10 Study Tips To Help You Through Midterms This Year
Studying is one of the hardest things to do and some of you can do it with no problem, sit down with a pen, paper and books and you’re fine but for others it’s so much harder than that. Maybe you can’t seem to concentrate, you always find your way back to your phone or you have no idea what kind of studying suits you best. Here are a few study tips you need to get through your exams:
1. Turn your phone off (or put it on silent and far far away)
Seems like an obvious one for study tips right? But so many people still have their phone close by when studying and this is the worst thing to do. TURN YOUR PHONE OFF! I know it’s hard to be separated from your phone but you need to at least put it on silent if not off and have it on the other side of the room or house if you can’t be trusted. If you want to listen to music then use iTunes or Spotify on your laptop or another device. Some phones now have a limit thing where you can restrict certain apps which is great to do when studying so you’re not even tempted, if this is not on your phone then you can get an app which does the same thing.
2. Find the perfect time to study
For some people studying at 5 AM is the perfect time to study, for some people it’s at 12 PM and others at 8 PM, you just have to find what works for you best. Some of you might have jobs and other commitments you have to factor in too so make sure you find out times. Another great tip to do with time is to give yourself a time limit to each topic if you have like 5 topics to revise, so like one hour each subject each day, maybe more on weekends.
3. Find the perfect place to study
Another one of the study tips is to find the perfect place to study, so this might be on your own desk in your bedroom, the dining room table, the local library or your university/college. Don’t just go somewhere to study where your friends are going this is a bad idea because you might not be able to study there yourself and you might get distracted talking to your friends. But saying that, there are a few people who can study really good when they’re surrounded by friends who are also studying.
4. Have everything you need close by
This is an important study tip no one really thinks about, but you should have everything like pens, paper, books, highlighters and whatever else you need right next to you or very close by. By doing this you are less likely to get distracted, if you keep getting up to get things you need you’ll be wasting time and you will get distracted by other things.
5. Keep your notes short and simple
Don’t write essays when you’re studying (unless you need to for essay practice) because you will not be able to remember all of that. All you need to do is write everything short and simple, if you’re studying to write essays then write the key points to your essays and don’t try remember the entire thing word for word.
6. A highlighter is your best friend when studying
Another one of the important study tips is using highlighters (different coloured pens) throughout your notes. By doing this you will draw your attention to the main key terms, highlight the things you need the most and not whole pages. If you have different criteria to follow (for example essays, if some bits are key terms and some analysis) then you should use different highlighters for each and keep a key close to you so you know which is which, if you’re a visual learner this will help a lot.
7. Find out what kind of learner you are
People study in all kinds of ways, I know people who are the traditional look at a book and write things in a book, people who recorded their own voice and listened to it constantly and people who use flash cards or teach other people study tips. Personally I like visual learning, so when I study I get an A3 piece of paper and write all my notes from one topic on that then use a highlighter for things like key terms and stuck the pieces of paper all over my room especially near my bed so I could see them for weeks before my exam and learn from them. But you have to find out what works best for you, maybe find YouTube videos to listen to or make your own voice notes if that helps or teach someone (even your teddy bear) if you think that works best.
8. Don’t procrastinate
Stop putting off studying as appealing as watching the next episode of Friends is, you have to do it or you will regret it later on. This is an obvious one but non of us wants to study and so we keep doing other things which are less important. Again the phone limitations help with this, find what you would rather do then try restrict that.
9. Eat good food and drink a lot of water
Having a good diet is really important when studying because you need nutrients and a healthy lifestyle to make you more active. But a weird thing is when you’re studying you seem to need a lot of water so keep a big bottle of water around and drink plenty. The worst thing ever is getting ill when you’re trying to study so this is another reason to eat good food and drink water. If you want great food delivered, download the Grubhub app and get $15 dollars off your first order of $20 or more! Use code GHSOCIETY19.
10. Take breaks too
Taking breaks are very important too, maybe take an hour nap after a few hours of studying, take a walk for half an hour or even watch an episode of your favorite TV show. Make sure you don’t over work because this can make you sick too and lets be honest if you’re studying for six hours straight you probably won’t even know what’s going on after five hours.
What study tips do you use to help you though exams? Let us know in the comments.
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