Staying focused can be difficult in college, especially when you have a million assignments to think about at once. If you have a full load, studying can seem like a Herculean task. However, studying doesn’t need to be so difficult. Indeed, you can find a way to compartmentalize and organize the subjects you are learning accordingly. Once you do this, you can effectively dive into the studying you need to do. It is critical that you think of your studying requirements like a bookshelf. You want to visualize where to fit in the studying for a course and how much you can fit into a certain window. If you have a big exam, you are going to need to make extra room in your schedule to prepare, so you may need to shuffle a few things around so that the stress doesn’t get to you. Here are five helpful study tips for college students.
1. Study in Advance
One of the most helpful tips for studying is to study in advance. When you go home after a long day of classes, you want to open up your notes and copy them down in a cleaner fashion, usually in a fresh, new notebook. This act of copying will help you retain more information, so that you aren’t cramming the night before the test.
2. Organize
Another important tip for studying is to organize. Before you study, you want to have a clean desk, room and computer desktop. If you have anything scattered or out of order, it could cause you to become distracted. Moreover, you want to be sure that you have all the materials necessary for studying, like pens, scrap paper and more, with you when you sit down with your notes. You will simply waste time and energy should you have to keep getting up for supplies.
3. Set Alarms
In order to truly compartmentalize your studying, you should set alarms for when you are going to start studying, when you are going to stop studying, and when you are going to transition into studying for a different course. If you burn through your studying sessions without setting these parameters, it can really slow you down. If you have a full course load, you want to make sure you have very sharp time parameters set up for each subject. You can usually use your phone to set these alarms on a set schedule.
4. Don’t Pull All-nighters
Many people think that they have to stay up all night to study. However, staying up can actually have a negative affect, especially in the long run. Ideally, you want to study during the day and then get an adequate amount of sleep. The more well rested you are, the easier you will be able to study and the more information you will retain.
5. Eat Plenty and Drink a lot of Water
Whether you are taking UIC online courses, or an in-class course program, you want to be sure that you stay well fed and plenty hydrated. If you become hungry or dehydrated, then it can greatly reduce your productivity.
