Where has all the time gone? One minute you’re unpacking your room after winter break and suddenly you’ve found yourself up to your neck in papers, projects, and review sheets. Now if you’re feeling a little like this:
Then we’ve got just the thing for you, the top 5 study tips to keep you on track during a study session.
1. Eliminate all distractions
Perhaps the most obvious start to any study session should be to put away your phone and stay off websites that will distract from what you’re doing (unless of course you’re reading articles on Her Campus, because in that case, click away). But in all seriousness, it’s very important that you are wholly focused on what you are studying in order to retain the most information.
2. Set goals
Sometimes 24 hours does not seem like enough time to get everything done but look at it this way: you have the same amount of hours each day as Beyoncé, the only difference is how you’re using them. When you’re having a cram session, a good way to keep you on task and make sure you’re getting through everything you need to know is to organize exactly what you need to go over before even cracking your books open. If possible, even set time limits that you plan to dedicate to each section, that way you already know what you need to do and timing yourself gives you more incentive to keep going.
When you set goals for yourself, you can in a way trick yourself. Say you have a bunch of reading to catch up on. Tell yourself once you finish a chapter you’ll stop reading but keep reading even when you reach the end of the chapter.
3. Summarize important information.
Going back through your notes can seem daunting because there’s so much information to get through, but using summarization methods such as highlighting and making flashcards can help emphasize key points and help you remember them. You can even use apps such as Study Blue that let you create flashcards and you can add pictures, text, and audio and have them right on your phone so you can study no matter where you are.
4. Practice makes perfect
Now this step really depends on what your professor is like but a lot of times when a sit-down exam is being given, one of the best studying strategies you can use is putting yourself in a test-like situation. You could try finding questions similar to what you’ve had on previous exams or quizzes and even try coming up with some of your own that you think might appear on the test and just practicing being in the actual exam. This can be very helpful in finding areas you need to work on and can make you feel more comfortable when you’re in the actual test environment.
5. Reward yourself
So many people think that they need to cram all the information in at once and will not stop until they’ve memorized every word, but it’s just as important that you take adequate breaks as well. For example, tell yourself “I’ll read x amount of chapters and then I’ll watch an episode of this show” or “I’ll study for twenty minutes then make myself some popcorn then go back to studying.”
Not only will it calm you down, it also helps you retain information. So just relax and: