10 Study Tips that will Boost your Results
1. Set Study Goals
There is lots of credible research
suggesting that goal setting can be used as part of a strategy to help people
successfully effect positive changes in their lives, so never underestimate the
power of identifying to yourself the things you want to achieve. Just make sure
to ask
yourself some key questions: Am I setting realistic goals? Will I need
to work harder to achieve those goals? If you’re happy with the goals you’ve
set then you should aim to develop your study plan for the year ahead with your
goals in mind. Which, as it happens, leads us to Tip #2!
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2. Make a Study Plan
Time is precious. Nobody is more
aware of this than the poor student who hasn’t studied a thing until the night
before an exam. By then, of course, it’s too late. The key to breaking the
cycle of cramming for tests is to think ahead and create an effective
study plan. Not only will this help you get organised and
make the most of your time, it’ll also put your mind at ease and eliminate that
nasty feeling you get when you walk into an exam knowing that you’re not at all
prepared. As the old saying goes, fail to prepare and be prepared to fail.
3. Take Regular Study Breaks
None
of us are superhuman, so it’s important to realise that you can’t maintain an
optimum level of concentrationwithout giving
yourself some time to recover from
the work you’ve put in. This can take the form of a ten-minute walk, a trip to
the gym, having a chat with a friend or simply fixing yourself a hot drink. If
it feels like procrastination, then rest assured that it’s not: taking regular
short breaks not only help improve your focus, they can boost your productivity
too.
4. Embrace New Technologies
Studying no longer means jotting
things down with a pen on a scrap of paper. The old handwritten method still
has its place of course, it’s just that now there are more options for
personalising study that ever before. Whether it’s through online tools, social
media, blogs, videos or mobile apps, learning has become more fluid and
user-centred. If you want to try a new learning technology, GoConqr’s free
platform is a
great place to start, even if we do say so ourselves!
5. Test Yourself
It’s a strange thing, but sometimes
simply entering an exam environment is enough to make you forget some of the
things you’ve learned. The solution is to mentally prepare for the pressure of
having to remember key dates, facts, names, formulas and so on. Testing
yourself with regular quizzes is a great way of doing this. And don’t worry of
you don’t perform brilliantly at first – the more you practice, the better
you’ll become. Don’t believe us? Then just take a peek at what the experts have to say.
6. Find a Healthy Balance
Take this opportunity to evaluate
yourself both physically and mentally. Is your engine running on low? Instead
of complaining "I never get enough sleep” or "I’m eating too much
convenience food” take control and do something about it! Make
the change and see how
it positively affects your attitude and study routine. This should motivate you
to maintain a healthy balance in the future.
7. Be Positive
Your attitude has a big impact on
the level of study that you get done and the effectiveness of your learning
process. If you keep saying that you can’t do it and won’t commit to the idea
of learning, attempting to study is only likely to become more difficult.
Instead, focus your mind on positive outcomes and on how
you can use your own individual strengths to achieve them. When you
think positively, the reward centres in your brain show greater activity,
thereby making you feel less anxious and more open to new study tips.
8. Collaborate with Study Partners
At this stage of the school year,
you should know your classmates pretty well. This is a good point in time to
select a couple of study partners who you know you work well with and are motivated to achieve good
grades also. Don’t worry if you can’t meet up too often, you can use online
tools such as GoConqr’s Groups tool to communicate and share study
notes with one another.
9. Turn lessons into stories
Everybody likes to read or listen
to a good story, and with good reason – not only do stories entertain us, they
help us to understand and memorise key details too. You can apply this to your
studies by weaving important details or facts into a story – the more
outlandish and ridiculous you can make it, the better (since you’ll be more likely to
remember a particularly crazy story).
10. Establish a Study Routine
Your study routine is comprised of
more than planning what to learn and when. One of the main concerns is your study
environment.
Find a place to study that is quiet
and with few distractions. Alternatively, you could also try switching it up by
sitting in a different place in your school library every day and seeing how
this works for you.
11. Mark Small Challenges
When you have to face very long and
dense subjects, you can set small challenges to keep your spirits high; a good
way to focus on
the day-to-day and find motivations while you study. According to
scientific analysis, the more motivated and excited we are, the better our
brain performs.
12. Consult teachers
Any questions you have
about the exam, the best you can do is go to the teacher of the subject and
expose your doubts. Not only is the person best suited to solve your questions,
but your initiative will be well received and you’ll show
good attitude by demonstrating that you’re
interested in his subject.
There really aren’t any hard and
fast rules to play by when it comes to best times for studying or how long you
should work for. Everybody is different, so the best way to establish a routine
is to try
different things and see what works best for you, then modify your
routine for maximum learning effectiveness.
This
is an update of a blog post that was originally published in January 2015.