Build Effective Study Habits
Did you ever stop to wonder what sets apart the really successful students from the average ones? Why do some students who appear to study all the time just get by, while others who don’t appear to put in as much effort to do well.
The truth is that success in school is not so much determined by sheer intelligence as knowing how to study.
Homework
Trying to do homework alone can get boring over time. Try doing homework with friends or in a group. This may not suit everyone but it can make working through difficult subject matter much easier. It is important though that any friends are there to learn, and get through the homework, not to just play around.
In preparation for an exam, it is important that you spend adequate time both with friends and alone. Preparing for an exam with friends will give you the opportunity to articulate and justify answers to a group of like-minded people who are studying the same material.
If you have misunderstood something, working through definitions with friends will likely help you to identify these areas and resolve them.
Articulating some of your answers or justifications will also help strengthen your underlying knowledge and understanding as you look for alternative ways to explain your answer, this is a very powerful technique.
Filing
One of the most important aspects of efficient study is staying organised. Goal setting guru Raymond Aaron suggests that every mess is a lock on the gate that keeps abundance out. The fact is that messes, weigh us down subconsciously or otherwise.
So, the first step is to get an accordion folder (expandable folders with lots of pockets) specifically for use during school, with two sections for each subject. Name the first by the subject name and the second with homework.
At home, it is recommended that you have a ring binder 1 for each subject. Use dividers or plastic sleeves to split up your ring binders into relevant sections for each subject for example
- Notes
- Assignment
- Exams
- Prac.
At least once a week spend 5-10 minutes filling all of your notes from your daily folder to your subject folders. If your daily folder is getting full, you may need to file a couple of times a week.
Tracking Homework
It is a good idea to write a homework list as you get the homework in a central location, including when it was set and when it’s due. Most schools have an official school diary, this is a good place to keep track provided you tick off the homework as you do it. But remember some tasks (particularly reports) may spread across a couple of weeks and it is important to transfer the homework week to week so that you can keep track of it.
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