For many students, the month of May brings end-of-the-year parties and the promise of summer. It also means plenty of tests!

Before students can reach for their beach towels, even younger students will have to test their endurance as much as their knowledge. As teachers and parents, you can help your students sail through final exam season with flying colors—with an emphasis on colors!

Study skills experts agree that colors can have a big impact on memory retention and learning. We’ve compiled some tips from the pros for how to use colored pens to help everyone from elementary to high school students prepare for tests or presentations using GelWriters, of course!

Create Colorful Flashcards

Flashcards are an essential study aid for students preparing for nearly every kind of test. Studies show that making flashcards by hand leads to improved comprehension, and color-coded flashcards increase memory retention even more!

Why? When students take the time to write information in different colors, it creates a memorable visual association they will be more likely to recall during test time. Adding special embellishments to those extra-tricky vocabulary words will help, too. (Hint: make it sparkle by writing it out with a glitter GelWriter.)

Take Good Notes by Hand

Taking notes by hand has been proven to improve long-term comprehension, so leave the laptops behind and grab a few GelWriters in your favorite colors! Color-coded notes make it easy to go back and find important information when it’s time to study for the big test. Switching colors also keeps students engaged and interested as they take notes.

Making a concise study guide from a semester’s worth of notes can be a daunting task. Make it fun by creating a work of art that will help students review and retain what they’ve learned. Sketchnoting is a note-taking technique especially helpful for students who are visual learners!

Create Notecards for Presentations

Giving a presentation in front of the entire class is a nerve-wracking experience for many students. Using GelWriters to make color-coded note cards can help students keep their ideas organized so their in-class performance goes smoothly no matter how nervous they feel.

Taking the time to make color-coded notes on paper or index cards is a great way for students to review materials and increase comprehension. Show students how to use different colors for each topic or idea. It helps create a visual memory cue that will keep students on track during oral presentations, and a color-based organization system could be a lifesaver if those notecards accidentally get dropped!

Take the Pressure Off on Test Day

Take the pressure off of finals by putting out a set of GelWriters and letting your students pick their favorite colors to use for the exam. Final exams can be stressful and exhausting, but GelWriter is here to help make that last hurdle to summer vacation a little easier. So don’t forget the gel pens at your next study session!

Have any great study tips for students to get through the final part of their school year? Share them with us on Facebook!