Study Tip: Highlight the Right Way
So, if you're anything like me you'll believe that highlighters are a wonderful thing. However, it's way too easy to get carried away with a highlighter and go overboard.
Highlighters are designed to help you revise notes or a chapter in a book when skimming the pages instead of reading in depth. They are not (under most circumstances) a decorative tool made to fill your books with rainbows and entertain you when you finish early on a test.
I beg you to refrain from doodling, especially with highlighter, on any test or page that you need to hand in! It gives off a bad impression, making the person looking at it think that you couldn't care less about what you wrote on the test even if you checked over it twice and got 100% before drawing a snazzy mural on the back. In a worse, but more common situation, if you didn't get super high marks and your page is covered in neon yellow stars, the corrector will get the impression that you weren't bothered to use your extra time to check your answers.
Despite saying that, when it comes to your textbooks, doodling and highlighting is great! I've often read that doodling helps your brain to absorb knowledge as you listen. When revising a chapter or learning it during class, I recommend highlighting a few key words from each paragraph - only enough to remind you of the topic that paragraph discusssed as opposed to every second word. Most sentences will only have one or two words highlighted. Lots of sentences won't have any words at all.
Definitions are a whole other story. If you need to learn the phrase word-for-word then I suggest highlighting it all so that it stands out as an important block.
Some people swear by colour coding their highlighting therefore making definitions a different colour to normal key words seems like a good way to try it out. Important names or significant dates could be two more categories that you give their own colours when highlighting. But don't let "the colour system" stress you out. If you can't keep track of what's what or if you only have one highlighter colour, than stick to the basic highlighting.
When it comes to colour preference, blue or yellow are my own favourites. Blue (like Fred) for exams - highlighting key words in reading comprehensions or questions - because it's a calm safe colour that I like to think relaxes me during the exams as opposed to something bright and in your face. Then yellow for notes and textbooks because I always find that yellow highlighters have a nicer formula that streaks less than other colours. If I want something brighter I'll go for pink, but I don't have any particular fondness for it.
So those are some of my thoughts on highlighting. I hope they help you when studying for and taking exams. Nothing here is strict or set in stone as a lot of this kind of thing boils down to personal preference. But don't be scared to experiment and try out new highlighter methods over the next few days to see what works for you!
