study tips and techniques

Studying is tough. It's a whole job in itself. And sometimes when you're pulling an all-nighter, it can feel as if your brain's just gone on a go-slow and the harder you try, the less you can remember or understand. That's when you need to get yourself some effective study techniqes and tips. Read on...

PASSIVE STUDYING
What is passive studying about? It's about techniques that aim to make the most effective use of down-time. That's time when you would otherwise be too busy or too tired to do any kind of studying, certainly any effective and useful studying. It's about making the best use of modern technology to cram the most possible knowledge into your brain. So when you're washing up, or going for a run, you're also listening to an audiobook on the subject you study. When you're tired and go for a lie-down, you take your mp3 player, your little Muvo, and listen to some mp3's you made with vocabulary for a language class, or a podcast summarising the main points on a subject you have trouble with.

Use your down-time, don't waste a minute of it - that's valuable time that can enhance your chances of an excellent grade.

And by that, I mean with everybody. What has networking to do with effective studying? Well, just think about it. How much more results will you get if you put a study group together for every module you're signed up for? How many more tips about effective lab technique will you receive if you're on pally terms with all the teaching assistants? If you're the one always having chummy conversations with lecturers, you'll be around when the subject of Friday's term paper deadline comes up. (Yes, the one you didn't know about because you didn't read the course handbook). People are a source of wisdom, information and advice, every bit as useful as Wikipedia or your biochemistry course textbooks. Plus it can just be fun to hang out and suck the marrow out of your college experience, instead of being holed up with your books all the time.

Aah, the ol' PP. Currently the darling of every motivational speaker and productivity blogger out there - but you should still pay attention. Distilled down, the essence of the PP is this - analyse what you're doing, check the statistics. Find out what's getting the results, and what isn't. Then do more of what's working, and less of what isn't. Focus your resources on what brings home the bacon.

Can it really be that simple? I do believe it can.

Work out what gets you the best results. Study group round robins, testing each other? Listening to podcasts? Boiling your lecture notes down into 100 word summaries? Then do more of that, and less of the rest. Apply it to your whole course as well as your study techniques. That five credit module that won't even count towards your final classification? Does it really need five hours spent on it out of your schedule for the week? Sure, you're good at it, you enjoy it - but...?