By: Annisa Chiraz
Studying is something we all have to do, whether we like it or not. In school, in college, university, or in the office, studying efficiently will always be an essential part of our lives. Personally after getting to know these tips, I now genuinely enjoy studying. Below are five tips that I would recommend to anyone who wants to study better and more effectively.
Tip 1: Make a study plan
Most of the time I can never do something without having it scheduled beforehand. Same goes with studying. Making a study plan or a study guide for yourself will really help you set things in proportion and see them as a whole image. Two essential things on what should be included in your study plan would be the topics that you need to cover/study about (in that day) and also what you are going to be doing during that session of study (whether to take down more notes, to practice problems, just reviewing what you learned today, etc). After you make your study plan, make sure you stick to it.
Tip 2: Review & revise
As a kid I would always only review my work. I’ll look back and forth on the 4 pages from the test paper I got back and just stare at it. In the end, that did absolutely nothing, so instead of just reviewing, make sure you revise. This is especially good after you get your exam/activity papers back from your teacher. Reviewing makes you see what you did and what you should’ve done, whereas revising actually puts you to the test. With that, you would be able to know just how far your actual understanding is and what you need to improve on. So do both, it’ll help you familiarize and understand your topics better.
Tip 3: Make nice notes
This is an extremely hard thing to do in class. Especially when the teacher is giving you a crash course in every single lesson. In class I write as neatly as I can. Not perfect, but still decent and readable at the very least. But when exam week is near, what I usually do is rewrite all my important notes on a separate paper and make sure it looks neat and tidy. Remember to use more than one color when making these notes and use different sizes for your text (for the heading, subheading, body, etc). Writing the same thing more than once does help me remember my topics better. In addition to your notes looking nice, you would have more motivation to study as well.
Tip 4: Take breaks
We all know people who overwork themselves and take zero breaks. I was one of those people (chances are, I still am). It took me long enough to realize that taking breaks can actually help you a lot. With breaks in between your hours, days or weeks of studying, it can help you relax, recharge and find inspiration or even motivation to continue studying and to achieve your goal. Working and studying too much will drive you to the edge, trust me. Take breaks within your time of studying. It can help you regain your energy so that you’ll still be able to study efficiently for all the days to come.
Tip 5: Collaborate with others
There are just some days where you just can’t bring yourself to study or find even the smallest bit of motivation to do so. This is when your friends can be of huge help for you. Not only will you have more motivation when you study with others (especially people you enjoy being around), but you can also help each other out. For example, by sharing notes if your missing some parts of it during class, practicing past papers together, quizzing each other, etc. I’ve never been much for the type to enjoy using the quizzing method as practice when studying. What I do instead is I just teach my friends with all of the topics I’m studying and make sure that they understand what I’m saying. Doing this actually really helps me and I hope it would help you as well.
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