I know, I know. Anyone who has had the pleasure of knowing me in the slightest would laugh at the thought of me writing such an article. I am horrendous at studying. I’m not sure whether it is a testament to the schooling system or myself that I’ve made it this far!
Nonetheless, I am now in my third year here at university so have grudgingly started to study more – and there has been much improvement!
Here are some top study tips that I have found useful.
1. Timing
The concentration span of any student dwindles the long hard slogs monotonous material. Research shows that brief breaks help to prevent loss of efficiency
Hence the creation of the ‘pomdoro techinque’. Developed by Francesco Cirillo 30 years ago, it is a useful time-management trick. Basically, this involves dividing your work into manageable 25-minute chunks and taking a 5-minute break before beginning again. After repeating times, you can take a longer break. can be adapted depending on how ambitious (or unambitious) you are feeling.
It’s really a very simple concept, but it can make a significant difference to the proportion of time spent working to actual material covered simply working for hours on end without sufficient breaks.
2. Forest app
This app is also very simple but surprisingly effective. It’s free on Android available to download through the app store.
The app builds a forest time spent working. The more time spent , the bigger your forest. You can compare to previous weeks and – call me simple, but I love this idea appeals to my competitive side. Challenge yourself to working just a little more every week and see your trees (and your grades) grow!
And don’t think that you can ‘quickly’ check that Facebook notification either; the app blacklists all these distracting apps, and your cute little sapling will be killed! And we don’t want that!
3. Environment
As with many things in life, what allows you to study best is entirely . Many people like working in the library in a quiet, clean and uncluttered environment. Doing something simple like clearing your desk can really make a difference.
Others like working at home with music blasting out their headphones. Some like being surrounded by complete chaos.
The point is, find out where you work best and utilise this to your advantage. Working in the same or a similar environment helps to put you into the right mind set for studying.
4. Time of day
Find out when your brain works the best. Not a morning person? No excuses; begin your day’s work at night if you must. Just get it done.
5. Active learning
Always find ways to engage as much with the material as possible. Have to read from your textbook? Engage by highlighting or making notes as you go along.
Make those work-of-art mind maps. Test yourself. It’s like a wax strip: painful, but effective. Just look how much fun learning is…
6. Switching gears
Stuck on something? Move onto something else and come back to it later.
Instead of spending the whole day doing work for one module, switch between modules every now and then to break up the monotony of it all. This keeps you engaged for much longer and allows you to revisit the material with a fresh mind. It makes it easier for content to settle into your long term memory, as you constantly revisit the material.
7. Rewards
For obvious reasons, this may be my favourite tip of all.
Burn-out is a very real danger for many students. Every exam season, thousands of students succumb to its deathly grasp. But there’s really no point in working yourself to death. The brain needs time to reset and relax.
Just the simple fact of knowing you’re not far from that chocolate cupcake, or the next episode of Gilmore Girls makes studying that much easier.
But as they say, give some people an inch, and they will take a mile. Fingers are not being pointed here (I am very guilty of this) but just make sure your rewards match the level of effort and time spent studying. Ten minutes of staring mindlessly at your textbook does not equal one hour of cat videos, no matter how cute they may be. Sorry.
Edited by: Tia Ralhan
Sources:
http://cirillocompany.de/pages/pomodoro-technique/
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