Bridge to university · Study skills
Study skills that work at university
Active recall, spaced repetition, interleaving, Pomodoro, time blocking, note-taking methods and exam preparation for first-year students.
About this deck
Many students arrive at university with study habits that worked in high school: rereading notes, highlighting, and cramming the night before. Those habits often stop working when courses move twice as fast and exams test application instead of recall. This deck introduces evidence-informed strategies that hold up better, including active recall, spaced repetition, interleaving and elaboration, along with planning tools such as time blocking, a term planner and the Pomodoro technique, several note-taking formats, and practical exam preparation.
The deck is for Grade 12 students preparing for the jump and for first-year students who want to fix a rough start. Since the deck itself is a set of flashcards, use it the way it recommends: try to recall each definition before flipping, review again after a few days, and mix the tags rather than going through one at a time. Pick two or three strategies to try in the first month instead of all of them at once. Common traps are mistaking familiarity for understanding, planning long study days that never happen, studying only the problem types you like, skipping sleep before exams, and waiting until a midterm grade comes back to ask for help.
Before you start: None.
All 35 cards
Cover the definitions with a sheet of paper and test yourself, or use the study modes above.
Memory
- Active recall
- Pulling information out of memory, for example by covering your notes and answering questions, instead of rereading.
- Testing effect
- The finding that practising retrieval strengthens long-term memory more than spending the same time rereading.
- Spaced repetition
- Reviewing material at growing intervals, for example after 1, 3, 7 and 14 days, rather than all at once.
- Forgetting curve
- The pattern in which memory fades quickly after learning unless it is reviewed; each review slows the decline.
- Interleaving
- Mixing different problem types in one session so you practise choosing a method, not just carrying one out.
- Blocked practice
- Doing many problems of one type in a row. It feels smooth but often transfers poorly to mixed exams.
- Elaboration
- Explaining how and why an idea works and linking it to what you already know.
- Dual coding
- Pairing words with visuals such as diagrams or timelines, so you have two routes back to the idea.
- Teach-it-simply method
- Explain a concept in plain words as if to a beginner; the places where you stumble show what to restudy.
- Illusion of competence
- Feeling that you know material because it looks familiar on the page, even though you cannot produce it unaided.
- Desirable difficulty
- A study condition that feels harder now but improves long-term learning, such as spacing and self-testing.
Planning
- Pomodoro technique
- Working in focused blocks, commonly 25 minutes, separated by short breaks, with a longer break after several blocks.
- Time blocking
- Assigning specific tasks to specific slots in your calendar, treating study time like a scheduled class.
- Term planner
- One page showing every assessment date for all your courses, built from the syllabi in the first week.
- Weekly review
- A short session each week to check deadlines, update your plan and decide priorities.
- Backward planning
- Starting from a due date and scheduling each step in reverse so every piece is finished in time.Example: Essay due on the 30th: final edit 28th, draft 24th, outline 18th, research 12th
- Procrastination
- Delaying a task even though you expect to be worse off. Shrinking the first step and starting a timer often helps.
- Urgent versus important grid
- Sorting tasks by urgency and importance to decide what to do now, schedule, hand off or drop.
Notes
- Cornell notes
- A page split into a main notes column, a narrow cue column for questions, and a summary box at the bottom.
- Outline method
- Notes organized by headings and indented sub-points; suits lectures with a clear structure.
- Mapping method
- Notes drawn as a web of linked ideas around a central topic; suits material with many connections.
- Handwritten versus typed notes
- Typing captures more words, while handwriting pushes you to condense. Processing the ideas matters more than the tool.
- Same-day note review
- A brief review within 24 hours to fill gaps and turn your notes into questions for later self-testing.
- Preview before lecture
- Skimming the reading or slides in advance so the lecture becomes your second exposure to the material.
Exams
- Timed practice exam
- Doing a past or sample paper closed-book with a timer to test both recall and pacing.
- Error log
- A record of each mistake, its cause (concept, careless or misread) and the fix.
- Exam wrapper
- A short reflection after a graded test on how you prepared, what went wrong and what you will change.
- Multiple-choice strategy
- Answer in your head before reading the options, eliminate clearly wrong ones, and watch for words like not and except.
- Problem-solving exam strategy
- Scan the whole paper, do the questions you are sure of first, show steps for part marks, and leave time to check units.
- Cramming
- Packing study into the night before. It may get you through one test, but the material fades fast and sleep suffers.
- Sleep and memory
- Sleep helps consolidate what you learned during the day; an all-nighter usually lowers exam performance.
- Study group
- A small group that quizzes and explains to one another. Works best with a plan and individual preparation beforehand.
Habits
- Distraction control
- Keeping your phone out of reach, blocking sites and using a consistent spot to protect focus.
- Metacognition
- Thinking about your own learning: judging what you know, choosing strategies and adjusting them.
- Early help-seeking
- Using office hours, tutors and learning centres in the first weeks, before small gaps become large ones.