Study Tip #1

Understand your study topics in your own words: Your teacher or lecturer can explain something to you, you can learn it from a text book, your friends can study with you, even your own notes can explain it to you but all these explanations are of little use if, by the end, you can’t explain what you have learned to yourself. If you don’t understand a study concept that you need to illustrate in an exam to get top exam results, then you won’t be happy with your end exam result. To combat this, get into the habit of explaining whatever it is you are studying, in your own words, so you understand your study notes. The key to help improve your memory is to understand what you’ve learned when you are studying it. So don’t just memorise and tick off the list – make sure you understand your theory.

Study Tip #2

Don’t be afraid to ask study questions: Of course, depending on what you’re studying, it may be quite difficult to get into a position to understand a concept,theory or other information you need to learn. This is where it is invaluable to ask questions of your teachers, lecturers or other educators. Don’t be afraid of asking a ‘stupid’ question – there really is no such thing when it comes to study and learning! Embrace your curiosity, for as William Arthur Ward said: “Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.” Doing so will allow you to fill in the blanks and better prepare you for exams.

Study Tip #3

Quiz yourself: Once you feel you understand a concept or a topic, it is important to test yourself on it. Try and replicate exam conditions as much as possible: turn your phone off, don’t talk, time yourself etc. You can set yourself a study quiz or practice exam questions and, so long as you approach it with the right mindset, you can get a very good idea of how much you know. You gain a greater insight into where you stand in relation to what you’ve studied so far. Also, it will give you some much need exam preparation, making the actual exam a more comfortable experience.Flashcards are ideal for boosting your memory and help you recall theory, definitions and key dates – these are great for quick study sessions, especially straight before an exam.

Study Tip #4

Get Creative with online study tools: Don’t feel obliged to just sit in front of a book with a highlighter; there are many different ways to study. You should pick whatever works for you. Try using as many study tools and techniques as possible to help you study better and find what works best for you. Perfect examples of such study tools would be online flashcards, mind maps, mnemonics, online study planners, video and audio resources. Login to your ExamTime account now to access your free online study tools; mind maps, flashcards, study quizzes and practice exam answers and bring your study notes with you wherever you are.

Study Tip #5

Set your study goals and create a flexible study plan: In order to achieve exam success you need to know what you want to achieve. That’s why it is extremely important to set your Study Goals now and outline to yourself what you need to do. With your study goals in mind and your end of year exams weeks and months away it makes sense to have a flexible study plan as opposed to a rigid one. The closer you get to your exams the more concrete your study plan should be, but at this point it should be porous. It should be broad enough to allow you to add and change aspects but concise enough so you know you’re covering each subject/topic as best you can at this point.

5:22 AM

The male advantage in general intelligence does not emerge until after puberty, because girls mature faster than boys.

In an earlier post, I discuss the new consensus in the intelligence research in the 21st century that men on average are slightly (but significantly) more intelligent than women, by about 3-5 IQ points.  However, in the same post, I also note that it is not because they are male that men are more intelligent but because they are taller.  Taller individuals are more intelligent than shorter individuals, and men just happen to be taller than women.  In fact, once we control for height, women on average are more intelligent than men.  It still remains true, however, that, without controlling for height or anything else, if you simply compare men and women, men on average are slightly more intelligent than women.

Another little-known fact is that, because girls on average mature faster than boys, the male advantage in intelligence does not appear until after puberty, when boys and girls finish maturing and growing.  Until then, girls are on average always more mature than boys at any given chronological age.  So comparing boys and girls, say, at age 10, is like comparing boys at age 10 and girls at age 12.  Naturally, older and more mature children have greater cognitive capacity than younger and less mature children.  So if you compare boys and girls at the same chronological age, girls on average are more intelligent than boys.  In other words, the sex difference in the rate of maturity masks and drowns the sex difference in general intelligence.

Here’s a perfect demonstration, using data from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) in the United Kingdom.  The NCDS contains a population (not a sample) of all babies born in Great Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland) in one week in March 1958 (n = 17,419), and has followed them throughout their lives for more than half a century.  The NCDS also has one of the best measures of general intelligence in all of survey data.  They measure intelligence at age 7 (with four different cognitive tests), at age 11 (with five different cognitive tests), and at age 16 (with two different cognitive tests).  Note that the respondents are largely before puberty at ages 7 and 11, but largely after puberty at age 16.

Here are the graphs that chart the mean IQ of the NCDS respondents by sex at ages 7 and 11, before puberty.  You notice that girls are slightly but (given the large sample size) statistically significantly more intelligent than boys at both ages.  At age 7, the mean IQ for girls is 100.6 while the mean IQ for boys is 99.4.  At age 11, the mean IQ for girls is 100.4 while the mean IQ for boys is 99.6.

However, the sex difference is reversed at age 16, as the following graph shows.  Post puberty, the mean IQ for girls is 99.2 while the mean IQ for boys is 100.8.  Remember, these are the same individuals who are tested at three different ages in their lives.  (And, no, it does not mean that girls become less intelligent after puberty in any absolute terms.  The IQs are calculated and normed at each age separately.  It only means that girls become less intelligent relative to boys after puberty.)

5:10 AM