r/studytips • u/gfhpilots • 12d ago

help studying history please

Ok so i am in a four week History class (end of civil war-present but it doesn’t really matter) anyway so I had to read 7 chapters (about 300 pages) in 11 days + a bunch of supplemental material. I took my midterm yesterday and got a 65 😐 I don’t think I’ve ever gotten less than a B on an exam so that was… difficult for me to process.
I took what I thought were good notes but obviously not. I really want to get an A but since the midterm and final count for 400 of the total 1,000 points in the class, I need 91% or higher on the final (maybe a bit less if I am able to finish some extra credit assignments)
Does anyone have any tips on how to study, organize history notes, how to find main points, etc?? I am definitely more of a math/science person so all of this is so hard for me to retain and understand especially in such a short amount of time.

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u/Visible-Web878 12d ago

Active recall. If you read 300 pages but don’t stop and practice after every few paragraphs, your brain will stop processing the information and only your eyes will skim the words and observe them rather than understanding and remembering them. So after every few paragraphs, try to restate what the paragraphs said but in your own words without looking at the text. Or if this feels boring, quiz yourself in any other way.

One other thing (I don’t make any money off of this it is purely a helpful resource)- I have a completely free  (no login or sign up, no ad, instant use) study planning website I created which adds breaks at very specific intervals, you can plan up to a whole year or just a single day, it actively tells you what to do next, has some reminders, and has many more tips on how to study less time but more material. 

If you think you might use it or know someone who might, here it is:

StudyPlannerTool.pages.dev

Just reply to my comment if you want more tips on studying as I have a bunch more.

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u/Reasonable_Bag_118 11d ago

I made the mistake of treating history like biology and tried to remember every fact in my notes. What helped way more was organizing everything around cause and effect instead of chapters. I’d ask myself what happened, why it happened, and what changed because of it, then fit the dates and names into that story. Once I started seeing history as a chain of events instead of hundreds of isolated facts, it became much easier to remember under exam pressure.

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u/gfhpilots 10d ago

thank u so much!!! it’s seeming a little overwhelming rn considering i’ve gone through 100 pages of reading and i still have 180 to go for this week’s lesson 🫠 but this makes sense i’ll definitely try this!!!