Study Tips for Humanities Students:
Credentials: I am doing a BA and experience a moderate level of academic success.
1. Study your syllabus before committing to any one course.
If you have good professors it will be clear and concise, listing class expectations and summarising assessments and grade distribution. With this information in mind, you can plan more effectively for your deadlines.
The final essay is worth 50% and you know what it’s going to be on? Might as well commit to a topic early on and research it thoroughly instead of combing through every single reading. It’s about a particular story? Artwork? Historical period? Overanalyse the shit out of that one and listen especially closely when the lecturer mentions it.
2. Colour-code your highlighters.
Whether you use digital or paper copy readings, colour-code your highlighters as needed. In specific cases, I’ll write up a key on the first page. For example, in history classes I sort highlighters by dates/numbers, people’s names, locations, and important facts.
If you want a more general model, I sort my theory highlighting into three categories: Words I don’t know, keywords, and important information. A lot of academic essays are contextual info, jargon, and connectives which won’t aid your understanding. This method has been extremely helpful, especially when you’re trying to accumulate quotes for an essay.
3. Plan your essays in advance and send the plans to your TA.
Your TA may not be able to give feedback on the essay itself, but all my TAs so far have been more than willing to review plans and provide brief feedback. Ask for help with things you struggle with, or criteria you usually lose points on. For me, I ask for feedback on my thesis statement, flow of argument and argument organisation. If there are any glaring errors they will usually address it of their own volition, so there’s no need to ask for a fact check.
4. Speak your plan out loud before writing.
I only use this method in dire situations where writer’s block is about to end my academic career. Sometimes, speaking your points aloud helps your brain produce better connective words and sentences. Listen back to it, and this should help you link the quotes, analysis, etc., between and within paragraphs more effectively.
5. Some readings are fucking useless.
I’ve seen a lot of advice circulating on here that you should “read everything,” including the recommended readings. If you want to have any sort of life please don’t do that!
In my experience, it is very noticeable when a teacher assigns too much reading. You need to train yourself to essentially bullshit your way through. For example, during my second semester one of my professors was assigning a 400 page book every week. I shit you fucking not EVERY WEEK. Needless to say, I was not gonna fucking finish all of that. Instead, I would read the first 20-30 pages, a reasonable amount, to get an idea of the book. If it’s still not making sense you can consider looking up a summary (do not use AI, it will give you misinformation). In class, talk about the parts you did read and what you thought was interesting in them, rather than tackling what you don’t know.
In terms of recommended readings, definitely look over the list! See if any of them are available in your school library, and take out any of the ones which genuinely interest you. There’s no need to overwhelm yourself.
It’s important to maintain balance between your academic and social life in order to maintain your sanity.
6. Use the index.
Sounds obvious, right? WRONG. At the back of academic books there will be an index of key words. If your essay is on a specific topic LOOK IN THE INDEX. It’s even easier to track down key words on digital documents because you can just search the PDF for word matches.
Read the full academic essay, it’s only 10-30 pages anyway, but there’s no point in reading a 500 page book only to find it mentions your topic once. Do not bother reading full books for tight essay deadlines, it will drive you insane. Full books can be enjoyed when you have time between semesters, but to preserve your mind you must resist.
7. Notes notes notes!
I always take notes. Obsessively and insanely. It helps me keep information on a page and not in my head so I don’t get overwhelmed by taking multiple, unrelated courses. This obviously helps with revision when the time comes, but it also helps me track down ideas for essays and keep up with tangential information from lecturers or classmates.
I’m a fast typer so I just… write every single thing that is said out loud down. That sounds really daunting, but you hardly have to be as methodical to be a successful note-taker. Copying from the slides is totally okay. I understand why it’s usually discouraged because it doesn’t help you form memories, but I swear these people speak 100 miles a minute sometimes. Relying on the slides is a necessary evil. And if you participate in class discussions and do your readings it shouldn’t be too hard to remember the general contents of each lecture.
A step above from this is refining your lecture notes. I try to go through and re-read all my notes once a week, formatting them into a very pretty and cohesive word document which is an accumulation of everything I’ve learned. This allows me to be more concise and reorganise information from lecturers who have a bit more of a lax lecture style. Some courses don’t need this level of organisation because they aren’t presenting you with a high volume of new facts. Don’t redo your notes unless it helps you.
8. Mid-term and final breakdowns.
I “break down” my mid-term and final assignments into a set of to-do lists. This helps me feel more accomplished at each stage of essay production and focus my attention on the next step forward.
A sample to-do list might look like this:
Midterm essay on X
Plan
Email TA plan
Implement TA feedback
Introduction
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 3
Conclusion
Citations
Appendix
Submit
9. Blacklist professors, subjects and subject areas which piss you off.
Self-explanatory. I just have a notes page with people and topics I don’t fuck with. So you can remember them and avoid their course offerings at all costs.
10. Create clear goals.
Have very clear and simple goals in mind every month. During finals my goals were literally just “get assignment x in on time, get assignment y in on time”. Having a marker for success can make the passage of time feel more tangibly meaningful. Marking your progress can be very powerful to look back on, and helps me acknowledge my accomplishments or reflect on why I couldn’t quite meet my expectations.
11. Pay attention to emails.
But don’t dwell on them. Read through all the opportunities available and if you’re not interest don’t entertain it. Delete the email. This way, you don’t miss opportunities, you just choose which ones to take. Much more autonomous, and establishes a stronger internal locus of control.
12. Have a rest day.
On Sundays I do no work. Absolutely zero. If I have something important coming up I might check emails to see if anything comes through. I can do anything but work. If I’m tired, I laze on my laptop, write fanfiction, or watch YouTube. If I’m feeling motivated I’ll do some beadwork, sewing, paint my nails, etc. This is a time to prepare for the week ahead by resetting your mind. It gives you a moment to process WTF just happened, while letting you explore your hobbies.
I also take this opportunity to wash my hair, cut my toenails, and moisturise my skin. It’s not an “everything shower” because I’m autistic and would rather boil all my skin off, but it is the parts of hygiene that I struggle with most. Having a regular time to do that is both gratifying, because I am more consistent, and good for my body. During finals this system pretty much collapses, but it keeps me grounded and makes me feel safe during the semester.
Overall advice: It’s important to know your limits. Don’t push yourself to do any of this if it’s beyond your capacity. If you burn out you will underperform. If your goal is optimal performance, you need to optimise and personalise for you. Your study habits are a sum of all the academic advice you have been given. Take what is useful and let the rest go.
