Are you wondering how to make a perfect summary , the one that will save you the day during the exam period? That’s good, the Student Academy has gathered all the advice and tips for you for a solid resume.
# 1: Do not confuse: a summary is neither a plan nor a synthesis
These three tools – outline, synthesis, summary – differ in the quantity and level of precision of the information they contain.
The plan includes the table of contents of your course with all the titles and subtitles . It is made up of key words, formulas, diagrams that allow you to make links between the different elements of your subject without having to completely rewrite it. Do not use full sentences but just keywords, linking, comparison, opposition articles. On top of that, feel free to use colored markers. Writing a plan allows you to have at a glance an overview of the structure of the courts, without however indicating the content as such of the material. It’s easier to study information when you understand its usefulness and why it is found in this or that part of the course.
The summary allows you to make connections between the different chapters of your course and to compare the different parts. This therefore implies that the course has already been seen in its entirety. The synthesis is written from your lesson plan and your summary. Making summaries often requires changing the chronological order of the text. They can be in the form of a continuous text but also in the form of a diagram, table, timeline, etc. The synthesis makes it possible to anticipate the teacher’s questions during exams.
These are two excellent tools, very useful to check that you have memorized certain points of material, and to use when you have finished studying a course. Do not hesitate to consult our article on memorizing large quantities of materials !
#2: All the important information, but only the important information
The summary is what its name suggests: a summary of the information contained in a medium. In reality, it is a question of repeating all the essential data and information , taking care not to include less useful elements. Namely, the examples which multiply, the redundant details, the elements which the teacher has specified that they are not important, the similar information repeated several times…
In a summary, stop too long sentences and endless exemplifications. The watchword: CLARITY . Don’t bother with long turns of complex sentences. However, if the teacher’s syllabus is full of complicated vocabulary words, consider simplifying them whenever possible. Memorizing important information will only become easier.
A good summary does not overlook any essential information. Ideally, it should be able to be sufficient support in which to study before an exam.
Be careful though! It is essential to always read the entire course at least once, before starting to write a summary.
#3 : Write your summary yourself
Building a good summary takes time, and it can be tempting to take the easy way out and choose to study in material made by another student. Lack of time, lack of motivation, fear of not achieving an adequate result… There are many reasons that can demotivate you from writing your own summary. However, writing it yourself allows you to be a winner every time: you can be sure that the time you will devote to this exercise will be largely profitable later on.
First of all, the process of writing the summary obviously requires having the original medium in front of you , and reading each line of it in order to be able to locate and restore all the important data. Thus and without effort, the information is stored in the brain which already makes a first study of the matter.
In addition, this integral reading will allow you to have a global vision of the subject . It is always easier to move forward when you know where you are going; and you will thus see that the study will be greatly facilitated.
In addition, it can be useful to write your own summary for another reason: building a summary requires sorting out the important information – which must imperatively be included – and the less important and which we can do without. However, the sorting is not entirely objective: an element which does not seem important for a student (“This information is self-evident, no need for me to indicate it”), may very well be information that must be included at all costs in another’s summary.
#4 : Select the courses for which a summary is necessary
As mentioned above, an abstract takes a long time to write. Unless you do it well in advance, you probably won’t have time to make one for each of your classes. Rest assured, nothing dramatic in that: it is absolutely not essential to write a summary for all subjects.
Ideally, this tool should be used for particularly large courses: it would be quite feasible to study a 50-page course during the blockade but, conversely, re-read a 500-page course several times a week of your examination would turn out to be more difficult… This is why it would be wise to make a summary which, by definition, will be much less consistent and can therefore be studied more quickly.
It is very difficult and quite counter-productive to start writing the summary of a course while discovering the material at the same time. If you have never read the syllabus but have attended the oral course, for example, then you have a good overview of the material and there will be no problem. On the other hand, if the content is completely foreign to you, it will be better to read it a first time (even if it is in a transversal way), and then, in a second time, to start writing.
Use the same structure as in the original support. Make sure to keep the same titles and subtitles as well as the same section names.
