The A-Z of Unique and Effective Study Techniques
Dublin Core
Title
The A-Z of Unique and Effective Study Techniques
Description
When I was in school, I always found it hard to study. When I did actually get around to doing it though, I found that if I ‘applied myself’ I could actually do well.
I’ve found numerous ways, some my own and others learned, that help me get in the mood for study and working and that are effective ways of learning. Everyone is unique and saying that there is only one way to study is a contradiction to our individuality.
Some of these things that I practice nowadays I wish I knew when I was back in school. Now that I’m older, I actually don’t mind it so much. I’ve made peace with the fact that it doesn’t matter if you’re a kid in school, college, or a person at work, there will always be a time when you have to study. You never stop learning as long as you’re alive.
As a writer even, you have to study, whether it’s researching, looking up facts and quotes, and putting as much effort into producing a great article as possible.
Firstly, you’ll find that you need to be in the right mood for studying and working hard. It doesn’t help being tired and lazy or hyperactive and not being able to sit down and do what needs to be done.
In this first article, we start off from ‘A’ and continue on to ‘I’.
Actively involved in study
Just reading you work won’t get you anywhere. You need to make notes, keywords, highlight things, underline things, and colour-code items as well to add emphasis and actually become interested in what you’re doing. Reading without revision also means that at the end of the week you’ll remember nothing.
Analogies
It makes things easier if you can relate you studying to something you can compare it to.
Abbreviations and acronyms
I have a habit of making sentences or words, even if they are illogical or non-sensible to the average person. You can take the first letter or letters from each word and string them together.
Breaks
It’s better to study for forty minutes and take a break rather than to sit and try and concentrate for hours on end. This is true for two reasons: firstly, because the chances of your naturally short attention span lasting hours and taking in everything is slim, and because after hours of sitting there you will be too exhausted to go on for the rest of the day, and you may even avoid it for the rest of the week.
Calendar and year planner
It’s good to keep a calendar and a year planner, for marking dates throughout the year. Perhaps they are important and you know that you will have to work harder on one of the days in the week to make up for it. If you don’t work today, you must work twice as hard tomorrow.
We have naturally short attention spans and we need breaks every now and again. You also need to avoid stimulants like caffeine and depressants like alcohol. These will dampen your ability to sit down and work.
Corrections
In school we always had to do ‘corrections’. Basically, if we got an answer wrong, when we got our tests or work back, we had to fill in the correct answer which the teacher might have given us or we had to redo it.
Do the worst first, and then again…
This was a saying I heard from a friend when I was still in school. When he did his homework he would always tackle the hardest parts first and then he could do the easy stuff later. When there’s pressure though, like in exams, it’s better to do the questions you know first and get them over and done with, otherwise if you waste time on the hard ones, you may not have enough time to do the ones you are knowledgeable about.
Drawing
They say that pictures are worth a thousand words. Maybe you can draw a diagram, or even a cartoon that will help you better understand, or you can look for one that’s been drawn by someone else.
Exams
When it comes to exams, it’s one thing to know the material that you’ve studied, but it’s something different to be prepared for the questions you’ll encounter in the paper. Try going through old exam papers; you can find them in libraries, schools and even online as well.
Forums With some colleges, there are virtual campuses that students can get together in, or perhaps, like many sites, you can come across one specifically dealing with your subject that you can talk to other people about.
Goals
When it comes to studying, you should make a goal to just do so much every day. When you reach this goal, then aim for something more, like studying for half an hour, and then studying for an hour. Also remember to take breaks between sessions though.
Homework
When it comes to homework, apart from raising the energy after a long day on campus, at school or at work, it’s about where you can get help for homework assignments. You can go online and get answers at any of the popular sites like Yahoo Answers, Wiki Answers etc. Some colleges supervise homework or provide tutors for help that you can contact by e-mail or phone.
IPod
If you have one, you can use the podcasts you download or record yourself to take with you wherever you go. Read more about this in Part 2, under Podcasts.
I’ve found numerous ways, some my own and others learned, that help me get in the mood for study and working and that are effective ways of learning. Everyone is unique and saying that there is only one way to study is a contradiction to our individuality.
Some of these things that I practice nowadays I wish I knew when I was back in school. Now that I’m older, I actually don’t mind it so much. I’ve made peace with the fact that it doesn’t matter if you’re a kid in school, college, or a person at work, there will always be a time when you have to study. You never stop learning as long as you’re alive.
As a writer even, you have to study, whether it’s researching, looking up facts and quotes, and putting as much effort into producing a great article as possible.
Firstly, you’ll find that you need to be in the right mood for studying and working hard. It doesn’t help being tired and lazy or hyperactive and not being able to sit down and do what needs to be done.
In this first article, we start off from ‘A’ and continue on to ‘I’.
Actively involved in study
Just reading you work won’t get you anywhere. You need to make notes, keywords, highlight things, underline things, and colour-code items as well to add emphasis and actually become interested in what you’re doing. Reading without revision also means that at the end of the week you’ll remember nothing.
Analogies
It makes things easier if you can relate you studying to something you can compare it to.
Abbreviations and acronyms
I have a habit of making sentences or words, even if they are illogical or non-sensible to the average person. You can take the first letter or letters from each word and string them together.
Breaks
It’s better to study for forty minutes and take a break rather than to sit and try and concentrate for hours on end. This is true for two reasons: firstly, because the chances of your naturally short attention span lasting hours and taking in everything is slim, and because after hours of sitting there you will be too exhausted to go on for the rest of the day, and you may even avoid it for the rest of the week.
Calendar and year planner
It’s good to keep a calendar and a year planner, for marking dates throughout the year. Perhaps they are important and you know that you will have to work harder on one of the days in the week to make up for it. If you don’t work today, you must work twice as hard tomorrow.
We have naturally short attention spans and we need breaks every now and again. You also need to avoid stimulants like caffeine and depressants like alcohol. These will dampen your ability to sit down and work.
Corrections
In school we always had to do ‘corrections’. Basically, if we got an answer wrong, when we got our tests or work back, we had to fill in the correct answer which the teacher might have given us or we had to redo it.
Do the worst first, and then again…
This was a saying I heard from a friend when I was still in school. When he did his homework he would always tackle the hardest parts first and then he could do the easy stuff later. When there’s pressure though, like in exams, it’s better to do the questions you know first and get them over and done with, otherwise if you waste time on the hard ones, you may not have enough time to do the ones you are knowledgeable about.
Drawing
They say that pictures are worth a thousand words. Maybe you can draw a diagram, or even a cartoon that will help you better understand, or you can look for one that’s been drawn by someone else.
Exams
When it comes to exams, it’s one thing to know the material that you’ve studied, but it’s something different to be prepared for the questions you’ll encounter in the paper. Try going through old exam papers; you can find them in libraries, schools and even online as well.
Forums With some colleges, there are virtual campuses that students can get together in, or perhaps, like many sites, you can come across one specifically dealing with your subject that you can talk to other people about.
Goals
When it comes to studying, you should make a goal to just do so much every day. When you reach this goal, then aim for something more, like studying for half an hour, and then studying for an hour. Also remember to take breaks between sessions though.
Homework
When it comes to homework, apart from raising the energy after a long day on campus, at school or at work, it’s about where you can get help for homework assignments. You can go online and get answers at any of the popular sites like Yahoo Answers, Wiki Answers etc. Some colleges supervise homework or provide tutors for help that you can contact by e-mail or phone.
IPod
If you have one, you can use the podcasts you download or record yourself to take with you wherever you go. Read more about this in Part 2, under Podcasts.
Jokes
You could try and make jokes out of your material to make them sink in, like a mnemonic. To go even further, you can send them as chain e-mails to your study group and get them to come up with their own. On forums, you could have topics that have these listed, and the ability to add more.
Karaoke
You can try and make music out of your own study notes. It can be any style, but rap would work well. You can even put them on the internet for others as mp3s.
Listen
I once heard the saying from my one teacher at school that if you listen during class, then you’ve done half the work. It’s not enough to just listen though as you also have to do the other half, which is the rest of the list of tips and resources right here.
Location
You need to have a quiet place, away from people and noise for a few hours at a time, preferably with a desk, some light, and your books. Studying on the floor is uncomfortable and on your bed will be too comfortable.
Look up words
The one thing about studying is that you need to understand. I’ve heard over and over again that it’s impossible to learn what you don’t understand. It can be as simple as a single word that you need to look up.
Make notes
This is one way to stay actively involved in your studies. It’s not good enough to just read and hope it stays put in your brain, unless you have a photographic memory. Even if you just write down keywords and whenever you see those keywords, you just remember the whole part of what you learnt.
Memory
Your memory is no doubt the most important thing here, as you can use all of these tips and yet if you don’t remember anything, it’s all useless. You need to reinforce your memory by revising your work constantly.
Mind mapping
We were taught how to draw mindmaps in school, and at first I didn’t like them all that much. The thing is that it’s like an addition to your notes, except it’s in pictures or photos. Pictures are worth a thousand words. I still don’t really use them though.
Mnemonics
These serve as ways to remember words or lists. Look at some of the other examples like Abbreviations and Acronyms from part 1, or Jokes from this article.
Music
There’s the belief that some people have that listening to calm, relaxing music or sounds will help you focus. I have found that I like to listen to music when I write
No distractions
You need to make sure that wherever you study, it’s quiet. You can’t concentrate with loud, intrusive noises going on, just like you can’t sleep with loud, intrusive noises going on.
Old exam papers
These are becoming less relevant in my country what with the changing syllabus into OBE standards. Nevertheless, the way that questions are phrased and how the exams are set out are worth looking at. Trying to do these exams in the required amount of time is also a challenge, and it pays off in the end.
Open book tests
In school, several times we were allowed to write open book tests. This way, you learn the correct answers and don’t try to suck it out of your thumb.
Organized
Have all your stuff like stationery and whatever else you need right where you need it; right in front of you.
"I took a microphone and recorded myself speaking, reading my notes that I’d made. I listened to it over and over again on my earphones for days. I aced the exam that I wrote based on that material."
Podcasts
Plenty of people make podcasts nowadays, and I’m not saying that you need to make one and broadcast it to the whole world, although that might be another idea that you could add to your blog or site. You can make one for yourself and listen to it on your PC, Laptop or iPod. It can be a lecture that you need to revise or even these study tips.
I’ve done this before when I was in high school. I took a microphone and recorded myself speaking, reading my notes that I’d made. I listened to it over and over again on my earphones for days.
I aced the exam that I wrote based on that material.
Posters
I heard someone say that when she went off to university, she would make posters filled with lists and mind maps, and she would only leave the room after she had looked at all of them at least briefly.
Prepare what you need for tomorrow
Save time by having all you need before you rush off to school or anywhere else, like clothes and your stationery and text books.
Pretend you are the teacher
You can use all the other tips and make as though you’re teaching yourself, and not just sitting bored stiff. Teachers should use emphasis and try and stir something within a student (they don’t always). You obviously need to do the same.
Proper food
There are some vitamins and supplements that are purported to help you with concentration and to get the best out of your study time. You need your daily intake of vitamins to give your body fuel. Pantothenic acid is apparently good for you in the studying stakes. Vitamin B also helps with stress, which you might have too much of, especially around exam time. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables and maintain a balanced diet. Eating junk food that is nothing but sugar won’t do much good for concentration.
You could try and make jokes out of your material to make them sink in, like a mnemonic. To go even further, you can send them as chain e-mails to your study group and get them to come up with their own. On forums, you could have topics that have these listed, and the ability to add more.
Karaoke
You can try and make music out of your own study notes. It can be any style, but rap would work well. You can even put them on the internet for others as mp3s.
Listen
I once heard the saying from my one teacher at school that if you listen during class, then you’ve done half the work. It’s not enough to just listen though as you also have to do the other half, which is the rest of the list of tips and resources right here.
Location
You need to have a quiet place, away from people and noise for a few hours at a time, preferably with a desk, some light, and your books. Studying on the floor is uncomfortable and on your bed will be too comfortable.
Look up words
The one thing about studying is that you need to understand. I’ve heard over and over again that it’s impossible to learn what you don’t understand. It can be as simple as a single word that you need to look up.
Make notes
This is one way to stay actively involved in your studies. It’s not good enough to just read and hope it stays put in your brain, unless you have a photographic memory. Even if you just write down keywords and whenever you see those keywords, you just remember the whole part of what you learnt.
Memory
Your memory is no doubt the most important thing here, as you can use all of these tips and yet if you don’t remember anything, it’s all useless. You need to reinforce your memory by revising your work constantly.
Mind mapping
We were taught how to draw mindmaps in school, and at first I didn’t like them all that much. The thing is that it’s like an addition to your notes, except it’s in pictures or photos. Pictures are worth a thousand words. I still don’t really use them though.
Mnemonics
These serve as ways to remember words or lists. Look at some of the other examples like Abbreviations and Acronyms from part 1, or Jokes from this article.
Music
There’s the belief that some people have that listening to calm, relaxing music or sounds will help you focus. I have found that I like to listen to music when I write
No distractions
You need to make sure that wherever you study, it’s quiet. You can’t concentrate with loud, intrusive noises going on, just like you can’t sleep with loud, intrusive noises going on.
Old exam papers
These are becoming less relevant in my country what with the changing syllabus into OBE standards. Nevertheless, the way that questions are phrased and how the exams are set out are worth looking at. Trying to do these exams in the required amount of time is also a challenge, and it pays off in the end.
Open book tests
In school, several times we were allowed to write open book tests. This way, you learn the correct answers and don’t try to suck it out of your thumb.
Organized
Have all your stuff like stationery and whatever else you need right where you need it; right in front of you.
"I took a microphone and recorded myself speaking, reading my notes that I’d made. I listened to it over and over again on my earphones for days. I aced the exam that I wrote based on that material."
Podcasts
Plenty of people make podcasts nowadays, and I’m not saying that you need to make one and broadcast it to the whole world, although that might be another idea that you could add to your blog or site. You can make one for yourself and listen to it on your PC, Laptop or iPod. It can be a lecture that you need to revise or even these study tips.
I’ve done this before when I was in high school. I took a microphone and recorded myself speaking, reading my notes that I’d made. I listened to it over and over again on my earphones for days.
I aced the exam that I wrote based on that material.
Posters
I heard someone say that when she went off to university, she would make posters filled with lists and mind maps, and she would only leave the room after she had looked at all of them at least briefly.
Prepare what you need for tomorrow
Save time by having all you need before you rush off to school or anywhere else, like clothes and your stationery and text books.
Pretend you are the teacher
You can use all the other tips and make as though you’re teaching yourself, and not just sitting bored stiff. Teachers should use emphasis and try and stir something within a student (they don’t always). You obviously need to do the same.
Proper food
There are some vitamins and supplements that are purported to help you with concentration and to get the best out of your study time. You need your daily intake of vitamins to give your body fuel. Pantothenic acid is apparently good for you in the studying stakes. Vitamin B also helps with stress, which you might have too much of, especially around exam time. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables and maintain a balanced diet. Eating junk food that is nothing but sugar won’t do much good for concentration.
Questions
One way to understand your work is to ask questions. Now, you can ask yourself questions, like a test, and answer them, or you can ask others, to find out. One thing I’ve heard about professionals and tutors is: “If you don’t ask, they won’t tell.”
Read aloud
If you try to sit down and read quietly, you’ll find that your mind wanders. If you read aloud, you are using more than one of your senses. You’re looking at the work and you're hearing it too.
Reading
Sometimes you don’t have the option of reading aloud, like in a classroom or study hall, and so you need to concentrate more. See the role play tip for more.
Research
It pays to know your work, and in addition to going through you course material; you should also learn things from other sources, like the internet, and experts on the subject. Take an interest in your work, and learn more about it.
Revision
Unless you go over your work regularly, you won’t retain the information you learn. Before you progress to a new section, go over your last piece briefly.
Role Play
You remember the tip about pretending to be the teacher? This time, you can pretend that your favourite celebrities or role models are reading the material to you. This works best when you read quietly and not aloud, unless you can actually do successful impersonations of their voices! This will make it more interesting for you.
Room is light enough and neat
They talk about sleep hygiene; well this is study hygiene. Make sure your study area is neat, there is enough light, whether from a window or a light source like a lamp. Sitting in the dark with just the glow of a PC screen isn’t good enough.
Senses (sight, hearing, speech, smell and touch)
When you read, you only use your sight. The objective then is to try and use as many of your senses as possible. You can do that by trying all the different tips here.
Set a schedule and timetable
In school you are usually tasked with drawing up timetables. Some serve to remind you which class you need to report to, and others are your homework and study periods after school.
Set your own tests
You can set any sort of test or have someone else do it and then give it to you. In some text books, at the end there are ‘test yourself’ sections that will test your knowledge of the things you’ve learned and hopefully remembered.
Study groups
For some that can’t study on their own, there are study groups with people who take the same section. There is the temptation to do other things though like talk, and so there are distractions.
Study guides
In addition to text books, you can get study guides that will give you a lot of tips that will teach you how to study as well as have extra information on you subjects of study, and go into a lot of detail.
Summarize
It’s a good exercise as well as practical when you have to revise a piece of work, to make summaries and extract the key points from the work. You get prose form and point form summaries. Prose form deals with keywords and point form deal with making a list of numbered points.
Tiredness
Without enough sleep, it will be hell to study hard and get the motivation. When I was still at school, I would go to bed late, and I had to get up early to catch the bus to get to school. By the time I got home, I was too tired to do all the homework.
Understanding
It’s impossible to learn what you don’t understand. That’s a saying that I’ve heard and read many times.
Use all parts of your brain
We have a right side of the brain and a left side. In addition to this, I’ve read that we have seven intelligences. You need to try and use them all, especially by using different media to enhance your ability to learn. Think about reading versus reading, writing, hearing, seeing, smelling and touching; taking a real hands-on approach to study.
Variety
Doing the same thing all day gets boring, and you’ll be less likely to want to do it again tomorrow. Taking different days to do different parts of your coursework will keep it fresh.
Video
It’s all very well reading something, but seeing a video about it adds a whole dimension to your learning. If you want something professional, you can try the library or an actual channel that deals with education, like the Liberty Learning Channel (S.A.), or plenty of others on worldwide Satellite TV, like History, Discovery, National Geographic or Animal Planet. Certain channels like these and the BBC will send you videos for a price.
Writing
It’s one thing to read, but it’s another to be able to write what you’ve learned. This depends on your memory and revision, and you’ll be surprised how little you can actually write at first! Some people claim that writing the same line over and over helps the information to sink in.
Xerox
If a library, school or other institution won’t let you take a particular exam, you’ll have to photocopy it.
YouTube
You can pick up a lot of videos made by other people on the internet, like Youtube, Google, and MySpace on a variety of subjects. The only thing is that the video quality might not be sufficient, and you need broadband to really be able to watch them online. You can download them but then you need to have a program like Orbit that can capture flash videos.
Zest
It takes the right attitude to sit down and study, and you need to approach it as something enjoyable otherwise you won’t feel like doing it.
One way to understand your work is to ask questions. Now, you can ask yourself questions, like a test, and answer them, or you can ask others, to find out. One thing I’ve heard about professionals and tutors is: “If you don’t ask, they won’t tell.”
Read aloud
If you try to sit down and read quietly, you’ll find that your mind wanders. If you read aloud, you are using more than one of your senses. You’re looking at the work and you're hearing it too.
Reading
Sometimes you don’t have the option of reading aloud, like in a classroom or study hall, and so you need to concentrate more. See the role play tip for more.
Research
It pays to know your work, and in addition to going through you course material; you should also learn things from other sources, like the internet, and experts on the subject. Take an interest in your work, and learn more about it.
Revision
Unless you go over your work regularly, you won’t retain the information you learn. Before you progress to a new section, go over your last piece briefly.
Role Play
You remember the tip about pretending to be the teacher? This time, you can pretend that your favourite celebrities or role models are reading the material to you. This works best when you read quietly and not aloud, unless you can actually do successful impersonations of their voices! This will make it more interesting for you.
Room is light enough and neat
They talk about sleep hygiene; well this is study hygiene. Make sure your study area is neat, there is enough light, whether from a window or a light source like a lamp. Sitting in the dark with just the glow of a PC screen isn’t good enough.
Senses (sight, hearing, speech, smell and touch)
When you read, you only use your sight. The objective then is to try and use as many of your senses as possible. You can do that by trying all the different tips here.
Set a schedule and timetable
In school you are usually tasked with drawing up timetables. Some serve to remind you which class you need to report to, and others are your homework and study periods after school.
Set your own tests
You can set any sort of test or have someone else do it and then give it to you. In some text books, at the end there are ‘test yourself’ sections that will test your knowledge of the things you’ve learned and hopefully remembered.
Study groups
For some that can’t study on their own, there are study groups with people who take the same section. There is the temptation to do other things though like talk, and so there are distractions.
Study guides
In addition to text books, you can get study guides that will give you a lot of tips that will teach you how to study as well as have extra information on you subjects of study, and go into a lot of detail.
Summarize
It’s a good exercise as well as practical when you have to revise a piece of work, to make summaries and extract the key points from the work. You get prose form and point form summaries. Prose form deals with keywords and point form deal with making a list of numbered points.
Tiredness
Without enough sleep, it will be hell to study hard and get the motivation. When I was still at school, I would go to bed late, and I had to get up early to catch the bus to get to school. By the time I got home, I was too tired to do all the homework.
Understanding
It’s impossible to learn what you don’t understand. That’s a saying that I’ve heard and read many times.
Use all parts of your brain
We have a right side of the brain and a left side. In addition to this, I’ve read that we have seven intelligences. You need to try and use them all, especially by using different media to enhance your ability to learn. Think about reading versus reading, writing, hearing, seeing, smelling and touching; taking a real hands-on approach to study.
Variety
Doing the same thing all day gets boring, and you’ll be less likely to want to do it again tomorrow. Taking different days to do different parts of your coursework will keep it fresh.
Video
It’s all very well reading something, but seeing a video about it adds a whole dimension to your learning. If you want something professional, you can try the library or an actual channel that deals with education, like the Liberty Learning Channel (S.A.), or plenty of others on worldwide Satellite TV, like History, Discovery, National Geographic or Animal Planet. Certain channels like these and the BBC will send you videos for a price.
Writing
It’s one thing to read, but it’s another to be able to write what you’ve learned. This depends on your memory and revision, and you’ll be surprised how little you can actually write at first! Some people claim that writing the same line over and over helps the information to sink in.
Xerox
If a library, school or other institution won’t let you take a particular exam, you’ll have to photocopy it.
YouTube
You can pick up a lot of videos made by other people on the internet, like Youtube, Google, and MySpace on a variety of subjects. The only thing is that the video quality might not be sufficient, and you need broadband to really be able to watch them online. You can download them but then you need to have a program like Orbit that can capture flash videos.
Zest
It takes the right attitude to sit down and study, and you need to approach it as something enjoyable otherwise you won’t feel like doing it.
Creator
Breanna Jones
Source
http://anti-valentine.hubpages.com/hub/The-A-Z-of-Unique-and-Effective-Study-Techniques-Part-1
http://anti-valentine.hubpages.com/hub/The-A-Z-of-Unique-and-Effective-Study-Techniques-Part-2
http://anti-valentine.hubpages.com/hub/The-A-Z-of-Unique-and-Effective-Study-Techniques-Part-3
http://anti-valentine.hubpages.com/hub/The-A-Z-of-Unique-and-Effective-Study-Techniques-Part-2
http://anti-valentine.hubpages.com/hub/The-A-Z-of-Unique-and-Effective-Study-Techniques-Part-3
Publisher
anti-valentine.hubpages.com
Collection
Citation
Breanna Jones, “The A-Z of Unique and Effective Study Techniques,” Useless Archives, accessed April 30, 2024, https://useless.as.uky.edu/items/show/509.