If you think you’re doing as much as you can when you study and your grades don’t reflect the effort you’re putting in, these tips might be the key
keep your energy up: it’s no use studying if you’re too tired to process the information, after all so before you start studying make sure that you aren’t feeling sluggish or tired. To combat this, I recommend:
exercise: do 10 pushups, jumping jacks, or dance around for a few minutes before you start working or anytime you catch yourself drifting
eat something: one of the best things to do if you’re sluggish is to drink water. Keep water by you while you study and eat some healthy foods like apples, bananas, and almonds.
be smart about where you study: don’t study in bed!!!! Your brain associates your bed with sleep and you will feel tired if you study in bed. Find a quiet, well lit area with lots of room for the most effective studying. Make sure you have water (and food) on hand. The ambiance of where you study is also very important:
don’t listen to music: you might think that you study better when listening to music, but you don’t. It’s been proven that listening to music while working is a form of multitasking, which slows down your efficiency. If you really want to listen to music, listen to instrumental music or songs you don’t know and a low volume. I personally like listening to ambiance noises when I’m studying.
lighting is important: a dark studying environment isn’t helpful for obvious reasons. Turn on a lamp to keep you awake and alert. (Make sure you turn the brightness down on your electronics, though. The strain put on your eyes by bright blue light does more harm than good).
draw up a plan: have 3 subjects to study for? It looks a lot less daunting if you break it up into manageable chunks. Maybe decide to study chemistry for 30 minutes then move on to math for an hour. Plan this out several days in advance so that you can have something of a weekly schedule. Beyond that, plan how you’re going to study for the subject. For example, plan to read your math notes then do a practice quiz instead of just giving an amount of time.
put away distractions: all the studying advice in the world can’t help you if you’re getting distracted every few minutes by your phone. Put it in another room or with your parents or use an app to block procrastination. Close extra tabs, clear clutter from your study space, and turn off your notifications. Be ruthless in clearing away distractions.
study smart: I’ve talked about this before, but being an active studyer is way more helpful than being passive. Passive studying is reading your textbook or notes without engaging in any other way. A way to actively study a textbook could be to highlight as you go through or to take notes. The best ways to actively study are to teach someone else and to do practice tests (some more examples are making study guides and working out problems out loud).
understanding is key: understanding the material goes a long way in preparing you because pure memorization without understanding is how people study for hours and still fail. A good rule of thumb to see if you understand a topic is if you can teach it, you know it. However, with things you need to memorize like formulas and vocabulary, study those (my favorite way is to create acrostics) a little every day.
use different methods for one topic: even if you’re actively studying, using one method can become horribly monotonous. Plus, if you attack from all angles you have a much better chance at understanding. Make flashcards to go along with notes, draw charts and diagrams, and make mind maps.
watch videos and get outside help: there are a lot of credible websites out there like Khan Academy and Crash Course if you need an extra lesson on a topic you haven’t quite mastered.
take breaks: space out your studying! Maybe later I’ll make a post on how to cram, but a big reason cramming isn’t as advantageous is that you can’t break up your studying. 15 minutes every day is a lot of cumulative studying and way better than studying 3 hours in a panic the day before. Taking breaks during a longer studying session is also helpful. I like to utilize the pomodoro method, which is longer study sessions broken up by short breaks.
join a study group: study groups or study buddies can be super helpful in understanding material, as the other people are learning with you. Then might explain it in a way that makes more sense to you, or you might test your understanding by explaining something to them. Make sure you actually study though, it’s all to easy to lose a few hours to messing around on your phones together. Keep each other in check, don’t be enablers
