Tips on How to Study Better
Lets face it, studying is not fun, but it needs to be done. Here are 10 tips on how to study better:
- Study 25-50 Minutes Then Take 10-15 Minute Breaks
Study for 25- 50 minutes then during your break, get your blood flowing, step outside and get fresh air or go for a walk, play with your dog, do jumping jacks or push-ups then go back and study for another 25-50 minutes and continue to repeat this pattern until you are finished studying. Taking these study breaks will help your brain process and store information better, which in turn will help you to study better.
- Get 6-8 Hours of Sleep After Learning Something
According to Dr. James B. Mass (Author of Sleep for Success) Getting 6-8 hours of sleep after learning something will help you to remember it better than if you had a poor night’s sleep. Sleeping is essential for your brain to function better and more quickly and properly. If you’re sleep deprived, take a 15-30 minute nap before you study, but no longer than 30 minutes. Sleeping more than 30 minutes can cause your body and brain to get thrown off and interrupt your sleeping pattern. Your sleeping routine can affect your study habits tremendously. Following a regular sleeping pattern will help you to study better.
- Take Notes in Class
To study better, it is important to take notes yourself, don’t copy from others. Copying someone else’s notes is not the same as taking them yourself in class. By taking notes in class, you’re engaging your brain and it will allow you to remember more of the information you’re taking in. Copying someone else’s notes is basically trying to understand their thought process without being present.
- Clean Your Mind of All Distractions
Focus on the task at hand by clearing your mind, visualize things as you wish them to be, then focus on your studying. Clearing your mind helps you to shift your attention to your studies. To study better, you need to physically prepare your mind to open up to the learning material. Having a ton of distractions will cause your brain to juggle too many thoughts to process any one thing.
- Keyword Technique
Choose a word to get your focus back, if your mind drifts, say the keyword until you are refocused. Using this keyword technique helps trigger your mind, causing your brain to get back on track. For example, if you are studying about President Lincoln, the term Lincoln can be your trigger word. Repeat it to yourself, until you are focused again. This is a useful technique to keep you centered on your learning material.
- Learn The Most Important Ideas First
Recaps and bulleted notes are where you can find most of the important details in an article. These recaps and bulleted notes can usually be found at the beginning of the book as learning objectives or at the end of the book. Remember these ideas, then look for those details whenever you’re studying. Learning the most important things first, can help you to study better, by filtering out the unnecessary details.
- Familiarize Yourself with the Glossary
See if there is a list of term or glossary or definition at the end of the book, if so, familiarize yourself with the terms or even memorize them. It’ll give you a greater comprehension of the material that you’re studying. It is important to understand what you are learning. By understanding what you are learning, it can make studying the material much easier to follow.
- Chew Gum As You’re Studying
Chew gum while you are studying, then when you’re taking the test, chew that same flavor of gum during the test. Scientific studies have proven that, this trick will trigger your mind to remember what you were reading and studying, the last time you were chewing that gum. It’s your brain’s way of traveling to what is familiar.
This is similar to looking back at old pictures and remembering how you felt in each of those photos. Seeing those old photos triggers the same feeling you had when they were taken. Chewing the same flavor gum while studying and taking a test follows the same concept.
- Trick Your Brain into Thinking that What You’re Reading is a Plot to a Movie Script
Sometimes what we’re learning just isn’t that interesting and our minds can not grasp it because we do not have a sincere passion for the material. If you trick your mind to believe it’s a movie or TV show, it’ll excite your mind and help you to pay attention more.
- Use The Mind Palace Technique
This one is the favorite of all the tips, because it is so helpful with your memory skill as well. The first step is to stand in the front entry way of your home or classroom and pick out 5 important pieces of furniture in that room. Then take the information that you’re learning and visualize it around the classroom.
For example: Pretend you’re taking a Chemistry test and you need to remember the noble gases in the element chart. The first noble gas is Helium, so you take the helium and attach it to the first furniture you picked out. Say the first piece of furniture you picked was the chalkboard, so imagine some balloons all around that board. (Balloons=Helium) So whenever you look at the board, it triggers you to remember the term helium. Then the next noble gas is neon, and the next piece of furniture, you picked was the teacher’s desk. So pretend there’s neon lights wrapped around the teacher’s desk. By connecting these pieces of furniture with the elements in this way, your visual help is all around you. When you see the teacher’s desk, it will trigger the thought of neon. This technique was created to help you utilize your memory ability.
Knowing how to study better will not only save you time, it will help you improve academically, prevent frustration and help your comprehension skills. Using these 10 tips will make you feel more confident in your studies. By applying these study skills, you’ll also develop your own personal approach on how to study better. Study skills are transferable skills that you can take in to your professional life. Knowing how to study better is important to your overall ability.
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