Top ten study tips

Here are our top ten tips to help you study.
1. Find your study space

Everyone has their own idea about the best place to study. Find a space that works for you and stick with it.
Do you prefer to study in silence or listen to music?
Do you work better alone or with other people?
Do you like to study at home or at school/uni/TAFE/library?

2. Be organised

Make sure you have all the materials you need in your study space before you start studying. Getting up to look for a pencil sharpener or ruler will break your concentration and waste your time.

3. Clear your mind

If you’ve got a lot on your mind take a moment to write yourself some notes about what you're thinking about before you start studying. This will help to clear your mind you focus all your thoughts on your work.

It’s also a good idea to keep some spare paper next to you while you’re studying so if you think of anything you need to do later you can write it down and put it out of your mind, then get on with the studying.

4. Get motivated

Think about what it will mean for you if you do well in your studies. How will it make you feel? If you keep the end result in mind it will help you stay motivated.

You might like to find a quote or an image or something that represents success for you and put it somewhere you can see it while you’re studying.

5. Plan your time (and use it well)


It helps to plan when you will study and how you can make the most of your study time.

Use a calendar or a list of dates or a wall planner to keep track of exam dates and assignment due dates. Plan ahead. Space out your study time each week for the whole term/semester - don’t try to cram it all in the night before!

Do the hardest work when you’re feeling your best. Save the easy stuff for when you’re tired.

Set yourself a time limit for each task and follow it.

6. Know your learning style

Most of us have a preferred way of learning. Get to know your learning style and study in the ways you learn best.

Auditory learners learn by listening. If you’re an auditory learner you could try reading your notes aloud and discussing them with other people. You might like to record key points and play them back.

Visual learners learn by seeing. If you’re a visual learner you could use colours in your notes and draw diagrams to help represent key points. You could try to remember some ideas as images.

Tactile/kinesthetic learners learn by doing. If you’re a tactile/kinesthetic learner you could use methods like role-playing or building models to revise key points.

Courseworks at the University of Melbourne has a quick quiz you can take (new window) to see what kind of learner you are.

7. Use your notes

Taking detailed notes in class will save you heaps of time later. Re-writing and adding to your notes is a great way to revise what you’ve learned.


8. Make your own study materials

Think up some practice exam questions or create your own flash cards to help you study. This way you learn it all twice: once when you make the study materials and twice when you use them to revise.

9. Test yourself

Don’t wait for an exam to test your knowledge – test yourself first. Get a friend or family member to quiz you on key concepts or offer to help other students with their work. It’s a great way to get confident with what you do know and find out what you still need to learn!

10. Take time out

You study better when you're feeling good. So make sure you eat well and get enough sleep. Exercise is great but don’t overdo it.

It’s also a good idea to schedule regular breaks when you’re studying and keep hydrated. You’ll study better if you take care of yourself.
Come up with your own strategies

Remember - these tips are only some of the things that you can do to get the most out of your studying. There might be other things that work even better for you.


Ask around - find out what your friends do when they're studying - maybe some of their tricks will work for you too! Maybe your teachers have some good recommendations too.


Whatever it is, whatever strategy you come up with, when you find something that works for you, put it into practise and go for it!

Read Well

Read – How to Read text Effectively

This method of absorbing material in three passes is useful for many students. It is a way of tackling each section of the text in a specific and analytical way, with ways to test knowledge and assist a student in retaining new knowledge.

The First Pass: “Skim” the text

Have your notebook, highlighter, pen and pencil handy for notes. It is probably best to have a separate notebook for each subject.

First, skim over the text you plan to read in this study session. As you skim the text, write down, in your notebook, the main headings or subheadings of each section. Leave about a half page of blank space under each note you make. Headings and subheadings, or other important text, is often made noticeable through use of bold, underlined or italicized text. Try to notice the main ideas in this first pass through the text.

Second Pass: Focused Reading

This time, read more intently. Go back to the start of the text. As you read the text under each heading or subheading, make notes of the main ideas. Try to list the main idea at the top, then list the more detailed points in the text that support the main idea. Bullet lists of these supporting points will usually work well.

Don’t forget to pay attention to pictures, bar graphs, tables or other illustrative methods used to support the author’s point(s).

Third Pass: Testing your reading

On a separate piece of paper, make a list of the questions at the end of each section which the textbook authors have written for you to test your knowledge. Go back to the start of each section, and just read through each section, one at a time. See if you are now able to answer the questions for each section after you read it all the way through. Don’t try to do this with more than one section at a time, especially with very difficult text.

If the text does not provide you with questions, you can formulate your own using the wording in the headings and subheadings. You can see if you are able to define what each heading is talking about after you have completed your third pass.

Explaining what you have learned to someone else helps you remember it.

One good way to review is to use flashcards. You can create your own to act as a study guide on simple, ruled index cards. You already have the perfect set of information to use on flash cards from your notes from the text. Your bulleted lists and your main headings can be used to create questions or “fill-in-the-blank” notes or definitions of relevant vocabulary terms, with the answers written on one side and the question on the other. You can also use the questions in the textbook as flashcards, with the answers written on the back.

Taking Notes for Someone Else

These are some practical suggestions for taking notes for someone else, as well as strategies to help you improve your own note taking abilities.

General Info:

·         Be sure of your purpose and the speaker's purpose.

·         Attend all lectures.

·         Sit up front so you can see and hear better.

Format:

·         Record the date, place, topic/title and presenter.

·         Number your pages.

·         Use dark ink and write on one side of the page.

·         Use a double entry notetaking system (see "Cornell Notetaking System" handout)

·         Write neatly. Make notes complete and clear enough to understand when you come back to them.

·         Use shorthand ('Fe' for iron, '=' for equals, '@' for at, etc.) and abbreviations. Feel free to develop your own set of abbreviations, but please put a key  at the top of the page so your notes can be understood.

·         Highlight important items with asterisks(*) or draw circles or boxes around critical info. Mark important ideas, terms, concepts with different colors, underlines, or asterisks. Indentation, underscoring and starring are also effective for indicating relative importance of items. Show uncertainty with a circled question mark.

·         Leave plenty of white space for later additions. Skip lines. Leave space between main ideas.

What to write:

·         Definitely copy:

*         Anything written on the board or presented on an overhead.

*         Any info that is repeated or emphasized. Ways to emphasize include: tone or gesture, repetition, illustration on board, reference to text, and use of cue words such as: finally, remember, most important, another cause, etc.

*         All numbered or listed items.

*         All terms and definitions.

*         Examples.

*         New words and ideas.

·         If the instructor refers to the text, mark the page number in notes to refer.

·         When you cannot keep up with the speaker, jot down key nouns and verbs so that you can return to the latter and ask questions/fill in gaps. Leave blanks for words, phrases or ideas you miss. Ask a classmate to fill in the gaps.

·         Include comments the class makes that the professor agrees with.

Listening:

·         Listen carefully to what is being said.

·         Pay attention to qualifying words(sometimes, usually, rarely, etc.)

·         Notice signals indicating that a change of direction is coming (but, however, on the other hand)

·         Look for meaning and implications; be an active listener.

Additionally:

·         Ask questions if permitted; if not, jot down questions in your notebook.

·         Soon after the presentation, review your notes, rewrite skimpy or incomplete parts, and fill in gaps you remember but didn't record.