tricks that might be thrown in.  Then, by the time the test comes, you will know and be able to solve anything they can throw at you.

Correct your work

When doing problems, it is not enough to simply do them and walk away.  You have to make sure you did it correctly.  

Don’t be afraid to do something wrong–especially in the beginning.  But you must correct your work.  Go back and write out the correct solution to problems you did not understand in a different color.  The compare the solutions and write out in words what you did wrong.  Approaching corrections this way will help you remember the correct way to do the problem.

Some other TIps

In addition to everything above, it is helpful to give yourself timed quizzes in an environment similar to your classroom/ test environment.  By giving yourself pretests in a similar environment to your ultimate test environment, you reduce test anxiety and get your brain used to recalling information in that environment.

It is also helpful to review things you need to memorize right before you go to bed and right when you wake up.  Sleeping helps move the information from short term to long term memory.  But don’t review more than 5-10 minutes of information right before bed.  This should not be a study session, but a quick read through of a list of things to memorize. 

Teach someone else the information you have been learning.  Teaching makes you remember information better than anything else.  Teaching to stuffed animals, pets, and younger siblings count too.

Finally, don’t get stressed over it.  Stress interferes with making long term memory.  So do what you can and don’t sweat what you don’t get to.  Your best effort is enough.

What are your favorite study tips?  Let me know in the comments below.  And don’t forget to like and share.

Related Posts

• Taking Notes
• How to build a study schedule
• How often should I study?
• What is studying?
• A Primer in Finding X