I’ve never met a single person that actually enjoys studying, but it’s just something that we all have to do in life at some point or another. With that, here are some tips to make it slightly less unbearable and a bit easier.
It’s all well and good going to library at 5pm and doing 2 hours of study a night because, yeah, something is better than nothing, but you need to make a schedule if you want to study to the best of your ability. Being a former student myself, the best way I found of doing it was to treat it like a 9-5 job. Get to the library around 9, don’t leave until 5 and give yourself a half an hour break for every 2 hours of work you did.
It’s 2019 and people are still underestimating how important water is to the functionality of the human brain. When studying, the best thing you can drink is water, and honestly probably one of the worst is energy drinks. Whenever I drank them, it wouldn’t make me more alert or focused, it’d just speed up my heart rate. Avoid them if you can.
It seems to be commonplace amongst students to sacrifice sleep for something else, usually a night out, but sometimes they’ll stay up all nigh working on an assignment. This really is not a sustainable way of living and eventually it’s going to affect your mental and physical fatigue, to the point where you can’t concentrate, leaving you further behind than you already were.
Much like drinking enough water, being sufficiently fed is a very important factor in ensuring you’re reaching your maximum potential when studying. Snacks such as fruit, nuts and foods high in protein are good for keeping you sustained and fuelling your brain.
If you struggle to focus then maybe studying in groups or with a partner isn’t the best idea for you, however if you can focus but sometimes need a bit of a push, then this will definitely work. Find people that are studying for the same thing that you are and talk to them about what they’ve found, compare notes and help each other.
I realise this may not be what you need to hear if you’re the type of person who uses any excuse to not study, but it’s true. People often get so worked up about having to study that they completely avoid it all together. And if you want to do that once or twice a week, that’s completely okay, as long as you can be proud of the studying you’re doing every other day of the week.
You may be one of those people who feels as though breaks are counter productive, and that if you stop for half an hour, you might as well stop all together. This isn’t true and could be detrimental to your progress, but you need to find a good balance. I usually suggest a half an hour break for every two hours of studying you’ve done, but feel free to experiment with your own ratios.
Most people listen to music when studying, it’s just a natural thing that a lot of students do, however, finding the right type of music to listen to is more important. People often get distracted by lyrics in songs, which is why I listened to purely instrumental music when studying at university, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made at university.
Your lecturers and professors are there for you after the bell goes, often through email or office hours, and it’s your responsibility to take advantage of this and ask them any questions about topics you don’t understand. Speaking from experience, the best thing you can do is meet your tutor with a list of questions and ask them all, no matter how stupid. Trust me, it’ll help.
You’re at University for a reason, and your degree will be worth all the stress and tiredness that you’re experiencing now. It’s three years of your life but I promise, once it’s over, you’ll wish you could go back. University is some of the best years of your life.
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