Study Habits

Talk to any successful student and you will find that they have good study habits. Students who achieve good grades in their classrooms apply these study habits to all of their classes. There are certain key practices that make life easier for both the students and the rest of the family when it comes time to study. And, these habits are important for both a high school student and the college student who no longer lives and works at home.

The first thing that students should do is to evaluate how it is they have studied in the past, what has worked and what has failed. At this point, they can then add in new habits that will help them to improve their retention of information and ability to retrieve it.

Here are 13 tips and habits that all students should develop in order to be able to study most effectively.

1. Do not study too much at one time. Reading or doing math problems for more than an hour at a time, without a break, will not be effective. If you take short breaks you can restore your mental energy and increase the amount of material you retain.

2. Try to study at the same time every day and make it a regular part of your daily regimen. When your body and brain recognizes that it is time to study you are more likely to retain more information and achieve your goals. Establishing the same routine everyday helps you to become mentally prepared, much the same way as your body recognizes your normal lunchtime or becomes accustomed to taking a nap in the middle of the afternoon.

3. Do not delay study time because you do not like the assignment or think that it is going to create a problem in your day. Procrastination means that you will find any reason to stop doing your work and results in careless work and a significant amount of errors when you rush to make up wasted time.

4. Schedule the assignments and work that you find either most difficult or dread to be done first. When you begin studying or working on class work you have the most mental energy and it should be expended on the assignments you believe will be the most difficult.

5. Be sure your friends and relatives understand when your study time has been scheduled. Do not accept calls from friends and try to keep your interruptions to a minimum. It is not that easy to get back into the flow of work when your mind has been distracted. You may even consider turning off your cell phone.

6. Don\’t think you can do it all on your own. If you are having trouble with the problem or concepts call a friend who is in class, speak to your professor or teaching assistant to get the help you need. You are only wasting time and energy when you attempt to do something on your own that you may not be able to achieve.

7. Set up a positive mood around the time that you are studying. When you walk in to your study time distracted, in a negative mindset or on schedule you are less likely to stick with your program and achieve the goals you have set out for yourself.

8. Create a variety of work to do when you sit down to study. In other words, spend half an hour or 45 minutes reading, take a quick five-minute stretch breaks and sit back down to do some math problem or hands on work. It is important for your mind to have a variety of tasks in order to stay sharp and continue to retain the information you are feeding it.

9. Keep your information centrally located inside assignment books or in a folder on your computer. Your organizational skills will decrease the amount of time it takes you to pull the information together and learn it as well as decrease the amount of stress you will feel as you search for information.

10. Whether or not you keep on the radio is a personal choice. There has been some research to indicate that young people are able to focus as well when music is on as when it\’s not. However, the television should be off because most people are unable to function and focus with the television.

11. Younger students benefit greatly from having a designated area for homework and study. Especially elementary school and high school students will benefit from having a room, desk or table where distraction has been eliminated.

12. Most students also find that recopying material helps to ingrain the material in their memory. However, this recopying must be done using paper and pen to work effectively.

13. During study sessions stop when you feel yourself getting frustrated. Little to no learning can take place when you are angry or upset over an assignment. Get help with the assignment or task from another student, or just put it aside for a period of time until your frustration level has decreased.