Learning how to study effectively is always a challenge for students who are often overwhelmed and over-committed to school, work and extra-curricular activities. The following tips are some I learned as I struggled through my undergraduate studies. If I had known these things in high school, I'm sure I would have been a better student. By the time I reached graduate school, I was an expert. Follow these suggestions and take the fast track to success!
1. Avoid being overwhelmed the last weeks of class by preparing all semester. Of course, the best practice is to stay current with your reading and assignments as they are given. Realistically, staying current doesn't always happen, especially if you have other more demanding classes that require your attention just to stay afloat. If this is the case, you will want to focus on Tip 2 more than ever.
2. Spend quality time with your reading assignments. I used to tell my Introductory Psychology classes not to read a chapter word for word. The truth is, especially in Intro courses, the textbook chapters are long and arduous. Unless you're super-human, your reading attention span won't last past the first few pages. Your mind will start to wonder, and the time you spend will be non-productive. Instead, spend quality time with the chapters. Start by flipping through the pages. Look at the section titles to get a general understanding of the chapter content. Go to the end of the chapter and read the Summary or Review sections. You'll be amazed at how much you can get out of a chapter by following the steps described above. Once you have a pretty good idea of the chapter content, go back and take a more careful look. Go through the chapter section by section. Focus your reading around the words in bold print. These point to the key ideas in the chapter. Jot down some notes to help you remember these particular concepts. Be sure to include in your notes the page number on which the topic can be found for future reference. This is especially helpful if you're allowed to use your book or notes for the exam. If you spend 20-30 minutes of quality time with your reading, I guarantee you'll get more out of it than trying to read the entire chapter cover to cover.
3. Don't cheat sleep. This tip is critical to good performance. Yes, we can push ourselves a little by staying up later than usual or getting up a little earlier, but the better you do at maintaining your regular sleep schedule, the happier and less stressed you'll be. Disrupting sleep patterns has serious consequences including insomnia. Once you've messed with your circadian rhythm, it's hard to get back to a normal sleep routine because your brain doesn't know when it's time to start shutting down. A common complaint from college students is that their brains won't shut off so they can go to sleep. Lack of sleep also triggers our stress response system, which means your body is being flooded with cortisol. Increased cortisol levels can cause insomnia so you can see it's a viscous cycle. The truth is, you can perform better when rested; therefore, you can complete the work in about half the time. If you study when you're rested, you'll not only be able to retain more information, you'll be a happier person to be around.
4. Avoid cramming. Cramming for a test rarely produces a positive outcome. Here's the problem. Our brains can hold only a certain amount of information in short-term memory. When you cram for a test, you are literally trying to cram information into short-term memory, but your brain will only retain a limited amount of what you cram into it. I used to give this example to my students. Hold your hands together to form a cup shape. Now imagine you're putting information into this rather small container. Eventually, the container will get full. If you keep trying to put information in the container, some of the information you already put in will be forced to spill out. It works kind of like pouring too much tea into a teacup. How do you solve this problem? If you follow Tip 2 above, you will effectively transfer some of the information to long-term memory, which has a much larger capacity for retaining information. You can create large networks of information by tying the new information to something you already know. Figure out how to make it make sense and you won't forget it. Guaranteed!
5. Factor down time into your schedule. Believe it or not, this act will help you be a better student. The truth is that our brains and bodies need down time to recover and rejuvenate. A rejuvenated brain will perform better than a brain that is drained and exhausted. The thought of down time might seem unrealistic when you're experiencing end-of-the-semester crunch time. Assignments, papers, and projects are due, and you have to get ready for the final exam. Down time doesn't have to be a long time. It just has to be time that you don't read, use the computer, or think about all the work you have ahead. Down time has to be quality time. It might include a walk around the block, 30 minutes of television, dinner with a friend, or relaxing meditation.
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