Bad Study Habits You Should Avoid (and What to Do Instead)
Instead of using your usual study methods (and obtaining the same results you always get, for better or for worse), it is the year to go up. There are many ways to review and keep equipment, but to use them, you must first abandon your bad habits. Here is what to avoid and what to prioritize instead.
Do not just rewrite your work
The rewriting is good if you refine and condens your equipment (and you should Rewrite your notes immediately after the course for better retention), but this is not the best strategy to remember the information if you simply re -care about everything you have already written.
The writing center of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill suggests condensation notes to the point that they only include key concepts. After or instead of that, try to use an active recall, a method that forces you to discover information from your short -term memory to help this information stay longer. You can use flashcards (ideally by mastering the leitner method), summarize your chapters and note out loud (otherwise known as grinding), or take a practice of practice – and it will be more useful than basic rewriting. If you are short time or motivation, you can generate a personalized practice quiz using Google’s notebooklm. This is what I do while I examined for a next certification exam. You have just downloaded your own materials and the software will create flashcards and quiz for you.
Do not take linear notes
It is important to write what you hear at a conference, but doing it in a productive and beneficial way is even better. And although it may seem that it is not really “studying”, remember that it is the first big step towards global retention. Just note the words and key sentences or, worse, each word, will not help you identify the main concepts or establish links between them. Instead, use a method of taking notes such as the Cornell contribution or method to actively listen and record the most relevant information as you go. And don’t forget to revise them immediately after lessons!
The same is true when you read documents for yourself. Use a note -taking method designed to improve your critical reading skills, such as SQ3R or KWL, so that you can make sense notes and serve the more important goal to help you keep what you learn.
Does not kiss
To kiss is an inevitable part of the school experience at one time or another, but it is not an ideal way to study each time you have a test. In fact, academics and researchers suggested that he could even turn against him, remembering you less For your big test. Rather plan your studies over several days. Use the distributed practice technique to create the perfect calendar for your studies according to the next test. It takes more discipline, but that will help you remember more equipment for longer periods, which makes it ideal for cumulative finals as well as for regular regular quizs.
Don’t work constantly
Break breaks when you study, even if you erase. A key element of distributed practice consists in dividing the study sessions into pieces. Seriously, it’s called Chunking and it’s a real study technique. You are more productive when you take breaks, so try to use the Pomodoro method to plan these breaks consistently. Pomodoro is a method that asks you to work for 25 minutes, take a five -minute break and go back to work four times before taking a bigger break.
What do you think so far?
You can also play with methods that work for you. For example, try an application to help you stay focused and plan your Pomodoro sessions. You can also play with the timing of your sessions. Maybe the longer work and break-in segments work for you or you need shorter time. Pomodoro’s adaptations are abundant, so take the time to understand this You prefer.
Avoid being too granular
If you are really locked up on your content and start to obsess yourself in every detail, you will miss the forest for the trees. The University of British Columbia warns its students against too high lightning and for a good reason: when you do All A key point, you don’t remember information that is really. There are advantages to code the colors of your texts and your notes, but only if you do it intentionally and carefully – and colorful reflections are not the only way to become problematic.
Consider the Pareto principle, which indicates that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Use one of the reading techniques I mentioned – SQ3R or KWL – to break your content until you have a good idea of the most crucial elements, then study from there. You do not need to know each definition of each word, but you will need to know how the course equipment connects to understand what it is. This is also where the taking of these breaks arrives. If you go too hard for too long, you will be a little too worked. Break the chapter, break your time and don’t be too stressed to the point of losing the plot.
If you fear that you do not enter the global concepts, try to use the Feynman method to see how you go. This implies teaching the material to someone who does not know, based on the idea that if you can teach something, then you understand it. Do it with a friend or a parent or even with Chatgpt. If you have trouble explaining it – as if you have spent too much time trying to memorize all the small details, but I cannot relay how they all work together on a large scale – come back to the drawing board and decompose the material more.
