AYour personal learning materials are particularly error-prone because you create them yourself and rarely receive them in front of you or coordinate them with others. It is therefore all the more important that you develop an objective sense of how good your own documents are.

You are your own controlling authority and must ensure that the basis of your exam preparation is correct and coherent. That means: You are also responsible for finding your own weak points.

So that you can do this better, I will now show you the biggest mistakes with which you ruin your study materials. And: I'll give you the right solutions right away so that you not only learn from your mistakes but never make them again.

Your Study Materials Are Dead Boring

How much desire do you have to learn things that bore you? Exactly: none at all. If your learning materials are nothing more than tedious text deserts with cryptic box sentences, your motivation will quickly evaporate. Just because the topic is factual and your upcoming exam is getting serious, doesn't mean you can't be creative and modern in your learning. Solution: Make your documents fun to work with! Use colors, pictures, or smileys (more on that later) and make sure that you don't get bored while learning.

You Don't Structure Your Documents Consistently

One of the biggest weaknesses in many learning materials is the structure. If you do not structure your content consistently and logically, you will quickly lose track and get bogged down. As a result, you mix up the information and no longer manage to put the different topics in the right context. Solution: BEFORE you write your summaries and put together your learning material, set an agenda that you can use as a guide! Create a table of contents and stick to this common thread - this saves time and nerves. And by the way, if you would experience trouble when writing your major papers, we suggest you consult a paper writer.

Your Learning Materials Are Incomplete

What's more annoying than messy documents? Incomplete documents. With the amount of material that accumulates over the course of the semester, it is hardly noticeable if individual marginal topics slip through your fingers. But that is exactly what is dangerous. If you're missing important information while studying, you're undermining the very foundation of your exam preparation.

Solution: Work with checklists and make sure that you don't overlook any important content when putting it together and that you take into account all information relevant to the exam! If in doubt, talk to your fellow students or get advice from the examiner himself.

You Write Too Much

Many students write entire novels while preparing for exams. They collect every bit of information, no matter how small, or write complete passages from textbooks on index cards. But the focus is lost because without meaningful conciseness, you easily overlook the essential points and spend too much time on small things.

Solution: Set yourself a fixed limit of words or pages! You may only exceed this limit in exceptional cases - keep your learning documents lean. Otherwise, work with references if you want to link background information to your summary.

You Write Too Little

The exact opposite of "too much" is just as dangerous. If you only mention the most necessary content in your learning materials and then only describe them in a few key points, there is a risk that you will learn too superficially. You are then missing important details that could be important in the exam. In addition, you could have difficulties with understanding and global connections if you do without explanations and detailed explanations.

Solution: For each chapter, create a "short version" for learning, in which you present the content in a very shortened form! Basically nothing more than a cheat sheet (I’ll write more about it in this article). In this way, you separate your learning materials and don't run the risk of working too superficially in the "big" version.

Not Getting To The Point

Focus. you need to focus Actually always, but especially when learning! If you keep beating around the bush in your study materials and dwell on small things for too long, your learning sessions will become unproductive. Your summary must be precise. When you work with her, you need to be able to see at a glance what is going on and what information is important. Solution: Before creating your documents, determine keywords that characterize the topic and to which you can align your texts. When writing, avoid filler words, superfluous synonyms, and long convoluted sentences. Write in short main clauses. You can read them well and remember them easily. And that's good.

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