Layout by: Heleena Aira
Published by: Kristine Joyce Soriano
Date Published: March 24, 2025
Time Published: 8:14 AM
Have you ever found yourself spending several hours repeatedly reading your reviewer materials and notes, only to forget everything youâve worked so hard to study the moment your most awaited exam began? Or have you ever experienced cramming all of your lessons and study sheets all night, driven by huge amounts of caffeine and panic, only to realize that all of your efforts barely made a difference?
If this particular situation and experience sound exactly like you, then donât worryâyouâre not alone. Many students of different grades, courses, and programs experience the same issue. They put in diligent efforts, spend several hours studying, and yet, when itâs time to showcase what they have learned during exams, their mind completely goes blank and empty as a slate, often leaving them in a confused state. In this scenario, the frustration that the students feel doesnât come from either a lack of hard work or insufficient hours of reviewâit comes from the utilization of study techniques that arenât as effective as they may seem.
Yes, the bitter truth is studying harder to ace an exam isnât always the most effective answerâstudying smarter is. And thatâs where the well-known and internet-famous Pomodoro Technique, Blurting Method, and Feynman Technique enter the scene. These three methods, effectively proven and utilized by both professionals and students, have helped thousands of individuals to improve their focus, avoid distraction, enhance detail retention, and actually understand what they are supposed to understand and learn. Want to know more about how these study techniques specifically workâand which one is right for you? Then, read on to find out.
THE POMODORO TECHNIQUE: STUDY, REST, AND REPEAT
The answer to single-handedly mastering and acing time management? Simple: think in tomatoes instead of hours!
It might sound a little odd at first, but millions of people do really rely on the Pomodoro Technique in order to maintain their focus, avoid unnecessary distractions, and improve their productivity. In fact, it is safe to say that the Pomodoro Technique has changed the way millions of people tackle and complete their tasksâone tomato at a time. (Yes, âPomodoroâ literally means tomato!)
But what exactly is the Pomodoro Technique?
The Pomodoro Technique is a study method that was created in 1992 by Francesco Cirillo.
a former university student. Similar to many college students pressured and overwhelmed with tons of schoolwork and tight deadlines, Cirillo too had problems in accomplishing all of his tasks without feeling mentally and physically exhausted. To resolve this problem, he first decided to try something simpleâhe grabbed a tomato-shaped timer in the kitchen and challenged himself to have a full ten minutes of pure concentration. Quite unexpectedly, that small trick of his worked so well that it later became the Pomodoro Technique.
This tomato-born technique is a popular time management method that aims to encourage students, professionals, and all the like to alternately use pomodoros (focused work sessions) with frequent short breaks in order to maintain concentration and avoid mental exhaustion due to long hours of studying or working. It is a student-friendly method that is designed to help individuals stay productive and mentally stable without burning out.
Hereâs precisely how it works: set a timer on your phone for 25 minutes and focus all of your entire attention on finishing one particular taskâthis focused session is called a âPomodoro.â Then, once the timer rings, immediately stop what youâre doing and take a 5-minute break to let your brain rest and relax before starting another Pomodoro or focused session. After repeating this session for about four times, reward yourself with a longer and definitely well-earned 15- to 30-minute break. This cyclic process will help you to keep your brain absorbed, active, and focused as you break your study time into 25-minute focused sessions followed by short pauses.
If you constantly catch yourself zoning out, dozing off, or simply feeling exhausted and tired without any particular reason during mid-study sessions, then maybe itâs time for you to stop thinking in hours and start thinking in Pomodoros!
THE BLURTING METHOD: RECALLING >>> READING
If youâve ever found yourself reading and staring at your textbooks and reviewers for hours, only to forget everything that you have supposedly âstudiedâ the moment you close itâthen welcome to the âshort-term memoryâ club!
As a student, having a short-term memory is straight-up a curse, as most exams made by school professors require a fine amount of retention and memorization. However, while pure memorization is sometimes a must, it is often impossible to pull off (e.g., memorizing 100 to 200 slides worth of information isnât exactly doable). This is because the human brain isnât biologically designed to retain information and details passively. Likewise, it isnât built to hold onto specific information just because you glanced at it a few or more times.
Our brain doesnât learn by simply staring, reading, and absorbing words or phrases on a certain page. It needs constant engagement, repetition, and links to actually retain information. So, instead of just rereading the same lines in your textbooks over and over to memorize them, itâs way better to actively recall and thoroughly understand them inside of your mind.
This active recall method is otherwise known as the âBlurting Method,â a scientifically proven method that involves pulling out particular information and details about a lesson from your memory and jotting down everything you can recall about it in a notebook or journal, even if it's incomplete or initially incorrect. In its essence, the blurting method forces you to actively recall information from the depths of your memory rather than just passively re-reading details.
The process of this method is simple: study your lessons rather than just simply reading them, close your textbooks or reviewers, take out a blank sheet of paper, and write every single detail that you can remember about that lesson without looking at your notes. Yesâno peeking. No cheating. Just let your brain do all the heavy lifting. Then, once youâre done, compare what you wrote that came solely from your memory with your actual notes to see the areas that you have missed and were incorrect. The gaps in your memory and mistakes that you have identified in this step are where you need to focus all of your attention to ensure that youâll retain every detail that you need to remember before your most important exam day.
By repeating this simple process, youâre actively engaging with knowledge embedded in papers rather than passively absorbing and reading it. This method is especially useful for students who are prone to cramming exams or are trying to familiarize themselves with a large amount of information in a short period of time.
THE FEYNMAN TECHNIQUE: IN BABY WORDS, PLEASE!
As the famous Albert Einstein once said, âIf you canât explain it simply, you donât understand it well enough.â And thatâs exactly what the Feynman Technique is all about: turning complicated ideas and concepts into simple, basic, and easy-to-understand explanations.
Named after Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, this technique is heavily built on the idea that explaining, discussing, and teaching lessons to either yourself or another person is one of the best ways to learn it. At first, it might sound contradictoryâhow can you explain a certain lesson when you donât fully understand it? However, thatâs the point. The Feynman technique, proven to be among the most effective and useful study techniques ever devised, forces you to dismantle concepts and turn them into their simplest forms. It is a well-effective strategy, especially if your goal is to spot gaps in your knowledge and recall the details that you already know.
This method is actually kind of straightforward: study a concept that youâre trying to learn, its definition and aspects, then explain it as if youâre talking to a child (yes, in baby words!). No technical terms, no complicated explanations, and no confusing ideas involvedâjust plain and simple explanations.
Now, if you struggle to do this, then itâs a sign for you to go back, further review your study materials or lesson, and explain it to yourself once again. Through continuously and repeatedly enhancing your explanations until they make sense in the simplest way possible, you will have a deeper understanding of a certain concept, which can make it easier for you to recall it when you need it most.
By the time youâve gone through this process enough times to fully retain all information that you needed to remember, then itâs no doubt that you finally have a crystal-clear understanding of the concept. If you can even teach it in simpler terms to someone elseâthen, congratulations, youâve mastered it!
WHATâS BEST FOR YOU?
Truthfully, there is no one-size-fits-all study technique because studying is a very personal thing. Likewise, not every study method works for everyone. While some may find the Pomodoro Technique easy to use in keeping their time in check, others may find the Feynman Technique way more effective for actually understanding what they need to learn and study.
Each study method comes with its own unique advantages that can help you improve your academic performance in many different ways. The key in effectively utilizing these several study techniques is for you to constantly experiment with them until you find what works best for you.
Remember, at the end of the day, the most effective study technique isnât the one that seems the most popular or widely recommendedâitâs the one that makes studying feel less frustrating and more enjoyable for you.
REFERENCES:
[1] Barnwal, S. (2021, September 17). 15 Study Techniques that Students Should Use
for Better Study. https://studelp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/study-techniques-for-better-study.pdf
[2] Coursera Staff. (2024, November 6). The Pomodoro Method: Study Smarter, Not Harder. https://www.coursera.org/articles/pomodoro-study-method
[3] Lakwad, D. (2023, October 11). The Blurting Method: Your Ultimate Tool for Efficient Work and Study. https://medium.com/new-writers-welcome/the-blurting-method-801add6e8711
[4] Johnson, A. (2019, June 13). How I Used the Feynman Technique to Study and Got Better Grades. https://study.com/blog/how-i-used-the-feynman-technique-to-study-and-got-better-grades.html
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