Study Techniques
Learn how to study using each of your themes for academic success.
- Review your goals-achievement log. Look for evidence that you are progressing toward your objectives. Outline the steps you took to acquired one particular skill or master one key concept.
- Pay close attention to your body clock. Decide when your mind is most alert. Use this insight to your advantage when scheduling time to study.
- Decide whether your productivity, efficiency, and ability to retain essential information increases when you study with a tutor, a classmate, a group, or alone.
- Observe classmates to discover who shares your commitment to hard work. Form a study group composed of individuals who invest time, effort, and energy in scholarly pursuits.
- Reach consensus as a study group about attendance, starting and endings times of meetings, strategies to eliminate distractions, and the sharing of class notes.
- List everything you must do to prepare for a test, complete a project, conduct research, or finish an assignment. Prioritize activities. Set a deadline for each one. Then methodically carry out your plan.
- Lead study groups. Participate in the life of the mind. Urge members to share their best ideas. Give timid individuals permission to explore topics, raise questions, and work on projects.
- Jot down one or two key thoughts as you read an article, story, or the directions from a project. Use these insights to shape the group’s discussions.
- Draw quiet individuals into conversations, debates, planning, and discussions. Call on them by name. Probe when they respond to questions with one- or two-word answers.
- Read ahead to prepare for class lectures. Compose two or three questions not offered in the textbook to ask your instructor. Intentionally change the classroom atmosphere from one of passive listening to active participation.
- Stay physically active to remain mentally engaged in your studies. Eat. Pace. Take breaks to stretch. Test your ideas with your study group. Press for their honest opinions.
- Analyze your study habits. Do you plan and then improvise as circumstances change? Or do you improvise minute by minute rather than plan?
- Choose study partners who are serious yet share your easy-going, relaxed work style. Avoid individuals who are tense and anxious. Make a list of potential study buddies.
- Look for irony, humor, and the unexpected in your studies. Stimulate your own and others’ thinking by discussing the relevance of each discovery.
- Make notes about how your study habits vary depending on the situation. Ask yourself these questions: Do I need the pressure of a test or deadline to force me to study? When am I most likely to ignore intriguing distractions? Least likely?
- Designate places to which you can retreat when you need to give your full attention to your studies. Choose venues where the potential for interruptions and extraneous noise is significantly reduced.
- Notice the subtle nuances of a subject. Question the authors’ conclusions. Flag topics for scrutiny. Refuse to accept blindly whatever appears on the printed page.
- Assess why you do quite well in one course but not as well in others. Evaluate your study habits, note taking, listening, capacity for asking questions, and reading comprehension.
- Draw “mind maps” to illustrate the placement of each element of a theory or aspect of a concept as well as a story plot. Investigate until you logically link facts or numerical data with results.
- Record questions as you read. Ask: “What is missing here?” “What questions should the author have answered?” “What biases are evident and not so evident?”
- Make sense of discussions. Write what you heard and said. Identify comments, conclusions, and arguments that lack supporting facts or data.
- Prioritize your studies. Identify the most important tasks based on deadlines, percentage of final grade, and difficulty. Balance your workload.
- Underline, highlight, and take notes in margins of books. Summarize main ideas.
- Pick locations where you can study. Figure out why certain environments are better for particular subjects.
- Schedule study breaks to clear your mind. Check on other projects or make phone calls.
- Break each study session into distinct modules. Plan time to read, write, work on projects, eat, sleep, exercise, and socialize.
- List your top three to five beliefs on a piece of paper you can use as a bookmark.
- Filter whatever you are reading and hearing through the lenses of these core values.
- Assess whether you are allocating enough time to classes, projects, and assignments that add meaning to your life.
- Suggest alternative topics for reading and research to your professors. Match your preferred assignments to one or more of your core values.
- Form a study group of individuals with whom you share one or more important belief. Ask each member to describe how these core values contribute to his or her success as a student.
- Use your Command talents to clarify rather than intimidate. Understand that some clear-thinking individuals may become flustered under pressure.
- Join study groups known for debating ideas, theories, and problems.
- Give your instructors feedback about what you most enjoy and benefit from in their classes.
- Develop hypotheses and thesis statements that you must defend in writing or oral presentations. Recognize that you are more engaged when you must build a case to support your ideas.
- Play devil’s advocate -- that is, argue the opposing view -- for fun and benefit when the opportunity arises. Warn people that you like to draw others into debates.
- Tell others about your solutions, theories, concepts, and ideas before presenting them in class. Acknowledge that this is how you refine your thinking.
- Converse about the subject matter until you fully understand it.
- Notice how your classmates rely on you to engage the professor in dialogue. Realize that you are quite comfortable doing this.
- Entertain your study group with anecdotes that make history, mathematics, science, languages, or the arts come alive in their minds.
- Seek out highly competitive people and study with them. Know that you will push each other to learn more, faster. Figure out how to manage the inevitable undercurrent of tension that will exist.
- Pit yourself against a fellow student to increase your chances of being the first person to finish the paper, test, or project.
- Establish measurable and meaningful academic goals. Use these to force yourself to reach the highest levels of productivity, mastery, or quality.
- Identify the best students in your classes or major area of study. Investigate what they routinely do to be number one.
- Quiz your professors about their criteria for earning the highest grades in their classes. Explain that you aim to understand the material better than anyone else in the class.
- Pray for guidance before you begin studying. Ask that your mind be freed of worries and distractions. Implore yourself that you can truly trust that all will be well.
- Concentrate on your breathing before starting a test, making a presentation, or working on a project. Spiritually unite yourself with students around the world who are facing similar challenges at this very moment.
- Silence competing scholarly demands of your life by practicing daily meditation. Master the art of letting go. Embrace the art of living in the present moment.
- Be mindful of the abundance of good things. Realize that more than one student can earn a good grade or receive the professor’s approval.
- Energize your body, heighten your awareness, and soothe your soul with inspiring background music. Create a calm environment in which to study, work on projects, solve problems, research, write, and prepare for exams.
- Anticipate what you need to do to earn the grade you want in each class. Set up and adhere to a study routine. Realize that you excel when your life has a rhythm to it.
- Make a habit of studying at the same time each day. Designate a specific study area and equip it appropriately. Replenish supplies on a specific day of the week.
- Establish predictable and uniform patterns for doing different kinds of assignments, such as writing, researching, calculating, and rehearsing speeches.
- Heighten your awareness of how much time you require to complete each assignment. Honor the ways you study best rather than mimicking those of successful classmates.
- Balance all the facts when conducting research, making a presentation, or writing a report. Seek to remove biases by being objective.
- Create study rituals that suit your thinking and learning style. Read ahead. Write down questions to which you want answers. Highlight key ideas, steps, and concepts. Take notes on notecards, in a spiral notebook, or in computer files.
- Consider your own history of test taking. Identify your best performances. Spot patterns. Prepare for today’s examinations by replicating study techniques that have worked for you in the past.
- Hypothesize your own theories for specific historic events. Rely on public records, surveys, correspondence, and legislation to develop a study brief.
- Overcome obstacles placed in your path by a professor by conferring with former students of this individual. Ask questions to learn from the experiences of individuals who excelled.
- Complement your reading and research assignments with additional sources of information, such as recorded speeches, transcripts of court proceedings, or vintage interviews with key figures and their contemporaries.
- Record interviews with individuals who lived through significant periods of history, such as the Great Depression, wars, terrorist attacks, political scandals, and boom times.
- Find photographs, paintings, drawings, blueprints, news film, videos, costumes, recipes, historical reproductions, almanacs, and costumes to bring a historic epoch to life.
- Know your reading pace, and set aside plenty of time to finish reading assignments. Take notes on what you read, and study your notes for exams.
- Work extra problems just to be sure you understand the material.
- If you work best alone, study on your own before engaging in group discussions. This will allow you to reinforce what you have learned with the group, without needing to rely on the group.
- Form questions as you study, and make sure you have answers to them before taking an exam.
- Explain to a friend, fellow student, teaching assistant, or professor what you have learned from a book, lecture, or other source.
- Form study groups in which you can teach others as well as learn from them.
- Identify a few classmates on whom you can rely to be your study partners.
- Pretend that you are going to explain to others what you are trying to learn. This will help you retain more information and improve your comprehension.
- Try studying by yourself first, to understand the information, then help others if they need it. One of the best ways to reinforce your learning is to teach others.
- Before starting papers, talk to instructors to find out what they expect and how they will grade the papers.
- When you come across an unfamiliar word, finish the sentence, look the word up, then reread the sentence.
- When preparing for a test, get organized. Collect all notes, have terms defined and facts highlighted and/or listed, and have possible questions available.
- When you are working on a paper, it may be best to make an outline, breaking the topic down into parts that you can work on individually.
- Use your discipline to stay ahead in reading assignments. Go over your lecture notes within 12 hours of taking them.
- Make a list of all academic tasks that you need to complete for the day. Check items off as you complete them.
- When you read, identify how you can relate the emotions of the characters to your own or those of people you know. This will make the material come alive for you and help you remember the it better.
- As soon as you have an idea, write it down, including your feelings about it.
- Ask yourself what the professor wants you to understand about the material, then try to master those aspects.
- When you’re in a study group, be aware of the emotions of the other members. Help bring those feeling into the open so that others in the group can be aware of the feelings of others and you can keep your focus on the task ahead of you.
- Although you can concentrate for long periods of time, regulate yourself to
avoid working to exhaustion. - Before studying, list everything you’ll attempt to learn during that time period.
- Before writing a paper, outline the main points you plan to address.
- Schedule your work in a way that allows you to focus your full attention on one assignment or project at a time.
- Try to truly understand what you’re studying; don’t just memorize. Always relate what you’re studying to where you see yourself in the future.
- Write a description of your desired future, and post it where you will notice it frequently. Look at it often, and connect what you are learning to where you want to go.
- Take exams seriously and prepare thoroughly. Treat them as steps toward your future.
- Join a group in which you can lead others to create new visions of the future.
- Bounce ideas off others whose thinking you respect. They may be able to help you clarify your own ideas.
- Read with an open mind. Give the author a chance to explain himself or herself. Find agreement between the author’s ideas and your own, and expand from there.
- When you are reading something controversial, try to find something you can agree with. Begin your study and analysis there.
- When studying in a group, help others see where their viewpoints are congruent.
- As you read an idea, use it as a stimulus for your own further thought and creativity.
- As you study, think of different concepts, and invent new ways to present the materials in writing or in graphics. This will invigorate your mind as well as the minds of others.
- Allow yourself ample time for thinking. If you rush through a reading assignment, you are less likely to be engaged with it.
- Brainstorm with your friends about topics you are studying. Let your mind “go wild,” knowing that you can sort through the ideas later.
- Study with other people. If someone in the group is not talking, try to bring him or her into the conversation.
- Invite someone who is shy but intelligent to study with you.
- Start a small study group of people who seem more hesitant to talk, and include a couple of more verbal people as well.
- Search out books on the culture of a prominent ethnic group in your community. Use your new information to help include some people of this culture in activities in which you participate.
- Establish a study group with people who possess a wide variety of talents and perspectives, thereby expanding your own horizons and viewpoints.
- As you read a novel, take notes about how the author vividly sets up the uniqueness of each character.
- Note how your style of learning, studying, writing papers, and taking tests compares to others. You will learn about some of the natural differences between people.
- As you read about well known people, make a chart listing specific differences among them. This will hone your observation talents.
- Give yourself research deadlines within your overall timelines for completing papers. Without them, you might continue to read and read, never feeling like you have enough information.
- To continue making progress and stay on track while doing required work, put sticky notes on areas you wish to go back and look at.
- Prioritize the most critical information to study. Otherwise, you might become distracted by other information that fascinates you but is not as relevant.
- Take time to think and plan before writing a paper or performing an assignment.
- Study to understand and learn, not just to memorize.
- Take part in study groups that allow you to verbalize and further define your thoughts.
- Practice presenting ideas that matter to you.
- Study in an environment that allows you to get into a “study mood.” This approach allow you to get the most out of your studies.
- Join study groups that challenge you.
- Figure out questions that will be asked, and practice answering them in preparation for discussions and exams.
- Read wherever you feel most comfortable -- the library, the coffee shop, or home.
- Discover your best way to learn, and stick to it.
- Determine ways to manage any weaknesses in your study habits.
- Study the most of what you do the best.
- Invite study partners who are as upbeat as you.
- Encourage others to enjoy their assignments.
- Think of fun, even silly, ways to remember things.
- Make learning fun for yourself and others by throwing study parties.
- Form study groups for midterms and exams with close friends.
- Discuss class lectures with friends.
- Study with friends who have goals similar to yours.
- To increase your comprehension of reading materials, share what you have learned with friends.
- Discover what “doing it right” means to each of your professors.
- Schedule specific study times for each of your classes, and assume full responsibility for investing the necessary time, talents, and effort.
- As you do your reading assignments, highlight the key vocabulary words, main ideas, and characters.
- Make choices about class assignments as soon as possible.
- Ask your professors what your weaknesses are, and create support systems or complementary partnerships through which you can manage them.
- Make a list of ways in which you can apply your most powerful talents to improve in each class.
- Research every missed test question to determine your gaps in knowledge, and fill those gaps.
- Study your greatest talents, and recognize the many ways in which you can achieve through them.
- Overstudy. Do more than you need to do.
- Have confidence in your best ways to learn.
- Enjoy the risks you take in your approach to studying.
- Take a leadership role in a study group.
- Choose to study with other hard-charging classmates.
- Establish relationships with your professors so they know who you are and of your interest in achieving.
- Reflect and write down your ideas for possible solutions to problems.
- In group settings, work with others to generate new ideas or clarify your own.
- Be creative in your studying. Make up games or develop mnemonic devices and anecdotes to relate information.
- Do more than is expected. It is not difficult for you to expand on an idea, and you will learn more about the subject.
- Connect reading material to people you have met. This helps you get involved in the reading and not become bored, and you will better remember what you read and generate more insights.
- Study in places where there are many people, like the library or an off-campus bookstore.
- Block off time for studying and reading with others.
- Create a study group of people you do not know yet.