Studying can be a major hurdle for students. Making the most of study time can be particularly challenging as kids head back to school and try to adjust to new classes and sometimes even new surroundings. Studying may be one of the hardest things to do but if you know the skills governing it, you will actually discover that studying is fun.
Here are some major tips to consider before you study:
Time Management – This is often one of the more difficult issues for students to tackle. Between time spent in class, after-school activities and family time, there is very little left for anything else. Sitting down and creating a schedule that works for you is very paramount. Try to know your time and master it. This may actually help you in scheduling your time for study.
Essay Planning – A common theme explored at Education World is the trepidation many students feel when required to write something. They often feel as though the ability to produce a clear and concise thought on paper is beyond them, This is due to a lack of forethought. Thoroughly planning out the essay before sitting down to write it can be a big step toward improvement.
Planning takes time and practice, which is why students often try to skip this crucial stage in their hurry to start writing (particularly in exams). ...This is counterproductive: a well-structured essay, rich in analysis, well-argued and relevant, scores many more marks than something that you try to work out as you go along. Examiners’ top complaint is that students don’t answer the question. That’s because most students don’t plan.
By learning to plan, you can develop your ability to read and interpret, to create logical links and to think laterally. You can stop agonizing over how to introduce and conclude your essay. All this will save you hours of redrafting. And in exams, you’ll score points by the power of thought rather than by purely relying on memory. Knowing that you can do this even under exam pressure is a great confidence-booster.
Memory Tricks – Mnemonics is a very old technique, but one that still works. On its face, it may seem a bit stupid, but for many students this is far more effective than strict memorization. You can actually make this process fun.
Mnemonics are a huge variety of creative 'tricks' which stimulate your right brain, making it easier to retain all kinds of information than by rote learning. Mnemonics involve making imaginative associations, so students with good imaginations love these techniques. (They can also help you to regain your imaginative powers if these have been lost.)
They are particularly useful in subjects such as biology, chemistry and history where names, facts, figures, dates and sequences need to be learned by heart. However, they’re also helpful in other subjects. Mnemonics bring another benefit: they help you to observe what you remember best. This makes you wiser as to how you should process your learning. Mnemonics take all the worry out of relying on your memory and can put some sparkle into your revision.
Mindmapping –This is a visual form of studying that prompts students to literally draw thoughts and ideas on paper so they can be reviewed visually rather than verbally. This technique can be used with students of all age groups.
Mindmapping offers a terrific shortcut to revision and essay planning. You can also use it for brainstorming. It works for most subjects, particularly arts and humanities, but also some sciences. It’s effective even at the highest levels of university education.
It involves sketching out information in a strikingly visual manner, using key words, colors and making use of shapes and space, stimulating your right brain. This encourages lateral thinking. Students who mindmap comment on how easily ideas come to mind with this technique. Mindmaps are also extremely easy to remember. Whether or not you’re any good at drawing, if you’ve got a creative streak, you’ll find mindmapping a liberation in your studies.
Note Taking: Students typically fall into two categories when it comes to note taking; those who write down everything the teachers says verbatim, and those who write almost nothing down. The key to knowing how much to write down lies in the students’ ability to pluck out keywords from a lecture:
It’s not always obvious how to take good notes from books and lectures: often they turn out to be unhelpful if they’re too wordy or too brief. Some students waste time writing everything out neatly or putting their notes into the computer. None of this is necessary. The art of taking good notes lies in identifying key points. This is a very active form of revision which enables you to summarize and absorb vast quantities of information quickly and easily. You’ll save yourself hours of time, and a small fortune on highlighter pens.
