Student Success: Improving Study Skills
As students reach middle school and high school, classes become more difficult, and the workload increases. At the same time, students are often involved in extracurricular activities. This means they must learn to manage their time more efficiently. Developing effective study skills can help them make the most of the time they have available in order to prepare for tests and master course content.
No two students learn exactly the same way, so it’s important to try different strategies and find what works best for you. Here are a few approaches to consider:
Plan Ahead
When you’re making your schedule, add time in for studying, rather than telling yourself you’ll do it after dinner or after you’ve finished something else. Allot a block of time just for studying so you can focus and put in the work instead of making it an afterthought.
Once you have decided when you’ll study, devote certain days or chunks of that time to specific subjects. This could vary from day to day or week to week depending on upcoming tests or how challenging the material is.
Break It Up
Sitting for two hours straight and cramming is not helpful. Your brain can only process a limited amount of information at a time. After every 30 minutes or so, take a five-minute break to clear your mind, stretch, and refocus. Break up what you are studying as well. Choose one concept or chapter at a time rather than trying to cover everything at once. If you plan ahead and spread your studying out over several days, you will have time to review all of the information without feeling rushed.
Make Flashcards
This is one of the simplest and most common ways to study. Write down key facts, dates, people, terms, events, or main concepts. Make sure you’re keeping things concise and not writing down every single detail. You want your flashcards to be easy to remember. Challenge yourself by practicing with both sides, such as reading the term and having to recall the definition, then later reading the definition and having to remember the correct term.
As you’re reviewing, separate your flashcards by answers that come easily versus those you are struggling with. Spend more time reviewing the difficult ones, and less on the ones you already know.
Repeat the Information Aloud
Study in a quiet space and read aloud to yourself, or after you’ve finished a page or section in your textbook, summarize the information out loud. Make sure you’re able to put what you’re reading into your own words and understand it.
Teach Someone Else
Once you think you have the content down, teach it to someone else. If there are concepts you can’t remember or explain very well, you’ll know where you need to go back and review. Use the questions they ask to help you as well.
Use a Graphic Organizer
You can find tons of organizers online or make your own. This will help you break down the information into smaller chunks and see how everything connects. It can be useful for focusing on what is most important and paring down unnecessary details while organizing information in a way that makes sense.
Create Acronyms, Rhymes, or Song
Think PEMDAS for order of operations or Roy G Biv for the order of the colors. Make up your own acronyms or pneumonic devices to recall important information. Change the words to your favorite song to concepts from whatever you’re studying. Find something that will stick in your head and help you connect with the content.
Studying isn’t something that people naturally know how to do effectively. It is something that must be learned and practiced. If you are struggling with understanding, remembering, and recalling information, especially for tests, contact Crafting Scholars today. Our learning specialists will help build your skills and develop different strategies that work for you. Reserve your spot today!
Originally published at https://craftingscholars.com on September 20, 2023.
