Influencer Jenny Ng Shares 5 Studymaxxing Tips For College Students

In case you somehow missed it, Gen Z is “-maxxing” everything these days. And that includes studying. For those who haven’t yet been subject to studymaxxing videos on social media, it basically just means optimizing your studying to be more efficient, productive, and better all around. 

Studymaxxing is more than just simply studying for as many hours as possible. It’s making sure that the time that you spend studying, whether it’s for 15 minutes or eight hours, is actually working for you. Everyone has different ways of processing and remembering information, so studymaxxing is also about trying out different methods and figuring out what works best for you. 

But it can be hard (or at least time-consuming) to figure out what works for you. It can be easy to compare yourself and feel like you’re not doing enough, but if you truly learn the right methods for you, it can become more of a “work smarter, not harder” situation, where you can spend a few hours preparing for a test, but also have time to take care of yourself outside of studying. 

Thankfully, that’s where seasoned studymaxxers come in, to share their own experiences and give tips that can help you studymaxx to the best of your ability. Below, Her Campus chats with Jenny Ng, a study influencer and sophomore at Harvard, about some of her study methods and pointers to help make the process of studying better for you.

Do Practice Problems 

Making practice tests for yourself and going through old practice problems from past assignments, can be one of the best methods to try out in order to study effectively. It can help in multiple ways, according to Ng, because at first, it can help you identify weak spots in your knowledge base, and then it can function as studying and just practicing the problems as much as possible to really get the content down. “You really train your brain to think more analytically and think through problems as you work with them yourself,” Ng tells Her Campus, which can be a very effective way to study. 

Spend Time Truly Understanding Your Readings 

Especially in more qualitative classes, understanding readings before trying to write about them can be super helpful, says Ng. “My teacher said something very valuable: If you can’t write something concisely, then your idea is bad,” Ng says. So basically, if you try to write an essay and the idea just isn’t flowing, it might mean that you don’t comprehend the concepts as well as you thought, so it could be beneficial to go back and try to understand the core concepts again so that it will be easier to write a paper on the topic. 

Get Help When You Need It 

No matter what class you’re taking, there are typically resources you can turn to for additional help. Office hours, either with the professor or with their TA, are extremely helpful when you’re confused on a topic, or even for just getting some extra study time. Although sometimes it can be nerve-wracking to ask for help, it’s extremely important, according to Ng. “People should never be ashamed to get help when studying, whether that’s like through peer help or through office hours,” she says. The help is there for you if you need it, and it will always be worth it to ask the questions, even if it can be scary.

Prioritize Your Passions & Cut Out Distractions

A harder lesson for college students to learn is that it’s physically impossible to be involved in every single opportunity that is presented to you. Unfortunately, there are only 24 hours in a day, which means that some things might slip through the cracks. So, in order to stay on top of your studying and be involved in the things you’re truly interested in doing, it might mean dropping something else. “I truly think it’s just not putting your time into things that don’t fulfill you,” Ng says. 

Remember It Will All Get Done Eventually 

Although maybe slightly counterintuitive to the idea of “studymaxxing,” it’s actually OK to just take a break. If you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed, do something else for a while so that you can get back into the studying headspace. “As long as you get it in, who cares if you’re doing it early,” says Ng. “So if you don’t feel locked in at the moment, it’s gonna get done eventually, and that’s my mindset.”

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