Summer tips to sharpen your mind

Summer Vacation is arguably the most important time of the year for giving your brain a break and taking care of yourself. But too much of a break can cause you to forget up to 20% of what you learned during the previous year, which adds up to a whole lot of catch-up work when September comes. To get the most out of your summer, but not lose track of everything you’ve learned, try these quick exercises to keep your brain working.

Weekly Refresh with Tape

Re-reading your notes can be tedious, so let’s spice it up with Tape! Skim over your notes, identify key terms, then cover them using Notability’s Tape feature. Read through your notes again with the terms covered, and see which you can remember. Quiz yourself once or twice, and you’re done. Repeat this once a week, and you’ll be surprised with how much more you’ve retained.

Explore and Annotate

Instead of sticking to basic class materials, explore new books and articles related to your field of study. Swap reading them over with this annotation exercise! Import your material into Notability, then highlight new information in red, and facts you already know in blue. You can also come up with your own color-coding system; build a setup that works for you! And if you need some inspiration, make sure to check out the Notability Gallery.

Bonus Tip: If your reading material is a PDF or an E-Book, you can import it directly into Notability. But if it’s a physical book or packet, there are a few different techniques you can use. Notability’s Document Scan feature utilizes your device's camera to scan paperwork and inserts the whole page directly into your notes. But if you just want little snippets of text in your note pages, you can use your camera as usual and just add photos of the excerpts you need. It’s totally up to you!

Plan your Study Sessions

Looking at a long list of topics to study is overwhelming to say the least, but daunting tasks are always easier when you break them down. Using a planner, assign each week a different subject. This way, you study everything you have to, have plenty of time to spend on each subject, and it’s significantly less overwhelming. If you’re looking for a place to start, check out Notability’s new Academic Planners! They start in July, so you can map out your whole summer and school year. Plus, they’re free to everybody :)

Instead of being stressed about the dreaded “summer slide,” look at the school year as a new opportunity. You have the tools, skills, and smarts to start strong and be the best student you can be. We believe in you, and we’re so excited to see you succeed. But of course, enjoy the rest of your summer break, and stay sharp.

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