September 29, 2008 at 8:00 am
How can I get the most out of my study sessions?
Photo by design to forget 
Another school year has started, and by now the reality has set in: Summer is over and it’s time to get serious and hit those books. It’s an ideal time to improve study habits that may have gotten a little rusty over the last few months. After all, it takes time to develop good habits, and a fresh school year gives students the opportunity to jump-start their academic identities. Here are some of my tips to help reinvigorate your academic career.
- Get your stuff together: Make sure everything you need is in one place. Nothing will derail a productive study session like interruptions for finding pencils, paper, or that textbook you left who-knows-where. Find a place where you can keep all of your supplies orderly and ready. When I was younger, I had a basket to put my school supplies in. When I was in high school and college, I had a box in the trunk of my car for studying-on-the-go.
- Find a place where you can work comfortably: I like ambient noise when I am working (or studying). Some people need silence-I need a little hustle and bustle going on around me. My ideal study spot is a coffeehouse-preferably with free Wi-Fi. It keeps me steadily caffeinated and occasionally offers just the right kind of temporary diversion.
- Work in short bursts: The “right kind of temporary diversion” I mentioned earlier keeps me from getting overwhelmed. I’ve also found that explaining what I’ve just read to someone else (usually my unwitting study-buddy) helps the information stick more firmly in my memory.
- Eat healthy snacks while you study: The brain consumes about one-third of the calories we consume every day. My hit list includes broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and sugar snap peas. I’m also a big fan of dried fruit (sulfur-free!) and protein bars. I find I’m much more productive if I’m not dreaming of my next meal.
- Get organized: Know what you need to do before you sit down to do it. I love lists, and my favorite thing about lists is checking completed tasks off of them. Keeping track of tasks (whether in list form or otherwise) will also help circumvent any forgetfulness.
What study tips and environments work for you?
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Hints for studying math in particular: A well-regarded math teacher once suggested that we should vary the ways we tackled math.
— Sometimes we should just chunk through the homework assignment, if other work was too pressing.
— Sometimes we should work each problem very slowly, striving for total accuracy and for understanding the concepts throroughly.
— Sometimes we should pretend we were working against time, like on an SAT test, and try to get the right answer as quickly as possble.
— If we were “silence is golden” people who had a hard time with distracting noise, we should try doing homework problems on the bus or somewhere with music and conversation going on. It would be an uphill fight, but good training. In today’s work world, the ability to concentrate in a distracting environment is worth its weight in gold.
— On the other hand, if we thought we needed background noise, we should work in a quiet environment once in a while. We might be surprised if we calibrated how quickly and how accurately our work turned out in each case.
— If we were constantly getting stuck and giving up, we should get a study buddy we could phone, or find an on-line tutor or help site.
My mom was a big fan of mental math. She would give us consumer-type problems to solve in our heads as we rode along in the car. At the time we felt like a captive audience. Later on we appreciated being able to compare prices, figure gas mileage, and estimate expenses, all without pencil and paper or a calculator.
Math is a subject where you’re either right or wrong. You can slide through with a mediocre essay in history, or a sloppy art project, but in the math world it’s accuracy that counts. That said, with scientific and consumer math you should know about “significant figures”. Basically that’s knowing how far to carry out an uneven answer for it to still mean something.
weeeeee
Thanks, I am always looking for great tips to help me!
…ah…i think you should first set you mind and come back to reality that summer is totally over…and school’s already here..always remember this, do not wait anymore for the perfect time to come. What if it doesnt come for you? Dont wait until it’s too late. What you will need is your courage to start studying and plain common sense…
The strategy that has always worked well for me is to develop a memory link that helps to trigger the necessary information. Sometime the sillier the mnemonic or clue the clearer the mind picture is to assist you with remembering what you study.
Acting things out, singing rhymes, writing out connections, developing a phrase that is unique to you
are fun ways to tickle those neurons into coming through for you.
Good luck. May you find that this is a great and fun way to invest in lifelong learning!
highlighter pen, pink, yellow, red, list the importants one yellow, fact ones pink, test questions red, it take time to learn this but you will carry it threw college and into your working field.
Hearing, seeing, and speaking. Use all 3.
I like onenote, you can add texts from the internet and they give you the link right there
But I’m not in school anymore, I only work for personal stuff.
But when I was in school I liked to organize first the matter on subjects with …
what the heck, learn only what you like to learn this is the ultimate memory boost
That is why, one should go to a university she/he likes and she/he really want to work in that domain later in life, not because your parents said so or your teachers in school told you you should or because it’s more profitable on finding a job later
follow your talent your instincts, then to learn is easy
Learning subjects with overwhelming amounts of text, or narrative subjects (like history or biology in particular) is always better when you’re studying in a group. The three of us study medicine, and we find it very helpful to
- Take turns reading out loud while others follow the text, and take turns stressing out the important concepts, writing them down, drawing graphs, etc.
- After the end of each chapter, everyone repeats all that we’ve learned so far in a couple of short sentences
- At “milestones”, we ask each other questions that professors would and try to make them as complicated or as silly as they would (useful for oral exams, such as at our school)
- And when we’re having breaks it’s 10 times more fun than having them alone. Laughter heals, and so does the well deserved glass of beer/cup of coffee/chocolate cake to call it a day
Pros:
- If you’re tired you have someone to “pull” you
- You get to repeat everything a couple of times, at the speed you’d never achieve if you were studying alone
- You get to think of techniques to remember things together (mnemonics, songs, stupid ideas, silly drawings), and share ideas which might not come to anyone on their own
- You waste no time dragging around the house/checking E-mail/talking on the phone, and you leave that to after studying.
- You must be sure to bring a camera, because funny things happen, especially when all the people are exhausted from work
Cons:
- It might be difficult if you have different goals (for example if you aim for different marks)
- It might be difficult if someone in the group has so little previous knowledge, but only so if they can’t learn on the way
- It might be difficult to find an environment that suits all the people
- You have to think about feeding all the people and if someone has to prepare food for a whole day of studying, be sure to help him/her around (and make sure it’s the food that is easy enough to make and that everyone likes)
So, with exams consisting of 600 pages on average (from 300 to a bit over a thousand), and of between one and three books, it seems that I’ve master the craft of making something – just plain too long
I always work in a quiet place. I couldn’t concentrate when there’s boisterous laughter or anything like that around me. One tip coming from me is to focus. If you allow things to distract you, then you would not achieve your desired “study session result”.
Okay. I know this may seem silly, but this is my favorite method of studying. It takes a little while, but is great if you have an hour or two for cramming and REALLY want to learn the information, at least so you can get an A on the test.
It looks long with 9 steps, BUT its really really short. The steps are quick and can always be skipped. Especially the calming song and snack, the AIM-ing question game, the index card review and whatever else.
FIRST: Take the time (about 3 minutes) to listen to a relaxing song. I like Yesterday, the lullaby version with out words.
WHILE: listening to the song, I eat raw vegitables or a packet of 100 calorie almonds. I pick a healthy drink.(like green tea, hot or cold, carbonated water with lemon or lime, or water). Maybe, if I want an energy boost that’s still semi-healthy I drink a FUZE with Super Citrimax and Vitamin C.
SECOND: I read through my notes, very very quickly, skimming mostly and reading what I do not understand at all.
THIRD: I make a “question list” or as my previous history teacher called it “an identify and explian answer” list. It sounds more complecated then it is, so let me show you. (using History of course because this is where I learned the method first):
—————————————————————————
What is the Greek word for city-state?
- polis
What three components did most city-states have?
-fort
-city
-the lands and small farming villages that provided its food
What thee things was the concept of a polis was based on?
1. geographical territory
2. community it represented
3. political and economical independence that it produced
Over time, what did the Greek polis come to represent?
-center of Greek identity
What did Greeks see a polis as?
-self-sufficient
-independent
In what four ways were the Greek city-states were alike?
1. covered small areas of land
2. populations of fewer than 10,000 people
3. original forts built on acropolis
4. each had an agora
——————————————————————————
FOURTH: I study by repitition. Sometimes with a “in person” study buddy. Sometimes alone with my dog at the foot of my bed.
FIFTH: I make acronyms along the side of the paper when I come up with them, I always use numbers or letters to help remind me there are “this many” things to know and remember for this question.
SIXTH: After I am done studying from the questions, I use an index card to cover the answer (which is why the answer is always below and NOT next to the question). I usually study in 30 to 50 minute study periods.
SEVENTH: After I think I thouroughly know the questions and answers, I read the chapters quickly as I can out load, it helps me to remember the little details and is helpful for essays unprepared, unknown and “on the spot” during a test.
EIGHTH: Next I Instant Message a friend back and forth the questions and the answers. WITHOUT USING MY NOTES.
NINTH: I reread my notes.
I am done and take the copy of questions with me to class and reread them whenever I have a chance.
Colorcoding is great too.
Yellow: people
Blue: wars
Green: events
Purple: why it is important today
Orange: dates
If you like index cards you can paste the question and answer unto an index card so its semi neat.
GOOD LUCK! Hope this helps.
Prepare a time table for all subjects and be regular.
Best of luck.
ok it has been proven, that people in studying remember the middle section the most
so….
if you have five little sessions of studding
as opposed to one big one….. you have five middles.
index cards are great. question on front, answer back
do fill in bank true and false. NEvER do ones with multiple choice…reason being if only one out of four answers is right, you are unconciously picking uo the wrong answers and remembering them as well
go to the first couple of pages of your textbook. many have an onlne cource companinoin and if your subject is say early colonization you can read online in more detail and pick up same info in better detail and maybe in a way that clicks with you more
It has been proven that while studying, to tamper will a small something as in a phone battery or a rock, can help you absorb knowledge! Don’t ask me how i have noooo idea why!