It’s possible to become proficient at studying in college. Although it takes time, there are many approaches to try out before deciding which one is ideal for you.
There are a lot of study tips for college students, so you’re bound to find one or two that work for you. While not every habit will be effective for every student, there are plenty of study habits that are.
College students who use the best study techniques can narrow their focus, pay more attention, and avoid unnecessary distractions. You may take charge of your study habits in a variety of ways, including by identifying your learning preferences and chewing gum.
We’ve compiled a list of seven college study tips that you can utilise for your upcoming test in order to develop effective study habits in college and succeed academically.
1. Discover Your Style
You should invest the time to figure out your preferred learning style if you want to maximise your capacity for learning. Reading, writing, and kinesthetic learning are the four primary learning methods.
However, most people fit into one of these categories even when they use more than one technique.
These are among the four different learning styles:
The ability to hear new information is essential for auditory learners. Reading aloud from their notes or conversing with other students about the subject matter can help these learners.
If you like to study by yourself, you can videotape yourself going through your materials and listening to it afterwards.
Visual: New knowledge is best understood by those who learn visually. If you are a visual learner, you can make diagrams to group related knowledge together. Your notes can be more easily arranged and you can correlate related details by using colour-coding.
Students who like kinesthetic learning—or hands-on learning—do well in labs and workshops. You can attempt to use touch strategies even if studying can be challenging if you’re a hands-on learner. You can maintain focus by, for instance, moving around and going over your notes as you go, or by working out and listening to recordings.
Read or write: Students who like to read or write well using textbooks and notes. These students would benefit from taking thorough notes during lectures and going over those notes when reading textbook chapters. These pupils may find it easier to remember difficult subjects if they rewrite the knowledge and read it aloud.
Online tests are available that can determine your specific style and show you how to maximise it. You should experiment with several approaches to determine which is best for you because most students are a combination of these methods.
2. Get Creative
Doodling in notebooks provides excellent memory benefits, despite some people’s concerns that they’ll appear bored in class if they do so.
Light doodling has been demonstrated in studies to increase attention span and memory retention by 30%. Additionally improving brain blood flow and preventing mind wandering, making art can be beneficial.
The best approach to recall information from difficult materials may not be to doodle throughout them, but if you have trouble focusing, you might find that doodles allow you do just that while also occupying your hands and mind with a straightforward task.
3. Use Mnemonic Devices
The use of mnemonics as memory aids is highly recommended. The order of the planets, the arithmetic operations, or the compass directions can all be memorised by using a specific statement that you can recall. You already understand the potential of these tools if you can still recall them.
You can add rhymes, tunes, or acronyms on top of a cute little statement. You can use anything to aid with subsequent memory, such as grouping related things or remembering what a phrase means.
4. Rewrite Your Notes
For college students, the organisation is the key to effective note-taking. You may find it helpful to mentally group together the coursework by colour-coding resources for particular subjects or topics.
For one lesson and another, you could use the same colour of notebook and folder, or a certain colour of pen.
A good way to promote taking more notes is to organise your papers. You can make a little column on your page by drawing a line about an inch or two into it.
In that space, you can jot down questions for later or remind yourself to do more research on a certain issue while also making notes about how you feel about the subject.
Organize the information from the lecture on the major portion of your paper, and write notes for yourself on the tiny side.
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5. Chew Gum
Although chewing gum can make you more alert, this advice may sound strange.
The act of chewing, according to scientists, keeps us alert and enhances our mental performance, but we’re not precisely sure why this is the case.
It’s beneficial to chew gum while taking tests as well as during studying. Try chewing the same flavour of gum throughout your study sessions and associated exams for further association strategies.
You might remember the material you reviewed during studying if you continue to chew the same flavour during the exam. To reduce your intake of sugar if you use this strategy, pick a sugar-free gum kind.
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6. Make a Playlist
Most people would concur that listening to their preferred music improves their mood. We’re more inclined to stay focused and exert a little extra effort to overcome obstacles when we’re feeling good.
Finding a happy medium between your favourite music and non-distracting music can be difficult, though.
Vocal music can be disruptive since it can cause you to start focusing more on the words you’re hearing than the words you’re reading in your textbook.
You can avoid this by looking for the instrumental versions of your favourite songs, listening to classical music as you study, or finding some video game soundtrack for background noise.
The music you listen to should not detract from your enjoyment of it, though.
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7. Avoid Distractions
There are several more that you ought to avoid when studying, while we’re on the subject of interruptions. Studying can be seriously hindered by social media, which is one of the largest distractions.
It can be simple to give in to the temptation to check your alerts and scroll through photographs and videos, but doing so is one of the quickest ways to transform a fruitful study session into a few hours of wasted time.
If alerts frequently cause you to become distracted, you can use the standard silent mode on your phone. There are other programmes you may use to ban or limit your time on particular websites if you find it difficult to resist the temptation of perusing social media.
If you want to include breaks and focused study time in your session, you can think about using a concentration strategy like the Pomodoro technique.