Courses that are too difficult to remember?

And these 80% of the most important things are contained in only 20% of your course, which is also a very small portion. This is called the 20/80 law (or Pareto’s law), invented by the Italian economist Pareto and which can very well be adopted for studies. If you manage to target that 20%, you’ll spend less time reading, you’ll read the essentials first, then you’ll just have a little effort to do on the rest and you’re done! So how can you be sure you’ve read the 20%? How to get this necessary 20%?

Table of contents

1) Never dive directly into the course. Hover over it and read by “levels”

Your course is structured in several blocks (parts, sections, paragraphs) delimited by titles which represent what I will call here “levels”. Take for example a chapter of the course that has the following plan: Introduction I. First part 1. Subpart 1 2. Subpart 2 3. Second part 4. A) Section A 5. B) Section B III. Third part … Conclusion A student who revises inefficiently will go straight to the Introduction, then all of Part One, Subpart 1, Subpart 2, then Part Two, Section A, Section B, then Third Party, etc. With this linear way of reading, it will not be effective at all. To be efficient and read more productively, read the Introduction, then the titles of the main sections, then the Conclusion. Then you come back and read the subtitles of the different parts, before reading the course content in each block. This way of flying over the course allows you first of all to have an overall idea of the lesson, then to know the progression of the course from the Introduction, then part by part, to the Conclusion. You can then proceed, for example, as follows: Step 1: Read the Introduction, the title of Part One, the title of Part Two, and the Conclusion. 2nd step: Read the titles of the different subparts, i.e. Subpart 1, Subpart 2, Section A, Section B, etc. Step 3: Read the course content in each block, always trying to start with the most important things, before coming back to the details later in other steps. So you go from the title of the chapter (level 0) to the titles of the parts of the course (level 1), then for each part you read the titles of its sub-parts (level 2), and so on. So you go from level to level, starting from the general things, towards the details.

2) Query your memory, remember the details the teacher insisted on

As you read the headlines in your course, ask yourself about the content of each section. As you read the content, try each time to remember the explanations that the teacher has given on the different concepts, and use them to better understand. Try to ask yourself broadly what the course is about, what is its main purpose, what is the information the course wants you to know.

This allows you to make connections and determine in advance which parts might be the most important to read. Finally, also ask yourself what are the things on which the professor insisted the most and give them enough importance… it could come in the exam.

3) Make connections

As I said in the previous point, while reading, make connections between what you read and the explanations received in class. These links allow you to “reassemble” the pieces learned in class and in your notebook and thus to deeply understand your course. This makes you even more effective if you have followed the course well in class (it is important to follow well in class!).

4) Highlight

Underline or color the important parts, the key passages for you, the concepts to know. Be careful, do not overdo it: your entire course should not be colored or underlined, as this could discourage you in your next revisions. You can also write in the margin, above your course notes, in the empty spaces, which makes your course even richer.

5) Summarize

Write down the most important things on index cards and make summaries of your course, which will then be used to speed up your revisions. Be careful, however, not to copy the whole course. I have often seen students do this, that is to say copy practically everything that is in their notebooks, onto new sheets which they call “summaries”. What is the point of doing this double work by going over the whole course again on new sheets? Copy just what is important, summarize the important parts, the concepts to know, the formulas, etc.

6) Repeat, repeat, repeat…

Use the power of repetition to help you be even more effective. Apply this 20/80 law several times, repeat it over and over again until it becomes part of your habit. Your goal should be to be able to use it in a “natural” way. If you achieve this, you will see a huge improvement in your work efficiency. Also repeat the reading of your lessons, using for example thea memorization technique in four steps. Text: Gervais N. Kamga