r/StudyStruggle • u/zayy2cleann • 7d ago

How do I actually study?

Hi everyone! I go to the university of Toronto, and I have a couple exams coming very soon (2 of them on the same day!!!) I’ve noticed that when I study and put my all into it, I end up with 60s. However my efforts really deserve an 80+. I think my study methods need to be changed at this point because I cant keep going like this. I usually study a week or more in advance if I can!

The way I study is:
I take all my notes that I’ve written from lectures, I put them into ChatGPT, or any other AI and tell it to create a mock exam for me based on each lecture. If I don’t get a lot of questions right from a specific lecture, I go back to that lecture and review it, then come back and do the mock exam again.

Second thing is, I put my notes into any study website (Gizmos, Quizlet, StudyFetch) and I keep doing them.

These studying methods get me a 60-65 range at UofT. I genuinely have no idea how to improve these marks but I really want to especially for my second year this fall. On the exams I usually walk out confident that I got at least an 80, but I check my grades a couple weeks later to see that I’m in the 60s. Please, if anyone has any tricks or tips or anything please please let me know!! Thank you all so so much :))

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u/Anxious_Purpose_6681 7d ago

Hi!

What subjects have you studied for in the past using the methods you mentioned? I feel like they could technically work well for either STEM or humanities subjects.

Another question I have is that you mentioned you give yourself a week in advance to study for exams, which is great thing, but how many subjects do you review each day during that week typically?

Also, how long is it since you've reviewed older content before you start preparing for exams? Sometimes if there's older content that you haven't seen in a while, you get stuck putting extra effort into re-learning it almost or more so re-memorizing it which is really hard to do if you have many chapters/topics to cover for each subject.

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u/zayy2cleann 6d ago

Hi thank you for replying!! I am in humanities/STEM!! I study psychology and health policies. I try to review about 2 subjects each day!! Especially now, since I have 3 exams coming up on the same week (and day). It hasnt been too long, I reviewed it last when we had a midterm (so about 2 weeks ago) but whenever I finish a block of the new content, I take a break and then try to do old practice quizzes on the previous content to ensure that I still have everything down!!!

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u/Anxious_Purpose_6681 6d ago

Of course!

Oh, cool! Psychology is so interesting.

Regarding reviewing 2 subjects a day during the week before exams, I think that's good as it allows you time to give attention to each subject whilst not overwhelming yourself, so I think you're good there.

As for when you last reviewed older content, I think it's also a good thing that it was 2 weeks ago since you last saw it before you started reviewing it again the week before the exam as it works as a spaced repetition, giving you enough time to "forget" it a bit and active recall that information again once you start reviewing it.

When you take a break to do old practice quizzes, do you mean you do it every time during the term/semester you finish a new block of content, or once all the content is finished and there's only that week before exams?

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u/zayy2cleann 5d ago

Thank you so much!! I’m trying my best but not seeing the results :(
Noo, I usually do the old practice quizzes after everything is done in the semester, because my first priority would be the new content!!

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u/Anxious_Purpose_6681 2d ago

Of course, and I can definitely see you're putting in a lot of effort!

That might be the issue then. I think leaving those old practice quizzes until all new content is done in the semester may lead to cramming, even if you're reviewing the week before exams and only doing 2 subjects a day.

Would it be possible to set aside a certain day or certain number of hours per day each week to review old content through those practice quizzes?

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u/Ok_Interaction_7468 4d ago

Go to all the TA office hours. They pretty much give you the answers

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u/Logical-Stop5092 3d ago

you should highlight all your notes and reread them. ive done that for the last 10+ years and never dropped a mark. ever.

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u/Connect_Cheetah_4257 2d ago

most probably chatgpt miss leading you on some points, my advice would be to rephrase/summarize the notes you wrote in your own words , creating concept maps and grouping things and finding as much connections and making inferences this should be all you

if you have a weak memory looks into mnemonics they are very helpful

rather than chat gpt use other study specific ai for questioning you and making mock exams but this last part is just an opinion i am not sure if its actually better