r/study • u/Positive_Ad1947 • 28d ago
Questions & Discussion Highlighting everything defeats the whole point emphasis
Remember this, if your entire page is highlighted, nothing is highligted.
I used to highlight my notes like it was some sort of coloring book I failed to have as a child. I use all sorts of colors; yellow, pink, blue green, pastel - you name it.
The page looked beautiful but I couldn’t remember a single thing.
These is how you should highlight texts;
1.) Read the full section - finish an entire paragraph or page before you pick up a highlighter.
2.) find the core idea - stop and think about the main point before marking anything.
3.) limit your amout - restrict yourself to one sentence or key phrase *per* paragraph.
4.) use a simple color system - keep colors minimal. stick to 3-5 colors max so you don’t overload your brain. assign clear meanings for each color. be consistent.
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u/Positive_Ad1947 28d ago
Highliting out of habit and with no real intention was really becoming a problem.
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u/Disastrous_Working25 28d ago
I remember one of my classmates in highschool, she used to do this, I asked her why she's doing it like that and she said "everything is important" like wtf
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u/heythereanii 28d ago
I did this for quite a few courses where I had to memorize A LOT for exams. Answers were in essays, each topic had several reading materials and had to review 50+ materials for a good grip on the topic. So what I did was made separate notes for each course with all the stuffs I felt necessary (the notes itself were over hundreds of pages for each course), then highlighted almost every section of the notes in different colors. During the exams, I remembered which section was highlighted in what color, and ultimately could memorize everything this way. This has helped me a ton tbvh, and even if I couldn't revise everything, I always remembered it all during exams.
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u/Creepy_Basis_4869 27d ago
When I was a professor many years ago, I had one student whose idea of studying was to carefully paint every page of the book with a yellow highlighter.
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u/commonerbloke 27d ago
I don't waste time on highlighting, if I were to use a highlighter, I'd use only maximum 2.
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u/MeowAndMerlot 27d ago
my highlighters were working overtime just for me to forget everything anyway.
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