Studying can feel like a boring and tedious job if a student does not have good study habits to keep them focused and motivated. It can lead to the development of negative ideas in a student’s head regarding the act of studying, no matter the quality of education they are receiving. This is true for students of all ages. Once such negative ideas develop, students try to avoid studies as much as possible. They get anxious and even crabby when the time comes for them to study.
All of it sounds normal and is so common that it is considered the usual behaviour of a student. However, such behaviour can cause the performance of a student to decline. This is why it is important to build strong study habits, which can help in creating a positive attitude in a student about studying.
Effective Techniques
Here are a few learning methods which you can use to build strong study habits:
Read & Review
Whenever you learn something in the classroom, be it physical or virtual, remember to always review it after you come home or finish all of your classes for the day. Even when you read something or watch videos about a certain topic, it is important to review that information again after a while to assimilate it. If you learn something once but then don’t go back to it and let it be, you cannot hope to remember it as clearly as you would after reviewing that information.
Repetition
It is important that you repeatedly review the work you are supposed to learn. Don’t attempt the repetition immediately after finishing one; instead, take some time after the review. The key is to keep learning. After a certain number of repetitions, the number varies for everyone according to their speed of knowledge absorption, and you can commit the information to memory.
Flash Cards
One of the most effective learning techniques is using flash cards. It helps you memorise key information through a quiz method. You can write the information you wish to learn on either side of a flash card in the form of a question and an answer. For instance, you can write a term on one side and its definition on the other. Then you can easily quiz yourself on the information.
Summarise the Topic
Once you are done learning about a topic, you can test yourself by trying to summarise it. Write down the summary and come back to it later. If, just by reading the summary, you can recall the entire topic, you have understood and learned it correctly, but if you are having trouble recalling, then you need to understand it again.
Teach Your Peers
It may sound weird that you need to teach to learn, but it is actually quite effective. When you are teaching somebody else, you start to grasp the concept better. You are able to look at the concept in a way that is easiest to explain. This, in turn, makes the topic easier to understand. You also find out which of the topics you understand perfectly and which you need to brush up a little bit.
Mind Mapping
Another great technique for studying is mind mapping. It helps you think better and find the connection between different topics. It is especially the case when you learn better with visual aids. A mind map is usually a structure which grows in different directions from a central keyword.
That keyword can be the topic you wish to understand, and the rest of the structure can comprise different information about the topic. That information is supposed to be connected in a specific way to the keyword. You can use mind maps to expand the topic and study it in detail.
Take Help Of Practice Questions
You can find sample exam papers, exercises and quizzes related to your topic and practice answering them. These samples can help you understand which part of the topic is absolutely important for you to learn, so you can pay better attention to it during the review. This technique is only effective after you have already learned the topics upon which the questions and exercises are based.
How to Form a Habit and Make It Stick?
A habit can only form if you are consistent with using those techniques and using certain other methods to make sure of your consistency. Once you form a habit, you can use the same methods to make it stick. Here are those methods.
Time Management
It is important that you learn to manage your time if you wish to form a habit. A specific routine can only help you be consistent. So, you need to create a timetable for your day and dedicate a certain number of hours to studying. There shouldn’t be just one study session; your day should have at least two or three sessions. Start with the number that feels comfortable to you.
The study session shouldn’t be too long, nor should it be too short. You need to find a balance between how long you can stay productive and how long will be too long, causing you to be counterproductive.
Break Time
It is extremely important to include breaks in your routine. All work and no play will not benefit you, no matter how much the study load is on you. Your brain needs rest time to recharge. If you continue studying for a long period, you will do yourself more harm than good but if you are well-rested, you can actually study in a better way. So, make sure you include breaks of appropriate length so your brain can recharge.
Proper Sleep
Just like breaks, proper sleep is also incredibly important. To build good study habits, you need to be consistent but in a good way, and proper sleep is a part of that. If you are awake at odd hours of the night and think that burning the midnight oil is going to help you, you are making all the wrong decisions. Both your eyes and your brain need some time off from the stress you put on them by studying for long periods of time. If you get the recommended hours of sleep, you can wake up fresh and study better.
No Distractions
When you are applying the techniques mentioned to study better, you need to make sure that you don’t have any distractions around. If you have access to social media or any source of entertainment that can distract you then you should remove it until you have finished your study session. A habit cannot form unless you take active measures to perform a certain task consistently and successfully. Distractions will certainly get in the way of that.
The Bottom Line
These were some of the effective studying techniques and habit-forming methods that can help a student to build strong study habits. Good parenting is also a necessary factor that contributes to creating good habits in kids. Remember, consistency is key. If one is consistent, their academic performance can get significantly better
