The first tests of the school year are happening now for many students!

Check out these 7 tips for how to get prepped to take your first assessments:

1. Understand the study cycle. We explain it in this episode, or you might like to watch this video.

2. Find small ways to test your retrieval on a regular basis, using assignments that your teachers are already giving you, so you don’t have to do anything extra.

3. Make sure you have the right supplies to help yourself encode in a new way.

4. Make your study plan at least 3 days out (but preferably more!).

5. Plans are meant to be made, not necessarily to be followed exactly. Stay on track; don’t throw out the whole plan just because you didn’t follow the first few parts of it exactly.

6. Study a bit more than you think you need — things get harder each year, and so you need to plan to “step it up” compared to the ways you studied last year.

7. After you get your grade, take a look at the test to understand a) the ways you studied well and b) the tasks you could have spent  more time on, so that you can study more effectively next time.