Mastering the Art of Studying: Effective Strategies for Academic Success

Many students find that their high school study habits aren’t very effective in college. Fortunately, there are many active, effective study strategies that are shown to be effective in college classes. Implementing these tips into your regular study routine will help you to efficiently and effectively learn course material. This article explores various study techniques, from time management to active engagement, to help students of all levels achieve their academic goals, whether in a traditional classroom or an online learning environment.

The Importance of Effective Study Habits

Do you ever feel like your study habits simply aren’t cutting it? Do you wonder what you could be doing to perform better in class and on exams? This is understandable, as college is quite different from high school. The professors are less personally involved, classes are bigger, exams are worth more, reading is more intense, and classes are much more rigorous. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you; it just means you need to learn some more effective study skills. Simply reading and re-reading texts or notes is not actively engaging in the material. It is simply re-reading your notes. Only ‘doing’ the readings for class is not studying. It is simply doing the reading for class. Think of reading as an important part of pre-studying, but learning information requires actively engaging in the material.

Active Engagement: The Key to Deeper Learning

Active engagement is the process of constructing meaning from text that involves making connections to lectures, forming examples, and regulating your own learning. Active studying does not mean highlighting or underlining text, re-reading, or rote memorization. Instead, try these techniques:

Create a study guide by topic: Formulate questions and problems and write complete answers.
Become a teacher: Try to explain the material in your own words, as if you are the teacher. You can do this in a study group, with a study partner, or on your own. Saying the material aloud will point out where you are confused and need more information and will help you retain the information. As you are explaining the material, use examples and make connections between concepts (just as a teacher does). It is okay (even encouraged) to do this with your notes in your hands.
Study in terms of question, evidence, and conclusion: What is the question posed by the instructor/author? What is the evidence that they present?
Creating a quiz: Creating a quiz for yourself will help you to think like your professor. What does your professor want you to know? Quizzing yourself is a highly effective study technique. Make a study guide and carry it with you so you can review the questions and answers periodically throughout the day and across several days. Identify the questions that you don’t know and quiz yourself on only those questions. Say your answers aloud. This will help you to retain the information and make corrections where they are needed. For technical courses, do the sample problems and explain how you got from the question to the answer and re-do the problems that give you trouble.

Organization and Planning: Setting the Stage for Success

Organization and planning will help you to actively study for your courses. When studying for a test, organize your materials first and then begin your active reviewing by topic. Often professors provide subtopics on the syllabi. Use them as a guide to help organize your materials. For example, gather all of the materials for one topic (e.g., PowerPoint notes, text book notes, articles, homework, etc.) and put them together in a pile.

The Study Cycle: The Study Cycle, developed by Frank Christ, breaks down the different parts of studying: previewing, attending class, reviewing, studying, and checking your understanding. Although each step may seem obvious at a glance, all too often students try to take shortcuts and miss opportunities for good learning. For example, you may skip a reading before class because the professor covers the same material in class; doing so misses a key opportunity to learn in different modes (reading and listening) and to benefit from the repetition and distributed practice that you’ll get from both reading ahead and attending class. Understanding the importance of all stages of this cycle will help make sure you don’t miss opportunities to learn effectively.

Time Management: Making the Most of Your Study Hours

The important thing is how you use your study time, not how long you study. In order to spread out studying over short periods of time across several days and weeks, you need control over your schedule. Keeping a list of tasks to complete on a daily basis will help you to include regular active studying sessions for each class. Try to do something for each class each day. For example, you may do a few problems per day in math rather than all of them the hour before class. In history, you can spend 15-20 minutes each day actively studying your class notes. Thus, your studying time may still be the same length, but rather than only preparing for one class, you will be preparing for all of your classes in short stretches.

Read also: Comprehensive Work-Study Info

Beware of ‘easy’ weeks: This is the calm before the storm. Lighter work weeks are a great time to get ahead on work or to start long projects. Use the extra hours to get ahead on assignments or start big projects or papers. You should plan to work on every class every week even if you don’t have anything due. In fact, it is preferable to do some work for each of your classes every day. Spending 30 minutes per class each day will add up to three hours per week, but spreading this time out over six days is more effective than cramming it all in during one long three-hour session.
Short, intensive study sessions: Not all studying is equal. You will accomplish more if you study intensively. Intensive study sessions are short and will allow you to get work done with minimal wasted effort. In fact, one of the most impactful study strategies is distributing studying over multiple sessions. Intensive study sessions can last 30 or 45-minute sessions and include active studying strategies. For example, self-testing is an active study strategy that improves the intensity of studying and efficiency of learning. On the other hand, if you plan to quiz yourself on the course material for 45 minutes and then take a break, you are much more likely to maintain your attention and retain the information. Furthermore, the shorter, more intense sessions will likely put the pressure on that is needed to prevent procrastination.
Realistic Goals: Setting specific goals along the way of your studying journey can show how much progress you’ve made, but it’s important that your goals be realistic so you don’t get discouraged.

Distributed Practice: Spacing Out Your Study Sessions

One of the most impactful learning strategies is “distributed practice”-spacing out your studying over several short periods of time over several days and weeks. The most effective practice is to work a short time on each class every day. The total amount of time spent studying will be the same (or less) than one or two marathon library sessions, but you will learn the information more deeply and retain much more for the long term-which will help get you an A on the final.

Staving off procrastination: In addition to learning the material more deeply, spacing out your work helps stave off procrastination. Rather than having to face the dreaded project for four hours on Monday, you can face the dreaded project for 30 minutes each day. The shorter, more consistent time to work on a dreaded project is likely to be more acceptable and less likely to be delayed to the last minute.
Flashcards: Finally, if you have to memorize material for class (names, dates, formulas), it is best to make flashcards for this material and review periodically throughout the day rather than one long, memorization session.

Creating the Ideal Study Environment

Know where you study best. The silence of a library may not be the best place for you. It’s important to consider what noise environment works best for you. You might find that you concentrate better with some background noise. Some people find that listening to classical music while studying helps them concentrate, while others find this highly distracting. The point is that the silence of the library may be just as distracting (or more) than the noise of a gymnasium. Have a variety of places in and around campus that are good study environments for you. That way wherever you are, you can find your perfect study spot.

Eliminate distractions: In order to study smarter, not harder, you will need to eliminate distractions during your study sessions. Social media, web browsing, game playing, texting, etc. will severely affect the intensity of your study sessions if you allow them! Eliminating the distractions will allow you to fully engage during your study sessions. If you don’t need your computer for homework, then don’t use it. Use apps to help you set limits on the amount of time you can spend at certain sites during the day and turn your phone off.
Optimal Timing: Know when and where you study best. It may be that your focus at 10:00 PM. is not as sharp as at 10:00 AM. Perhaps you are more productive at a coffee shop with background noise, or in the study lounge in your residence hall.

Tailoring Study Techniques to Different Subjects

Working and re-working problems is important for technical courses (e.g., math, economics). In technical courses, it is usually more important to work problems than read the text. In class, write down in detail the practice problems demonstrated by the professor. Annotate each step and ask questions if you are confused. When preparing for tests, put together a large list of problems from the course materials and lectures.

Learning Preferences: Visual, Auditory, and More

Are you a visual learner, or do you prefer to listen? Maybe you prefer a little of both. For example, visual learners tend to prefer watching videos, looking at graphs, images, and charts, and writing things down. On the other hand, auditory learners, or those who prefer to listen to learn, tend to gravitate toward lectures and audiobooks for learning. Auditory and visual ways of learning are only a couple types of learning preferences. There are many different learning preferences, and you may use multiple kinds.

The Importance of Well-being

Being tired, hungry, or stressed can make it harder to focus and remember information. Make sure you get enough sleep and talk about your feelings. If you’re anxious about something, try talking about it with a friend, family member, or a trusted adult.

Note-Taking Strategies: Capturing and Condensing Information

The more comprehensive, legible, and organized your notes are, the easier it will be for you to study them. Create your own system using different numbering (Arabic, Roman) or symbols to mark up your notes. Shorten your notes by using abbreviations and symbols. You don’t need to write out every word if you know you’ll remember what something shorter means. Get creative. Draw pictures, thought bubbles, or anything that pulls your attention to important topics. Draw arrows from the cause to the effect and use different colored highlighters.

Overcoming Study Misconceptions

Many educators assume that at some point, students have been taught how to study effectively, but that is typically not the case. When students rely on ineffective studying methods like highlighting and rewriting notes, they sometimes come to believe that “studying” doesn’t work.

The familiarity trap: Reading for learning requires a more intense level of concentration and interaction with the text, utilizing strategies like elaboration and concrete examples while note-taking. To assist students in making reading a more effective learning experience, I ask them not to highlight or recopy the textbook or their own notes. This practice gives a false sense of security, making students overly confident with their knowledge of the material, a concept known as familiarity.

Online Learning Strategies: Adapting to the Digital Classroom

Online learning isn’t the easiest transition, but habits for a successful online learning environment can be developed. Dedicate specific days and times for classes and treat this online course as if it were in person. Try to stay consistent with the day and time that you “attend” class so that your body can get adjusted to it. Find a quiet place with no distractions. This will help your brain focus more on what you are doing, which will lead to better retention and make sure that your study space is organized. A messy desk can lead to a messy head. A Simple and organized space will keep your mind more focused and less scattered.

Self-motivation: Self-motivation is key in online learning.
Breaks: Never study more than 3 hours straight without a break. Study for 3 hours at most, then take a 30-minute break. If needed, feel free to take 10 minutes between each hour to refresh yourself.
Active note-taking: Do not forget to actively take notes. When you are actively taking notes, you are also ensuring that you are paying close attention. When you physically write out your notes, the retention rate is higher.
Mental engagement: Make sure that you are mentally engaged. If you are not engaged in the material, you will not learn anything. If you find that you keep zoning out, walk away for a few and come back to it when you are mentally prepared. toll on your brain, so make sure that you are mentally aware and ready to begin.
Connecting with peers: Connect with others. It is easy to feel lost and alone in an online course. Talking to other students can keep you both motivated and accountable. Reach out to other students via discussion boards or even messages through Canvas to collaborate with other students in order to completely comprehend the course material. Students learn from one another and the only way to do so is by reaching out and connecting with your peers.

Seeking Support: Don't Be Afraid to Ask for Help

If you find that you are struggling with course material, it’s okay. When you are no longer in the normal classroom environment, you aren’t able to ask questions or talk to the professor after class, but you need it. Many universities have resources to assist students with study skills, procrastination, time management, note-taking, or even test anxiety.

Proactive assistance: You don’t have to struggle through difficult material on your own. Be proactive about identifying areas where you need assistance and seek out that assistance immediately. There are multiple resources to help you, including your professors, tutors, and fellow classmates, who are likely going through the same struggles that you are.

Additional Strategies for High School Students

In high school, students start learning how to manage their own schedules and gain more independence, which often means they are also responsible for their studies too.

Studying with others: Studying with others can make test prep more fun, while helping you get a new perspective on the material. Just make sure that your friends are interested in developing good study skills. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have fun studying together, but it is a work session. If you don’t have friends in the same class, or if you have trouble focusing when studying alone, try co-working or body doubling. Growing in popularity due to the rise of online learning and working from home, body doubling is when a person completes a task typically done alone, like studying, while recording themselves live online.
Time Management: Start with blocking time on your calendar weekly to study. Study earlier rather than later. Studying all at once right before your test is often not as effective as studying in smaller chunks in the days leading up to it. Get up and move during breaks. Stretching, walking, and moving around gets your blood flowing and gives your brain a rest. Focus on one subject at a time and avoid multitasking.

Reflecting on Study Habits: Test Corrections

As we approach the end of our first content unit, I teach a mini-lesson on reorganizing notes and revisit the concept of mistaking familiarity with knowing. One way of reorganizing notes is creating a visual representation of the cognitive architecture of their brain; this taps back into the concept of dual coding. Concept mapping allows students to spatially represent their thoughts on paper, ultimately reinforcing what is already in their brain.

Test Corrections: Inevitably some students will not be happy with their score on our first summative exam. To assist them with reflecting on their own study habits, I have students do test corrections, using only their written notes to help them correct their wrong answers. As students correct questions, they code their answers, using a list of specific study mistakes derived from Outsmart Your Brain. An example might be, “I was familiar with the topic, but I didn’t memorize it.” This helps students to be specific about how their study practices worked or didn’t work rather than just saying, “I didn’t study enough.”

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