Don’t study hard, study smart
When you are at school, it is usually enough to spend an hour or two doing your homework to get decent marks. At college the situation is somewhat different. Students are often short of time because the workload is higher. There’s a common saying that we have to study hard to achieve good results. We dare to argue with this statement as the true key to success is being creative and studying smart, instead.
Efficient studying
Studying hard means nothing else but studying everything blindly without any proper plan or strategy. When you study the point is to ensure that later on you will be able to recollect what you have studied. If you can’t do that, you will probably not do a good job at cracking that entrance paper that you have set your heart on cracking.
Both at school and after school years, the most successful ones are not those who spend sleepless nights studying or working but those who have developed the right habits. They know how to trick the system and achieve more with less efforts. They are the ones who have decoded the mystery on how to study efficiently but not endlessly.
How you should do it
- Have regular but short study periods
It is not necessary to finish everything at once. The recommendation for you is to keep consistency and allow yourself to ‘recharge’ before continuing to study the topic, if you feel it is going to help you. Try to have regular, yet shorter, study periods.
- Set a study schedule and stick with it
Once you have a study schedule, it is going to become much easier to make progress. Just think for a bit and set aside a certain number of hours per day for your studies. Every day without any excuse try to spend these hours precisely on studying. This way you will develop a weekly routine which will help you succeed in your education in long term.
- Have a goal
Whenever you sign up for doing something, you should understand what for you are doing it. Therefore, before even starting, try to answer this question first. Once you have formulated and memorized your goal, you can move forward. Each study session has to have a purpose, so to say. It can be as simple as ‘to learn by heart 50 vocabulary words’ in order to ace the vocabulary section of an upcoming exam.
- Don’t procrastinate
Procrastination kills everything: your effectiveness, motivation, ability to solve problems constructively, etc. Just don’t do that. It’s better to jump on that boring or too complex exercise and tackle it right away rather than be nervous about it for hours and still be forced to work on it in the end (with no motivation and mentally exhausted). If you know you tend to procrastinate often, admit you have a problem and do your best to get rid of it.
- Complete the most difficult subject first
Most tension occurs when you realize you have something extremely difficult on your table. Difficult tasks also consume maximum time and energy. You will feel much more relaxed if you do the hard subject first just because you will know for sure that the remaining ones will not give you a headache.
- Don’t get distracted
Before you start studying, make sure you find a peaceful place. You will be able to get back to watching TV, chatting with your friends on social media or listening to music once you are done with your homework. You should realize that once distracted, you lose your train of thoughts.
- Make and review notes before each assignment
Reviewing your notes before each study session will help you get on track and remember the key points. In order to ensure you have what to review, do not be lazy and take proper notes in class.
- Join study groups
Study groups are study circles where you can teach and learn from each other. When you are studying alone, at times you feel isolated, unable to ask questions and collaborate. This will not happen when you join a group. You will also understand how prepared you are by comparing your knowledge to others’.
We are sure that the aforementioned tips will help you achieve great results and save you a lot of time for hobbies and other activities. Good luck!