If you haven’t read our first article, 4 Helpful Tips for Effective Studying please do so to get the most out of your (or your child’s) studying.
Following our last article, here are four more helpful tips to make sure you’re ready and prepared for the study season ahead.
Manage your block time
Block time is just that: a chunk of time that you set aside for studying. It’s an effective way to study because it gives you an uninterrupted opportunity to focus on the task at hand, and can help prevent procrastination or distractions from creeping in during other parts of your day.
While block scheduling may not be right for everyone, there are still some simple ways to make sure your block schedule works well for your needs (and isn’t too overwhelming).
First, try setting aside 30 minutes at night before bed as a dedicated study session, this will help ensure that those last few hours before bed aren’t wasted thinking about work instead of sleeping!
Then, plan out how much studying needs to happen during each day: if there’s something important coming up like finals week or an exam coming up soon enough where it would be worth spending extra time preparing now rather than later.
Have a consistent schedule
Have a consistent place and time to study. This is important because it will help you focus, especially when you need to concentrate for long periods of time.
Make sure to have an idea of how long you will be studying each day so that other activities can be planned around this time frame.
For example, if I know I’m going to study for two hours in the morning and then go play tennis later in the afternoon, then I’ll make sure not to schedule anything else during those times, or at least make sure they’re flexible enough so that if something comes up unexpectedly or last minute, they don’t interfere with my plans!
Set specific study goals
Setting specific goals is one of the most effective ways to ensure that you’re studying effectively.
You should set goals for the number of hours you will study each week, as well as how many questions you will answer per day. You may also want to set a goal for how many topics or days’ worth of information you will cover each week.
Set a weekly goal for how many hours/questions/topics/days (pick one) you want to cover to stay on track with your studies.
Test practice questions
Test practice questions are a great way to assess your understanding of the material.
You can test yourself by creating a practice test and seeing how well you do on it, then use those results to help focus on areas where improvement is needed.
Important Tip – Write questions, rather than notes. It’s a really good way to help you remember what you have just learned and be able to test yourself later on.
It’s also helpful to do a practice test at the end of each chapter, as this allows for immediate feedback about what areas still need work before moving on to new material.
Studying is one of the most important things you can do to prepare for your exams, but it can also be one of the most difficult.
The tips we’ve shared here will help make studying more effective and efficient so that you have more time to devote to other activities like practicing test questions or reviewing material with friends.
