7 Effective Study Habits

The key to becoming an effective student is learning how to study smarter, not harder. This becomes more and more true as you advance in your education. An hour or two of studying a day is usually sufficient to make it through high school with satisfactory grades, but when you go to university, there aren’t enough hours in the day to get all your studying in if you don’t know how to study smarter. While some students can breeze through university with minimal effort, this is the exception. Most of the successful students achieve their success by developing and applying effective study habits.

1. Don’t cram everything into one session.

Successful students typically space their work out over shorter periods of time and rarely try to cram all their studying into just one or two sessions. If you want to study effectively then you need to learn to be consistent in your studies and to have regular, yet shorter, study periods.

2. Schedule your study periods.

Students who study sporadically and whimsically typically do not perform as well as students who have a set study schedule. Even if you’re all caught up with your studies, creating a weekly routine, where you set aside a period of time a few days a week, to review your courses will ensure you develop habits that will enable you to get better results.

3. Study at the same time.

Make sure you follow a consistent, daily study routine. When you study at the same time each day and each week, your studying will become a regular part of your life. You’ll be mentally and emotionally more prepared for each study session and each study session will become more productive.

4. Set a specific goal for each study time.

Simply studying without direction is not effective. You need to know exactly what you need to accomplish during each study session. Before you start studying, set a study session goal that supports your overall academic goal.

5. Never procrastinate your planned study session.

It’s very easy, and common, to put off your study session because of lack of interest in the subject, because you have other things you need to get done, or just because the assignment is hard. If you procrastinate your study session, your studying will become much less effective and you may not get everything accomplished that you need to.

6. Avoid distractions while you’re studying.

Everyone gets distracted by something – maybe it’s the TV or it’s your family. Some people actually study better with a little background noise. When you’re distracted while studying you lose your train of thought and are unable to focus — both of which will lead to very ineffective studying. Before you start studying find a place where you won’t be disturbed or distracted. For others is in a common area where there is a little background noise.

7. Use study groups effectively.

Working in groups enables you to get help from others when you’re struggling to understand a concept, omplete assignments faster, and teach others, whereby helping both the other students and yourself to internalize the subject matter. However, study groups can become very ineffective if they’re not structured and if groups members come unprepared.