Reflection: The Art of Study used by a few genius students! (By Million Abebe: MA)

1. Reflection: Brief  Explanation  

Reflection is the process of summarizing/revising what have been studied or learned before stopping a given topic. It can also be done before beginning a new lesson.

How to reflect and its benefits

• You can do it by closing your eyes or books and remember some of the key points orally or by writing key words on a piece of paper.
• You can clearly and easily understand what you study and save (store) it in your mind properly.
• If you do these always little by little (in each section or topic by topic), you can tell it to someone (yourself) as story telling.
• You can remember easily when you are asked, on exam.

Note: This technique can be applied on all subjects you study.

2. Additional Information

Bulkiness is one of the boring nature of any technique; to minimize this:

• Brief explanation is given as basic information.
• If you like, additional information is given as  'Additional Information'.

Additional 1: Advantages of Reflection

Reflection has a lot of scientifically proved advantages not only in our learning but also in our lives. I summarized three of them based on Phil Race's research.
1. Deep understanding:
The more you re-think about your learning, the more you digest it and understand it.

We will be able to get deep understanding through making reflection. As researchers, mention, e. g. Phil Race, "Reflection deepens learning and leads to seeing the bigger picture of our learning!"

2. Plays roles even when we fail:

Reflection is equally useful when our learning has been unsuccessful. By re-thinking about what may have gone wrong with our learning and plan how to solve it in future.

3. Not only for study, but also in our day-to-day lives:

Reflection is important and applied not only for study but also in our day-to-day lives by re-thinking about what we did well and also the wrong we did....

Additional 2: Characteristics of top students

One of the characteristics of high achiever students (commonly we call 'top students') is that they have the habit of making reflection at the end or at the beginning of their studies. Various researches and also my day-to-day experiences (as teacher, as researcher and also as one high achiever students) proved these.
If you like, you can also see the next ones: taken from help.blackboard.com
Reflective learners share these characteristics:

• They are motivated and know what they are trying to achieve and why.
• They are proactive in extending their understanding of new topics and subjects.
• They use their existing knowledge to help develop their understanding of new ideas.
• They understand new concepts by relating them to their previous experiences.
• They understand that additional research and reading improves their understanding.
• They develop their learning and thinking by building on the critical evaluation of their previous learning experiences.
• They are self-aware-able to identify, explain, and address their strengths and weaknesses.

Additional 3: Most students have lack of the habit of making reflection:

Most students don't have habit of making reflection (at the end or at the beginning of their studies). They jump from topic to another without making reflection.
References

https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Instructor/Interact/Best_Practices/Reflective_Learning_Benefits_Best_Practices
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.11120/plan.2006.00170037