There are important studying techniques that, missed out on, causes you a lot of distress without any particular reason. It is always best to find the right method by which you can understand a concept or learn a formula and not follow the crowd who might be doing it in a difficult or different way.
The best way to learn formulas might differ from person to person and it is always better to find the best technique suitable for you rather than following somebody else’s. Although most of the exams you prepare for like UPSC, CAT, IES etc need a conceptual understanding but learning formulae helps in saving up a lot of time.
Tricks to learn formulas
A few simple breakdowns and good habits to learn formulas at a stretch are to follow some basic steps that will help us simplify the procedure of learning the methods and teach us how to implement them in the best way possible. This will ensure we do not go into panic mode a day before the exam and not know what to learn and where to find it. Some tricks to learn formulas are:
- Writing them down- When you have a huge concept or many topics bunched together to learn, write all the formulas separately in a notebook. By doing this, you can refer to the notebook whenever you need to find a formula and when learning for an exam also; you can learn all the formulas easily together. Remember to write neatly in legit handwriting.
An untidy book will not make you feel interested enough to read the matter inside. Write in a focused mood where you do half of the learning while writing itself and this will ensure you learn everything in time for any upcoming exam you need to use the formulas in. - Break them down- Break complex and lengthy formulas into parts of two or three where you associate an equation or a symbol with some variable, and you can write below what each variable means, and why it is important in the topic. You can use flash cards or other different techniques to make your learning experience the most interesting so that the images get imprinted in your memory for a long period of time.
- Learn smart- Don’t learn huge lists or paragraphs of textual or conceptual formulas together so that you can mash them up in the exam and confuse some with the others. Always know to compartmentalise different types of formulas under different methods of creativity and productivity. Cramming never helped anyone.
- Understand the formulas- First understand what the formula is, how did it emerge, maybe a proof or something to have you going. Then introduce yourself to how to use it, like if you get a question where you need to use the formula, do all permutations and combinations of the formulas to make sure you get the same result even if you forget them in the exam. Lastly, understand the uses of the formula, what type of questions will be asked, how can they be disguised or given as something else.
Use your formulas in the most advantageous ways. Understand the best way to use them and then implement any shortcut you think is feasible. If the same formula can be written in a number of ways, there is, of course, no need to learn all of them. Find the most important and feasible one and learn how to derive the others from this main one. - Substitute formulas- Replace elements in the formulas with symbols or connectives that you can understand, if it is already too complex. Your main step in learning is to simplify an already complex topic so that you can understand it first and then perform procedures to use the formula in the ways in which you can easily remember instead of getting confused.
Write down the meaning of each symbol or substitute word where you can refer to it again while going through all the formulas. It is always better to have the most simplified version of a formula where you can associate the elements with things you know and recognise.
Formula learning gets very easy once you get down to the basic steps. One needs to prepare and plan well to know when to study formulas and how to study them. You need to have peace of mind and no distractions so the formulas get into your head and you remember them till the exams.