Have you ever found yourself reading through pages of your textbook or class notes and in the blink of an eye, you have let your mind wander, and you can’t recall what you were even reading about? If you are trying to get a high mark in a really tough course, it’s important for you to consider the key tactics that can help you be a successful student. One of the most important ones is learning how to study properly and efficiently.
5 Tips to Study Properly
Here are 5 tips and tricks to be able to retain, communicate, and demonstrate new knowledge from studying properly:
1. Don’t Leave it Until the Last Minute:
This sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s astonishing how many students don’t make time to study until the night before. Your brain can only handle so much information at once, studying for the entire test can overwhelm your mind and make it difficult to remember what you’re reading in the first place. The other factor to consider is, it’s human nature to get discouraged when there is so much to do, and so little time, which means when you have 5 chapters to study in 8 hours, it’s probably going to be hard to focus and keep on track.
2. Plan your studying:
Take time to make a schedule for your studying. Commit to a regular schedule that leaves you feeling accomplished instead of overwhelmed. If you have 1 week until your test/exam, then put aside the same amount of time every day to study until the day of the test. It could be 30 mins a day or 2 hours a day, depending on the amount of information you have to study.
3. Manage Your Time Accordingly:
For the best results on an exam and to actually learn the information, rather than just temporarily memorizing it, break up studying the material into sections and go through them over a few days. On the last day before the exam, it’s good to touch on all of the chapters again, as a refresher, just focusing on the key points. If your test is in 1 week and you have 8 chapters to review, schedule review of 2 chapters per day, and then take the last couple days to re-review the notes you made during your original review.
4. Work through it in sections:
You can section off your studying, like the example above, by the number of chapters per day or you can break it into other sections that align with the sequence of the modules your instructor taught the course material in. Whatever works best for you and ensures that you are not trying to work through the entire course material in 1 or 2 sittings. If you make an outline during your plan, then you will have that guideline to follow each day you sit to work through your studying.
5. Ask Your Teacher Questions:
So many students are confused or unsure about what exactly is going to be on the exam, what the essay is about, or anything regarding the course, the funny thing is, the teacher is there to answer your questions, but so many students are afraid or couldn’t be bothered to ask. If you’re unclear about something, ask the teacher. Sometimes, if it’s too specific about an exam, they won’t be able to give you the answer, but at the very least, they can help point you in the right direction. Any information is useful information when trying to answer a question, so don’t be afraid to ask away.
6. Relate It To Real Life
Find ways to relate what you are studying to your own life. Studying health care? Find someone who had the diagnosis you are studying and talk to them about it. Studying business? Find a business person with the problem you have and apply what you’ve learned to their scenario. By relating what you’ve learned to real life you will learn it rather than memorizing it.
Ensuring you study properly for an exam can seem like a huge task, but if you plan your studying in sections and manage your time well, you can really achieve some great results and get through those tough courses and exams a lot easier.
