Studying isn’t the most enjoyable activity I can think of. It would be even worse if you spent time on studying, only to find that you don’t remember anything and have to do it again. Many students find themselves in this situation, but it can be easily avoided! Here are some study tips to ensure that you’re getting the most out of the time you spend studying.
Don’t “do a little here and a little there”
Try to allocate specific time for your study. Allocate a certain amount t of time to study and study in that time. For example, if you know that you will need about half an hour to do your maths homework, allocate half an hour to do it. Don’t do it in between other activities like making spaghetti or looking at memes or whatever you do to keep you not bored in your free time. This will ensure that you get your work done and done well.
Don’t try break the world record for longest study session
Your name might appear in the book but not in the list of top students! Instead, try study in chunks of 1 hour- max! If you’re anything like me, you study productively for like 45 minutes and then start getting distracted by things like that smudge on your desk that needs to be removed RIGHT NOW. The time it takes for this to happen differs from person to person, but I am yet to meet someone that can study WELL for more than an hour.
Music??
I won’t tell you to listen to Mozart while you study because personally I’m not a big fan. In my experience, I have found that when you’re doing tasks that don’t require much mental effort or tasks that you might find aren’t very engaging, you can listen to whichever wubs you want. Sometimes music will even help you concentrate on these tasks.
However, when it comes to more challenging things like studying for tests and understanding difficult concepts, music is a big no no. I have yet to experiment with Mozart helping you study, but I won’t be doing that for a while.
Long paragraphs won’t stick
When you need to learn a concept, or remember a list of steps, study hacks will be very helpful. For example, if you need to remember the periodic table, you can make a story out of it. An example story would be: One day you walk into the local shopping centre, but the fire alarm goes off because there is a H-bomb (HYDRODEN) that in the carpark. So, you run outside and grab hold of a couple balloons (HELIUM) which carries you up and away from the inevitable fact that you were going to die. Next, a battery (LITHIUM) falls from the skies and pops one of your balloons…….. you get the point. You can use any story that you will remember- often the weirder it is the better you will remember it.