Study smart- Make the most of your study time by prioritizing what to study first

The Stoplight Technique is a study strategy that allows you to devote more time to the course material that you’re least confident about. It’s called the Stoplight technique because you colour-code the concept you’ll be studying in the following ways:

• Red: Material you don’t know/can’t remember. (focus on studying these concepts)
• Yellow: Material you sort of know but that could use an extra look (focus on studying these concepts)
• Green: Material you know well (spend less time on these concepts)

Spend most of your time studying the concepts labelled red or yellow, as that is the material that requires the most help. You should still review the ‘green’ material, but you don’t need to devote as much time to it.

This technique allows you to make the best use of your study time because you can focus on improving your memory/understanding of the trickier topics.

Watch this video below for an example of how to use the Stoplight Technique to categorize topics in something like a textbook or class notes. Once the material has been labelled as red, yellow, or green, you can start to study the ‘red’ material and the ‘yellow’ material, followed by a quick review of the ‘green’ material.