How to develop effective study habits

The end of the academic year is getting nearer and you have not studied at all? Here are five tips to help you develop good study habits.

1. Do not just memorise information. Understand it.

Many people try to learn everything by heart as a machine for an exam. However, memorizing facts and data is not the best idea in the short-term or in the long-term. In the short-term, if you want to pass an exam and they ask you something you do not understand which you tried to learn by heart, it might be difficult for you to explain what you understood. Additionally, in the long-term, as you memorized it, it might not be retained in your memory and you might forget about everything you learned before. Therefore, it is important that you understand what you are studying, instead of knowing every single paragraph of what you studied. You have to develop your own conclusions so that you can fully explain what you learned during your revisions.

2. Remove any distractions.

While studying, you might get tired and, if you do, you normally seek for any distraction around you to excuse yourself from studying. Therefore, it is important to be within a place where distractions are removed to the maximum. You could still give yourself some time as reward for your hard work; however, try to do this according to specific accomplishments when studying.

3. Do not study at the last minute.

Studying the day before the exam might work for you; however, studying days before will provide you with better chances of getting a higher grade and preventing you to suffer from high levels of stress.

4. Get interested about what you are learning.

Even though studying might be tiring and stressful, try to see studying as a source of knowledge, instead of a means to a good grade, for your development as an individual. This will get you more motivated to acquire more information and it will probably motivate you to study harder.

5. Study during the morning.

It has been proven that studying in the morning is more effective, as your mind and body are rested enough to start working hard. If you start studying by the end of the day, your memory has retained so much information for the day that it gets tired and you stop retaining as much as you could in comparison to the morning.