Hopefully last semester ended the way that we all wanted it to: with good grades and our mental health still intact. On the other hand, it may not have all played out the way that we had hoped for. After a couple weeks of break, you may feel refreshed and ready to tackle another semester of hard work and learning. If you’re finding yourself feeling hesitant or nervous about this upcoming semester, here are a couple of useful techniques that you might consider trying in order to have a smoother semester.
- Create a master calendar
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This is an absolute must for me before every semester. Once my professors have released their syllabuses and schedules, I transfer all of it into a planner that I will use for the year. I try to assign a different colored pen for each class in order to help me keep my classes organized and know which assignments are meant for which class. I then take the time to mark down the due dates for any homework, quiz, exam or appointment I have. Writing it all down is only half the battle. Every week, I take a look at the next week to see what upcoming work I have assigned in order to not be surprised or procrastinate the work ahead.
- Face procrastination
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Another good place to start in order to make this semester more productive is to overcome a problem that I’m sure we’ve all faced at one time or another: procrastination. It’s easy to feel as though you have plenty of time to finish an assignment, but before you know it, the due date sneaks up on you. One way to avoid this is to start assignments early, but that doesn’t necessarily mean to spend hours on it immediately on the day it is assigned. Instead, break the assignment up into smaller bits and spend about an hour or so a day working on it piece by piece in order to make it more manageable.
- Try new study strategies
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You may be someone who swears by flashcards or summarizing the chapter, but the same strategies that you’ve used your whole life may not be the most effective for the class you’re in, or even just between chapters in the same class. The goal is to learn the most material in the least amount of time, aka work smarter, not harder. Having multiple study strategies instead of swearing by the same one will make you a better student by being able to adapt to the material thrown at you. Below are some of the study methods that I find to be the most useful.
– Brain Dump Method.
Spend about 25 minutes reviewing a topic and then write down everything that you can remember without your notes on an empty sheet of paper. Once you’ve done that, pull out your notes and fill in the things that you missed in a different color.
– Making connections to other material.
This is also called contextual learning and allows your brain to understand and learn faster because it makes sense with other concepts that you have learned. This method gives you a bigger picture view of the material.
– The Teach Back Method.
Once you feel that you have a firm grasp of a concept, try to teach it back to a friend. This will ensure that you know and understand a topic well enough to be able to pass the information on.
- Keep yourself from burning out
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The way that I keep myself on track is by planning out my schedule for the day. This entails all of the things that I hope to accomplish and how long each item will take so that I have a game plan. Then, to keep my focus, I set a timer for 25 minutes and work hard during that time and then proceed to give myself a five minute break where I can get up and walk around, grab a snack, refill my water bottle or just relax for a couple of minutes and scroll through social media. Once my break time is up, I set my timer for another 25 minutes and get back to work. This is known as the Pomodoro method and has been highly recommended for years.
- Practice questions, practice questions, practice questions
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There’s no better way to see how much you know or how effective your studying has been than by putting it to the test. Some teachers may provide practice questions or may post previous year’s tests in order to help direct their students’ studying. It’s important to not take these too early, but rather as you reach the end of your studying. It will not be as beneficial to test yourself if you feel lost and confused on practice problems.
There are many quick little fixes that can help you have the best semester yet. It may be challenging to change from your old ways, but trying just one or two of these may lead to a huge increase in your GPA. Incorporating these ideas early in the semester will allow you to start off strong instead of playing catch up with the rest of the semester. When in doubt, try something new out.