How to study effectively and efficiently
Many people have different study strategies and habits. There are those who complete homework as they listen to music. Others manage to watch a TV show while completing a problem set. And still others complain that studying is boring and not for them; they cannot focus and eventually spend more time trying to concentrate and study at the same time than if they just sat down and completed the work.
As a pre-med student, I can say that studying takes up a sizable amount of my time. Even though I’m not always happy when I have to sit down to study when I could be doing something else more pleasurable and more active, I eventually find some sort of fun in learning new material. Or if anything, the prospect of failing will reduce me to a panic that will motivate my focus.
However, even though I try to be a good student, my study habits can be dodgy a lot of the times. They shift from pure procrastination to full-blown day-to-day study marathons. From this gigantic contrast, I can easily tell what works for me and what doesn’t in terms of studying efficiently and actually retaining information. From these experiences, I compiled a list of study tips.
- Find a motivation before you study. Many times, studying is long-term rather than short-term. In colleges especially, studying is usually related with tests. Many people copy one another’s problem set and neglect to actually learn the material until a night or two before the test date. However, this is unconstructive studying behavior. Much of the information learned will be fresh for the test, but gone a week later. This can be disconcerting when that material will be needed later on in your life (so pre-meds, make sure to study physics, chemistry, biology, and orgo chemistry early). Thus, I look at studying as the long-term goal of being able to retain new information better, which means that I can do less studying later on when I am scrapped for time. This thought process usually motivates me to sit down for that weekly three to four hours review session where I review what I learned that week and take notes. I make sure to write my notes as comprehensive as possible so that I only need to review my notes in the future rather than having to go through lecture slides or even worse, a textbook.
- Find a good study space. This step is very important. It sets the stage for distractions or helping you to focus. I find that empty, small tables are usually good study spaces. The lack of objects on the table besides my studying materials helps me to focus. I also like studying in the library because the milieu of other people studying motivates me to settle down and study too.
- Make sure there is no visual stimulation that will distract you. This means to turn off any streaming TV shows that may be on Youtube and close the Hulu window. If there is a shiny coin on the table that is distracting, remove it as well. Remove anything that could possibly become a deterrent to studying. I find that this step usually takes a lot of self-control, but once this step is over, everything becomes more easy. My mind will start settling down as I try to concentrate on what I am studying. The first few minutes will always be hard, because my mind is always on something else, but it will eventually start to focus on what I need to be learning, rather than what I want to see. Remember, studying is a need and does not have to be a want.
- Create a musical playlist that helps you focus. This step is not always the best for everyone. There are those who can only study in peace and quiet, but I usually like a little music to play in the background. This helps me to settle down and start focusing because I trained my mind to hear a type of music and get into the studying mood. This also helps me to not become distracted. For example, in the library, there are people who may be whispering or come in and out noisily; music cancels all this bad noise out and allows me to focus on my studies as if I was in an isolated system. When creating the musical playlist, it doesn’t matter what type of music is in the playlist. As long as you like the music, then it’s okay. There are those who can only study with ambient music, but I am one of those people who like catchy tunes interspersed with instrumentals.
- Study. It may seem stupid to write “study” in a tips list for studying, but it’s important. I found that as I studied more, I learned to be able to study more. I became increasingly better at focusing. When I didn’t study, I started to lose that ability. Thus, my winter break has been pretty much an unproductive period because my procrastination and laziness has only fueled my procrastination and laziness and made my studying skills regress. As with anything, practice makes perfect. In this case, practicing how to study will help make studying more efficient.
- Read out loud and slowly. I only use this method when I really have trouble focusing, but sometimes it helps to calm me down when I read a passage out loud and slowly. By slowly, I mean practically pausing word by word. Once I get a sentence out of the way, my mind is a lot more focused and I am ready to speed-read.
Although these skills aren’t 100% guaranteed to help jump-start your studying career, I hope that they may help someone out there to be able to focus more. They do seem pretty obvious and common-sense, but it’s amazing how many people complain about their grades when it is because they cannot study correctly.
So if you’re procrastinating, stop. Find that motivation to study and keep that in your head. Take away the distractions and focus. As you study, you may even start to like the material. There have been many times in which I had trouble focusing but once I actually understood a key sentence or two, I really felt as if I learned something and became excited to learn more.
Good luck studying!