Study Skill -- Getting Started
Return to: College Study Skills Although no student studies in inexactly same way as another many commonality exist between students when it comes to preparation. Many times the instructor and the student place the focus on studying the information and material right before a major exam, but what about the study notes and other lesson materials? It may sounds like common sense, but if a student will take time to prepare to study the session will be more productive and hopefully faster.
Organizing Your Study Materials
It will not matter if the student is the smartest in the class or the worlds best best note taker. If they are not organized they will not perform as well in the class or on the test and as they should have. Organization is key in studying, test taking and your college carrier for that matter. Notes Taking is very critical and time consuming so the student needs to ensure that they place their notes in a place where they can find them and also so that they will not get damaged. It is very difficult to study from a page of notes that your dog did his/her business on. How a student organizes is a personal choice, but If they want to be successful it needs to be a priority.
Make studying a priorityNo one really wants to study. Studying is one of the easiest thing to blow off, after all there are football games on, American Idol and well even the laundry pile looks good. Studying often gets put on the back burner and put off until the very last minute, THIS IS BAD. The student is burnt-out and really just doesn’t feel like spending time studying. They feel defeated because they must cram the information and drink a gallon of coffee to even hope for a passing grade. Finally, there is no way to study a semesters worth of information in an few hours so the student justs give up. By making studying a priority and having a set time to study it can eliminate the frustration and feeling of dread. Cramming the night before has actually shown to be more detrimental than effective or helpful. That is because the information is all jumbled in no particular order therefore confusing and causing anxiety and stress. So prioritize your time and place events and needs in chronological order so that they all get attended too.
RecallThe brain is like a big computer that categorizes, classifies and stores information. When a student is studying or entering information into their “built in” computer the brain has a system of storage. This storage system has to do with what is called recall, or how the person can access the information when they need it, say for a test. The student can help with how the mind stores the information and this in turn helps them remember the information when it is time. Say that a person is studying about roses and the information about roses is stored with what they ate that day, what color their room is and lots of other things that are a part of the person’s life. If the student makes the assumption and link between the information about the rose smell and the studied information the brain will likely classify the two together. Now when the student is testing and needs to recall the learned information they can simply remember the smell of the rose and it will likely draw down the necessary information.
Avoid Study FatigueStudy fatigue? Now there is a term that you do not hear everyday, but it is a very possible problem that many students suffer from. If you think about all the information and demands placed on the human body and brain it only makes sense that there could be fatigue involved. The brain can only take so much abuse before it shows some signs of slowing or other memory problems. Students often decrease sleep time for every other need in their life. They miss a couple of hours of sleep for that party that everyone was going too, a few hours to study and then there are work and family obligations. It adds up and in fact most Americans are sleep deprived, which leads to some serious problems. The problems are not only psychological, but also health problems and frequent illness. This causes grades to suffer and makes it more difficult to remember information, recall it and get a good grade.
Preparation for just about anything is important and studying is no different. This process should be taken seriously by the student to ensure that they are getting the most out of their allotted study time. If the two hours that are set aside for studying are spent looking for materials or wasted because of fatigue, the time is a waste.
Return to: College Study Skills
Copyright 2008 Gene Grzywacz
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