As we all know, college can be quite hectic. Studying for three midterms scheduled in the same week can seem nearly impossible, especially with school, work, friends, family, sports and relationships thrown in. Some study tips don’t take much effort to implement, but can make all the difference when it comes to your productivity (which is crucial since you will probably get distracted every five seconds anyway).
1. Find Your Happy (Studying) Place
Everyone is different and focuses in different environments. Some people love studying in completely quiet zones like libraries or their bedrooms, while others prefer to do so at cafés and places where there’s some action. It’s important to experiment and find the right type of environment for you, because it’ll make all the difference between focusing and getting distracted every time someone steps into the room.
2. Get Colorful
Color-coding your notes can save you so much time with memorization and subject comprehension, especially if you’re more of a visual learner, like me. There are multiple ways you can use highlighting to create a pattern: differentiate topics from one another, categorize elements into different groups, structure the flow of your notes, etc. Highlighting also forces you to read the same thing twice, which reinforces your memorization skills.
3. Copy Your Notes
While this may not seem productive, re-writing your notes by hand and re-organizing them is very efficient. This helps you clarify them for later and re-write the info that you had scribbled super tiny while the teacher was explaining something. You may not realize it, but you’re also studying while you copy your notes! It’s actually proven that people who write their notes by hand usually get better grades than those who type them. So pick up your pens!
4. Set Goals for Yourself
Easy and reasonable little goals will increase your productivity while studying and make you feel more motivated because you will feel like you’re actually getting somewhere. For example, you could set a time at which you need to complete a reading or finish that PowerPoint.
5. Give a Friend Your Social Media Passwords
Surprise, surprise: Social media is distracting you from studying. As much as we like to think we use it as a tool to check our school Facebook groups or as a quick reward after finishing a task, social media always takes up more time than it should. Give a friend your passwords so they can change them in case you try to log on. Social media will no longer ruin your grade on that big test.
6. Find Your Best Study Buddies
Friends? Parents? Siblings? Classmates? You need to figure out if you are more efficient when studying with people around you, and if so, who. Sometimes it can be miserable to study alone every Sunday at Starbucks, so bring a friend to motivate you and make it more enjoyable. However, if you find yourself socializing more than studying, CUT THEM OUT! Not of your life of course, but of your study time.
7. What’s Your Time of Day?
While it’s important to find the best environment for you to study in, it won’t help much if you’re studying at the wrong time of day. Each individual is more productive at different times of the day, depending on their lifestyle. So, if you’re able to match your study location to your most productive time of day, you’ll find the key to success.