Increasing The Efficiency of Studying

Most often, we find ourselfves frustrated while studying either because we have trouble memorizing our facts, have trouble sitting down to study for extended periods of times because of our short attention spans towards things that we find "boring," or most often both.*

This guide (or these tips) has been written with its base on personal experience and observations to ensure the confidence that I, the writer knows what I am talking about.*



Step 1: Conditioning

1. Question: Most often, we can have trouble keeping our bottoms glued to our seats. Solution?

Tip of this section:
Get a couple (10 was all right for me) of copies of your favorite reading material. Kt can be ANYTHING. *10 issues of comic books, novels, or your prima strategy guidebooks *for your Halo games.
Read them all in one sitting and do it in the position that you are most used to studying in.*

This is a method used to condition*our bodies, so that we are used to sitting in the "studying" position for long periods at a time.

Step 2. Environment
Question: are you having trouble without being distracted?
Tip of this section: study in an environment that is right for you to minimalize thise distractions

First, clear your studying space of any possible distractions, so that only your studying materials on it. Such possible distractions are your cell phone, booger , or the comic book that you sed to condition your body.

Where you study depends on who you are. Most people In my country seem to prefer studying in small, enclosed spaces, but I like to study in wide, open environments. Also, while others like to study in the quietest environments possible, I like to study in places where I can hear the clock ticking, wind blowing and cars passing by.

Find the space on which you are most comfortable studying in.

Step 3: Force
Question: Do you have to study in an unfavorable environment?
Tip of this section: Read your book aloud, underline those sentences. (Do so with a pencil, something that you can erase later if you misunderlined something)

So maybe you have no choice but to study in your room, where your gaming pc and xbox is in. Surely your thoughts will wnder off to the boss that you haven't defeated yet.

But read your book out loud and underline those sentences, and tell me how easy it is to think of something other than what you are talking and thinking about at the moment.

Step 4: Fundamentals
Since I have taken an interest in studying physics lately, I will use it in my examples and explanations.

Question: have you ever been frustrated or had trouble remembering facts learned in later chapters of your book?
Tip of this section:
Go back to the foundation, and memorize the definitions and basic concepts.

You will often come across confusing sentences, such as "velocity and acceleration are vector quantities and mass and speed are scalar quantities."
This sentence has probably confused you and if you had to know these facts, you would just memorize and forget it later. That would be pretty frustrating if you needed these facts during an exam, wouldn't it?

However, that sentence wouldn't be confusing if you have memorized facts in the basics of physics. What is a vector? It is a quantity with both direction and magnitude. What is a scalar? It is a quantity with only a magnitude. *Thus, as velocity and acceleration both have directions and magnitudes, they are vectors, and since mass and speed are quantities with only magnitude, they are scalars.

If you had memorized the basic concepts, then you would know that these facts are true by definition and would have no need to memorize them seperately.

Thus, if you have memorized the basics and fundamentals, then anything that you learn in further chapters would be easier to remember and would not confuse you, as you would understand them and would be of common sense to you.*But if you just skimmed through the basics and can not remember them during the exams, good game.

Step 5:
Question: How will you keep those facts memorized?
Tip of this step: solve problems and go over what you have learned by taking notes.

There are a lot of things to memorize and remember in the fundamentals, and*it is easier if you go over them over and over again.
Taking notes seem to be the best method, because you certainly can not write as fast as you think or talk, and thus, you would remember more clearly.

Why?
I'll give the classic example of racing and cruising through a beautiful mountain on a vehicle of your choice. Would you remember more if you sped past it, or took your time and slowly cruised through it?
Would you remember what you have learned if you did nothing but read it, *or took your time to write it down?



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And that's about it.
I am aware that I may have bored you with a couple of "common sense" tips, but *I hope that I have convinced you to use them with my elaborated examples.

 

Nice guide man, some basic good study tips that actually work! Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks for this one I'm picking up my studies again in January. This is just what I needed, a small reminder of ways to study =) Cheers

Edit: It got me motivated >.<!

 

Thanks for the share It's really helpful for people who are unsure of how to study. I might use these methods in future. I always had the habit of leaving my study area every few minutes and I think this would really help me. Thanks mate

 

This actually helped me a lot, thanks

 

I might give some of these a go, I'm terrible for studying, I'm a last minute kind of guy ^_^. Only criticism I have is for the layout, not the content... try bolding the questions and maybe colouring the "Question:" and "Tip of this section:" to make the guide easier to read. Other than that, good guide & thanks

 

Currently undergoing in the exams period, I know most of these methods, but thanks for reminding them.

 

Heh heh yeah, a lot of us know how to study efficiently, we just simetimes need to be reminded of them

Same goes for smoking and its dangers

 

The most effective way for me involved drawing mind maps of the key concepts, showing the relationships between (learning the detail).

If I was studying a few chapters of a textbook in a day, I would reward myself after each chapter was completed.

 

Thanks for that. Hopefully it will really help. Any good ways to learn languages like French?

 

I found that picturing whatever you're doing in your head helps a lot also. If I was studying vocabulary, I could literally have 15 words memorized in 5 minutes, by using this method. So say the word was abate, I would picture a city getting destroyed in my mind, because the word abate means to diminish.

 

Lol wish I would have read this before I graduated college!

 

Might not work for every body but I've found that if I listen to drum n bass that has no words in it, it helps me focus on the task at hand and helps me relax.

 

^And that is pretty much the only reason for me to listen to dubstep. Although instrumental music would probably be better.

 

Taking adderall seems easier.

 

Thanks man, only had time to read the first two but will continue with the rest later. Studying for my A Levels soon, you might be saving lives here!

Edit: Ah, you're from South Korea, so is one of my friends, from what I hear the studying in SK is insanely competitive so its no wonder of all places you are from its SK

 

This actually makes sense if i look in the past

 

I'll try this

 

Thanks for making this guide seems promising

 

Good guide however I think it is missing some things such as the obvious