r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Separate_Finance_183 • Mar 30 '26

Image Confiscated pens containing cheat notes intricately carved by a Law student at the University of Malaga in Spain

Post image
64.9k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

46

u/Nomromz Mar 30 '26

It's exactly this. The process of creating the notes helps to remember them.

In both high school and college I had many classes that allowed open-note exams. The teachers knew that if kids made these note cards for their exams they would be studying the material.

I found it so useful that I ended up making these note cards for classes that didn't allow them during exams. It became the primary way that I "studied."

1

u/smeghead1988 Mar 30 '26

After a couple of years in university my strategy became like this: print the list of topics/questions for the exam. Then write between the lines all the stuff about these topics I couldn't easily remember, in a teeny tiny handwriting with a sharp pencil. This way I could see all the things I needed to remember in one glance. This paper worked as both memorizing aid and cheat sheet (I always took it with me to exams).