On the matter of studying

Hello there. It's been a while now. I've been very busy lately, with basically two jobs, a studying carreer and carreer and four bands to rehearse, record, and play with. And in between all this, many Term Tests at the teacher trainning college did not make things easier. But I somehow managed to survive, and even though I still haven't got the results of any of my exams yet, I feel pretty confident that I did my best. And this is the topic I want to adress today.

We've all been there. No matter what you are studying, there is always an evaluation point, and it usually takes the form of a formal examination. And in order to pass this, you need to know what you are going to talk/write about, and it demands preparation. In my case, there are some strategies I came up with duting High School and ever since then they have accompanied me throughout the studying journey.

1. The space. I cannot study properly if the area surrounding me is not adequate. Everything has to be tidy and clean. I usually take an exam as an excuse to dity up my bedroom :P but I really can't focus if, say, my bed is not made. 

2. The atmosphere. I usually study in silence, so I choose to do it at night, while everyone sleeps. But in those cases where there is noise, I always open up this site and choose the brown noise type. It really kills all surrounding noises and helps me concentrate a lot. However, sometimes instead of just noise I listen to music, but it has to be music with NO LYRICS and preferably music that I've never heard before. This is usually what I like to listen to.

3. Supplies. Hot tea is a must. Something sweet to accompany it with and that's about it. I may drink about 1 lt of tea and eat 700gr of cookies, if not more, in a studying session of 4 hours. 

4. Study. I study alone when there is stuff to read. I like writting summaries on a blank sheet of paper, with lots of arrows and bullet-points. Once I've finished, I only read from the summaries I've made. 

5. Company. I've found it very useful to get together with a friend and practice. But it has to be with someone I like, and he/she has to be studying for the same test. What usually happens is that we make each other questions, or we come up with diferent ways to remember concepts we have to study by heart. 

Well, I think I have covered all the points that I can think of. My advice to someone who needs to study would be to stop procrastinating and start reading! Most times we don't even know where to begin at and we feel overwhelmed by the ammount of material. But trust me, once you start reading, everything starts making sense. Also, there are Plenty of videos in youtube about tutorials on how to study which offer many strategies. One of them will suit you.