Reduce the amount of material you need to learn by taking notable notes.

Notes will help you break down information, organise it and have something manageable to revise.

Create good notes by:

• Leaving wide margins: leave wide margins around the page to add extra information later and to sum things up.
• Dating your notes and filing them: stay organised this way. Never lose anything and have it on hand when you need it.
• Cutting out the waffle: take down only what’s really important.
• Using bullet points: reduce your notes to bullets points whenever you can. They are easier to learn.
• Highlighting: use highlighters to emphasise any really essential points.
• Summing up: sum up points in the margins.
• Catching the eye: use little pictures in the margins to help remember difficult points.
• Colour coding: colour code notes of different topics on different coloured cards. This helps you associate different ideas with different colours and helps you recall them.
• Using alternatives notes: mix things up for different topics by using a different presentation of notes like spider diagrams, Venn diagrams and so on.
• Reviewing notes quickly: go back over notes as soon as possible to keep them in your head while they’re still fresh in your mind.

For more study tips, read Shortcuts to Success: Study and Exam Skills for Leaving Certificate by Irene Togher.