MindWiper

How To Study Effectively And Study Methods For Students

Ashim Sarmah

The effective study starts with applying the right study tips, effective planning, the right attitude, positive outlook and implementing the right learning style.  

Don’t cram, find out your learning style, make a plan, study regularly, and take notes at classroom or home as per schedule.

You should know that there is no universal approach for effective study; however, effective study methods are reflection of the productively implemented study skills, learning skills, cognitive skills and learning styles

Here are eight study tips you should know,

1. Get Yourself Organized

Getting organized for study means planning, scheduling and managing the time for study, here are the few tips to get organized for study,

  • Find an appropriate spot to study
  • Make a plan for homework, test preparation, assignments
  • Schedule your priorities and goals
  • Fix an hour for self-study regularly
  • Carry the plan always with you

2. Avoid Distractions

Distraction is everywhere, from your smartphone to social media and from your friends. Find the tips below to avoid distraction,

  • Observe and find your sources of distraction
  • List down the sources of distraction
  • Make a plan to eliminate the distractions
  • Act upon the plan
  • Keep your mobile phone silent while studying
  • Choose your friends wisely
  • Spend time with your real-self and nature instead of wasting time in virtual social media

3. Improve Concentration

Concentration is practice, constant practice transform itself into a habit. If you practice distraction is every aspects of life, even while you are not studying, you lose concentration in whatever you do, you lose focus, you lose attention to study; here are the few tips to practice and improve concentration,

  • Be conscious of what you do
  • Observe yourself
  • When your attention wanders away; bring it back, practice it and make it a habit
  • Avoid unconscious thought
  • Pay attention at the classroom
  • Listen to other concisely
  • Pay attention to what you do, while you are not studying
  • Meditate daily, follow mindfulness; you can also use a nice app called Headspace for meditation

4. Switch Between Topics

Switching between topics doesn’t mean you should study randomly, study one topic till you get the clear concepts and move to another topics, switching helps to make connection between topics, clearing your concepts, accelerate study hour and make remembering easier. Here are the few tips on how to switch between topics,

  • Switch only when you complete the topic
  • Don’t study a topic for long, take gaps, drink water or eat fresh food in between them
  • Make schedules, priorities to switch
  • While revising the course, switch in opposite direction of what you have done earlier, it helps to clear concepts and make connections between topics
  • Highlight each topic before & after switching

5. Ask & Explain

There is no better teacher than your own self, ask question to yourself while studying, ask “why, what or how” questions to get the better explanation, here are the few tips,

  • Ask yourself why and how this is possible, how did this happen, what is the reason or any kind of questions based on the topic
  • Explain to yourself, you will make connection, clear concepts and understand better
  • Ask teachers for any doubts
  • Ask your friends, explain to them
  • Start a group discussion about the topic

6. Use Examples to Remember

It is easy to remember when we relate a topic with a real-life example or with already known information. Human brains have limited capacity to remember, but it works as a relational database to process & remember large information. Here are a few tips you should follow,

  • Read the topic, analyze the topic, understand the topic and find how the topic is related to real life example
  • If you are studying STEM, practice and use examples to clear concepts and remember
  • Find the relation between the topic and the knowledge you already have
  • Write down short examples or relation that you already know against each topic
  • Highlight examples, relation and connection between the topics.

7. Envisage the Words or Information

Human remember the words or information as a picture or a pitch of sound, the picture may be of the word itself or any other related image. Envisaging words & information is about dual coding, i.e. visualizing the word or information while studying will utilize your imagination to relate a real or virtual picture or sound with the words. Using duality of processing information will increase concentration, boost imagination and make it easier to remember. Find the few tips below on how to envisage the words and information

  • Be conscious while studying and envisaging
  • Identify which picture or sound comes to your mind when reading a particular word
  • List down the difficult words or information and relate them with abstract picture or sound
  • Make practice to visualize information while studying, practice leads to habits and habit will lead you to visualize faster through your intuition & rationale

8. Recall & Revise

This one is the last and most important technique for effective study, recall & revision is about refreshing our memory cells, humans’ long-term memory is more similar to capacitive memory of a digital device. Both of these require frequent refresh mechanism to store information for a longer period of time. Find the few tips below for effective recall and revision,

  • Read only the highlighted information and try to recall detailed information
  • Identify the missing information, read it again and recall it again
  • List down your areas of improvement
  • Make a short note (preferably one or two page) of the whole course and keep it with you
  • Be specific of the abstracted information, don’t make confusion, recall detailed information when you are specific to the abstracted information
  • Recall and revise when you are free
  • Make recall & revision your travel partner
  • Discuss with friends, teacher and recall the abstract as well as detailed information

Don’t forget to improve your cognitive learning abilities; cognitive learning is a process of thinking to learn, remembering effectively, paying attention and finding conclusion from the studied information.

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development explains how cognitive abilities are developed in humans; however, most of the people fail to reach the effective “Formal Operational Stage” of cognitive development.

Formal Operational Stage is about the development of deductive reasoning, hypothetical thinking, and metacognition, and here in the steps mentioned above, more emphasis is given to improve this stage of cognitive development.