The Life Lesson of How to Study

Studying Tips

I know this isn't something that can be titled a "Life Lesson", but studying is actually a very good life lesson to learn. Each person is different when it comes to studying. Some never have to open a book, some have to read for hours, some have to hear things, some have to see things. However, I will try to give some real tips that can help ordinary people learn how to study better. Anyway, lets get started.

The main thing to know is that no one person studies in the exact same way. If we did, it would be simple. I know a lot of people don't like to study, but the whole studying at last minute only makes you have to learn more, meaning you will forget more by the next day. I bet most of you are thinking 'my teacher always says that.' They're right! If you study only on the last day it makes life harder. (I'm guilty of it as well.) Don't excuse yourself saying "I have a job" or "I want to play my xbox game first" no. That is the first thing you have to get out of your head. You have to have the mindset to set aside at least 30 min a day to just shut off everything and study. Those of you who insist on needing music (again I was/am guilty of this) you don't really need it. At least not music with lyrics. The reason? You'll pay attention to the music more than what you're trying to study. The best thing? I personally play sounds like thunderstorms to calm me down and keep me focused. I used to use techno beats. Anything that you can turn down and dim off into the background. This way your brain will have something like "white noise" for people who cannot study in pure silence. If you need silence, then just shut everything off. Lets go over the other simple things on studying.

1.  Working "bit by bit"
2.  Study Groups
3.  Flash Cards
4.  Re-writing notes
5.  Reading the book
6.  Recording the lecture/yourself

1. Studying "bit by bit" means that after a day of school you just take out the notes you've written/taken and you shorten them a bit more so that it's less information. Take 30 min a day to take notes and summarize parts. Now when I say parts, I don't mean summarize everything. I mean pick out the important details. If you don't know how to do that, I can explain. If your teacher repeated something more than once in lecture, highlight it. (Chances are, if she takes the effort to say it twice then it's important). If you've taken a test by your teacher, you can sort of assume what other details they will think are important. For example, vocabulary. Or even, if they gave you a fill in hand sheet. That's a big hint. That's not to say that everything on those will be used, but it is a start. Studying a bit everyday will help you. Especially if you look over the stuff you do the day before, before you start on your note summarizing that day.

2. The best thing about study groups is that they can be practical. As long as you stay on task. Don't create a study group and when you get together you goof off. If you do, it's probably time to rethink the study group option. If you can't handle a big study group, bring it down to 2-3 people (yourself included) this makes it a easier way to study since two to three people can focus and cover a lot more faster than a group of 5 who are constantly getting off track. Beware, if you create a study group, you need to keep charge and make sure you stay on topic. Personally I only did my study group with one other person. The reason I only had my friend and I in our group was 1. No one else joined and 2. we both helped one another in the way we needed to study. I personally am a type that has to hear things many times, and my friend was the type that needed to guess. So we split up the flashcards we had to make, and once that was done, I would read the question, and she would say the answer. This gave my brain the needed repeated sound to help me memorize, and it gave her the sound and the "guess" portion. I can say we passed our classes with A's to High B's. So when creating a study group, make sure you know how you study best. If you don't then try out each and see what helps you out the most. Another good thing about study groups is that they can teach you ways for you to study better on your own. I know you're probably thinking "how does that work" but the answer is easy. When studying with a group, you learn how you study best, and you can use that to help you bit by bit throughout the class before a test is even close to due. For example, if you study by hearing, read your flashcards out loud to yourself. This probably won't make much sense until you try it yourself.

3. Most people don't think flashcards will help them. I have known many skeptics. I can assure that 98% of them changed their opinion of them once they learned how to actually study with flashcards. The trick is to put the answers on the back and create a question, or put the question on the front and find the answer. I know this sounds like a simple thing that everyone should know, but trust me, even some college kids don't. If it's a question where you have to list something, for example lets say the question was : What types of economics are there : then there are 2 answers to that question. Underneath your question place a "X2" to remind yourself that there are two answers (Or x5, x6, depending on how many answers there are). Then on the back, on the top line put one answer and move to the next line for the next answer. In the end it should look something like :
(front) : What types of economics are there? x2
(back): 1. Microeconomics
2. Macroeconomics
I know you probably are thinking that this is something simple and that you already know this. If you do, then good for you. If you didn't, don't be ashamed, it's never too late to learn anything, and you will continue to do so until you die (no you will not live forever. Sorry.) Once that is done, read the questions silently to yourself, and read the answers aloud. This will make you hear it enough times to memorize it without you even realizing you had.

4. I know the thought of re-writing notes isn't appealing to many people. You've already written it once, why should you write it twice? I understand. However, you should do it anyway. While you are re-writing you can shorten it to make it simpler to understand. Or you can find strange ways to help you remember it. For example when write about the rights given to you by the First Amendment, you can teach yourself "R.A.P.P.S." Which are the 5 right Religion, Assembly, Press, Petition, Speech (Don't say fire in a movie theater, that's not in your rights. :) ) When I re-wrote my notes I would occasionally draw little pictures to help me understand. This works perfect for visual learners. Another nifty trick, is associating letters. I used to find hints in my self-made questions that would lead me to the correct answers. I wish I could remember an example but at the moment it's failing me. Basically when you re-write your notes, write them in a SIMPLER way for YOU to understand. Who cares if your friends understand your notes? They're not the ones who are going to study them. You'll be surprised how your mind can make connections to simple things if you train it to.

5. Reading the book? How boring! Yet it's got the most information in it. So how do you pick out what's important? Easy. While your teacher is lecturing, take out your book and underline things they go over or mention. When you get home read over the things you have underlined. Chances are that those things are important and will show up /somewhere/ on a test. Maybe not all the information, but I can assure you that you're a step ahead the people who don't even pay attention during lecture. You're technically tied to those that took notes. Now if your teacher is one who just reads through the book, then you have to decide yourself what you think would be the more important information and go off of it. I know most people don't know what is important and I can say it varies for a subject. Your first step is to make an outline of your chapter or section. An outline is simply made by listing off the main topic like below:
The Periodic table
    A)Atoms consist of
        1. Protons
        2. Neutrons
        3. Electrons.
Simple right? You just do that throughout and you'll figure it out. DON'T write down EVERYTHING. Just don't do it. It's a waste of time.

6. Recording a lecture is easy (if your in HS, you probably can't do this.) The issue that presents itself when people record lectures is that they don't go back and listen to it. So the first step after recording it is going and actually listening to it. The second step is to take notes on it. I knew people who would put the recordings of themselves onto their ipods and listen to it. Although I learn by hearing, this method has never helped me in any way. But if it works for you, that's great! I suggest taking shorthanded notes from the lecture you recorded, then reading those shorthanded notes that you made (make sure you do it so that you can understand it better), and read them onto a recorder. Then put that on your mp3, ipod, the like.

I know there are other methods to study. But there is always one thing to remember, if you don't understand something; ask your teacher. If you don't want to ask in the middle of class, write a mental note and after class talk with your teacher one on one. If they suggest tutoring, then try it. You may be surprised how well that works.

Anyway that is all I have to say about The Life Lesson on How to Study.

If you have any way you study and want to share it with me, please comment, I will gladly read it and if it's really good, I will edit this and put your stuff in here.