One of the most effective study techniques is the summary –– whether for high school students, those preparing for college entrance exams, or for students already enrolled in college. This strategy helps in the acquisition of knowledge, as it reinforces what was read in books, handouts and other materials.
But that’s not all! It’s also a great ally for optimizing review time and increasing concentration on the eve of an exam, for example. Given all this importance, how can you write an excellent summary that actually provides these benefits to your studies? That’s what we’ll see from now on. Check it out!
1. Read carefully
In your study schedule , the basic method for learning is certainly through reading. To make a summary efficiently, this step is also essential. Therefore, stop everything you are doing and focus on the subjects. Get rid of distractions, such as social media, and choose a quiet place to dedicate yourself to this dedication.
Then, start reading. Whenever you don’t understand any information, go back to the beginning of the passage as many times as necessary. The important thing is not to skip any lines or put off trying to learn anything for later. After all, it could be a paragraph that is essential to understanding what is to come.
2. Mark important parts
While reading carefully, take the opportunity to highlight the most important points in each chapter. Think of the key words that will help you understand the passage and highlight them: you can use a different colored highlighter or even a pen. Don’t forget to highlight dates, formulas, quotes or anything else that you find relevant.
What if an entire paragraph is important? To avoid cluttering the page or book, you can mark it with colored brackets or arrows. Highlight it so that when you summarize, you can easily find these sections.
3. Note comments
Did you have any ideas while you were reading or highlighting important parts? It’s best to write them down right away so you don’t forget. If you don’t want to do this in the book or handout itself, use post-its, indicating which part of the comment refers to. If you want to add more information, this tactic is also very valid.
These comments are like a preparation for the summary. They represent your understanding of the subject, something that can be used to organize the information –– as we will see later in this content.
4. Think about correlations
One of the memorization techniques is to relate the content you just read to something you already know. This is a way to activate your brain to assimilate the information, with a good chance of it being retained. It is also a valuable practice to familiarize yourself with interdisciplinarity.
5. Organize the information
Important parts in the way and correlations thought? In many cases, there will be a large amount of information that, to form an efficient summary, will require maximum organization. Like other strategies, this is a way to make your life easier when studying to achieve your goal.
One example of organization is through questions. In this case, you select what you need to know about a given subject and ask these questions, with their respective answers, on the summary sheet. However, if you prefer, you can use diagrams: using the topic’s keywords, pull up new information using arrows.
It is important to remember that there is no formula for this organization. Each student learns in a different way and, because of this, certain techniques will work better than others. It is interesting to try different techniques to see what meets your needs.
6. Write in your own words
At some point, when you’re in a rush to study, you may ask yourself: why not just get ready-made summaries from the internet? They may help you understand the structure and get ideas on how to select the key points of the content, but they don’t have the same results when it comes to assimilating the topic.
Writing down what you have learned by hand is a powerful memorization technique – in some cases, when the test comes with a certain question, you will even remember where on the page you wrote the answer. In this sense, it is worth transferring the information to this space as you understood it, in your own words.
7. Make lists or topics
Some people like to make summaries in running text, according to what they understood from the subject. If you invest in this format and it works, try putting some information into lists and topics. This is a technique that helps especially during the review period, when it is necessary to reinforce what was learned.
Information is more visible this way: you can quickly find the keyword you are looking for and, consequently, the explanation for the subject. Imagine that, during your studies, you need to go back to a certain part to better understand the sequence. It is much easier to find information in topics and lists than in blocks of text, don’t you agree?
8. Read again
Now that you’ve finished your summary, is it time to close your materials and go to bed for a well-deserved rest? Not yet! With a maximum of 10 minutes, you can enhance your learning by rereading what you wrote during this time. This helps you better assimilate the information and memorize it –– instead of just memorizing it.
This final reading can also help you identify grammatical errors, for example. This is extra training for writing college entrance exams and even for your academic life, where you will be writing articles frequently. Not to mention the opportunity to identify areas for improvement in your next summaries.
Remember that, at first, you may have doubts about the steps involved in writing a summary. But, over time, you will gain experience and start writing almost with your eyes closed. That’s where training comes in! The more you invest in this practice in all subjects, the better your summaries will be.