Creating Study Aids

November 02, 2025

Posted by STLCC in Tutoring Resources 

Preparing for college tests can be challenging. From lectures to college textbooks and other articles and background, there is a lot to review. Where do you start? The following ideas will ensure you are prepared and confident!

Lectures

• Record lectures and then listen back and fill in your notes.
• Rewrite lecture notes to help remember important points and identify content to clarify.
• Find an app to record a lecture and then use it to summarize notes.
• Review lecture notes and think about what you may have missed the day of the lecture.
• If you have recorded lectures and presentations, listen to them, and review important content as many times as needed.

College Textbooks/Reading

• Read required material to help you learn concepts, important vocabulary and key terms, and other background relevant to the subject.
• Pay attention to the textbook vocabulary and key terms, often highlighted in bold.
• Create notecards or use an app to create digital notecards.
• Review notecards as many times as necessary until you can recall them easily.
• Review questions at the end of each chapter and practice answering them.
• Ask your instructor questions during office hours.
• Seek help from STLCC’s Academic Success & Tutoring. We have content area tutors, reading specialists and professional writing tutors who can help.

Quizzes and Study Aids

• Create your own quizzes, using key terms, vocabulary, and other content, and then review them until you feel confident about the material.
• There are many online apps available, including Quizlet, Kahoot and others.

Study Groups

• Explain what you know to other students and learn from each other.
• Apply what you understand and share with each other.
• Create important classroom relationships that may improve the educational experience and build other important skills.
• Seek help for developing a study group from STLCC tutoring. STLCC’s Academic Success & Tutoring may be able to connect you to others working on the same content.