Developing Learning and Study Skills

We all learn by a combination of seeing, hearing, and doing. But by adjusting some of your study habits to fit your dominant learning style, you’ll be much more successful in your classes. For instance, if you’re a visual learner, draw lots of diagrams and charts in your notes, make lists, and use colored highlighters. If you’re an auditory learner, study by reading out loud, forming a study group with other students, participating in discussions, asking lots of questions, etc. And if you’re a kinesthetic learner (hands on and physical), take more lab courses, study with others so that you can lecture to them, take a few more breaks so that you don’t get burned out, etc.

The days when students were expected to study and learn only one way are long gone. Teachers realize that everyone is different, and that each student learns in his/her own unique way. To be the most successful student you can be, recognize what your learning style is and then change your study habits to reflect that style. The first step in improving learning skills is managing and organizing the information given to you. This could be difficult if the instructor is not good at organizing his or her material to begin with. But if you have the organizational tools needed to overcome a poor lecture, it should not really matter. The following are four ways to enhance learning in any class you take.

1. Familiarize yourself with the lecture material beforehand. By knowing something about the topic, you’ll recognize key ideas and words when you hear them. This will help you concentrate on what’s being said rather than worrying about not understanding the material. If you cannot read over the material, at least skim through it to get the main points.

2. As soon as possible after class, rewrite your notes in a clear and organized manner. In all my years as a teacher, I’ve seen few unedited notes that I would study from. Many students’ notes are a jumble of disorganized sentences and missing words. This is where rewriting is important. You can fill in missing information, clear up gaps, eliminate clutter, and add material. The physical act of reading and rewriting your notes al-so reinforces what you have heard and is an excellent way to learn the material while it’s still fresh in your mind. Always keep the clean, edited version at home as a safeguard against loss and take your regular notebook to class.

3. Use folders and files to organize study materials. Besides using a class notebook, develop a system for filing papers, articles, and handouts that will be available whenever you need them. A file system prevents a lot of wasted effort looking for study ma-terials before exams, and it will get you in the habit of becoming more organized and efficient.

4. Make flash cards for things like formulas, equations, dates, definitions, etc. If you must memorize material, write it down on index cards. Every week or so, go through your flash cards until you have the material memorized. Change the order of cards each time you review, and study them backwards and forwards in case the question is asked in a different way. Teachers will often word exams differently to make sure you know the material.

A key step in improving study and learning skills is by taking the material you’ve orga-nized and inputting it into your brain in the simplest way possible. Once mastered, this skill will enable you to retrieve any information you are given in class. The fact is that 95 percent of the most important information in a textbook can be located quickly because authors and publishers who know what they’re doing offer roadmaps within each chapter. Learning to pick through written material, and finding the important details you need, will make studying that much easier.

Studying is more than just sitting down at a desk, opening your notebook, and reading your notes. It takes planning. Students waste a lot of time and effort because they don’t realize that the amount of time spent studying is not as important as the way they spend their time studying. It’s like being in the gym and watching two people work out. One spends 30 minutes training effectively, building muscle and losing fat, while the other spends two hours wasting time and never getting results. Studying is the same. Even 30 minutes of effective study is better than 4 hours of poor study.

One of the biggest complaints I hear from students is that there’s not enough time in the day to do all their work. That’s nonsense. Anyone can develop effective study and learning skills and have plenty of time in their day for schoolwork. If that were not true, how can so many students work a fulltime job and still get good grades? Here are seven things you can do that will guarantee results.

1. Find your best study time. Because we all have unique biological clocks, we function differently during various times of the day. Some of us are morning people, some night owls. Our individual biological clocks dictate whether we are better off studying when we first get up in the morning or whether we are better off waiting until later in the evening. Although you can train yourself to study at any time, you should find when your peak energy levels are so that you can make the most of that energy for maximum learning.

2. Manage your time efficiently. Part of effective learning is time management. To study well, establish a schedule and a study routine. Like habits, routines become ingrained and, once established, are easy to follow. Write down a daily or weekly schedule, which includes times for study, relaxation, or seeing friends. Schedules should be flexible, allowing shifting for work, chores, or other plans, as long as the shifting does not become constant and disruptive.

3. Never study more than an hour at a time without a break. The average person begins to lose concentration after about an hour. A serious mistake that students make is cramming or studying too long at any one time. Instead of absorbing information, you’ll be wasting a lot of time and effort because your brain is not capable of maintaining a high level of concentration without a break ever so often. The rule should be to take a ten minute break every hour or so. It’s also a good idea to switch subjects be-tween learning sessions because studies have found that studying the same subject for prolonged periods of time can decrease your concentration and your ability to learn.

4. Make your study space conducive to study. To ensure successful learning, avoid distractions. If you know that certain times will be especially noisy or active, eliminate them from your study schedule. Instead, schedule your study during periods of the day or evening you know will be most peaceful. Also, make sure you have plenty of bright light because memory, concentration, and positive attitude are enhanced when you’re exposed to light, especially natural daylight.

5. Avoid foods that prevent learning. If possible, don’t eat simple carbohydrates, especially junk food, before or during your study sessions. While carbohydrates are a prime source of energy, simple sugars will cause a sudden insulin spike and then make you crash. The last thing you want to do is settle in for a nap in the middle of studying. Also, give up habits that prevent your brain from reaching its full potential, and that is smoking and excessive drinking.

6. Form a study group. Being actively involved with other students and discussing study material will help you concentrate and absorb the material better. An added advantage is that someone in the study group will have information you may have missed or writ-ten down incorrectly. During your study sessions, ask one another questions, take mock exams, and teach one another. According to studies, we learn only 10% of what we read but 70% of what we discuss and 90% of what we teach to others.

The way in which you study will make a big difference in how much you learn. Paying attention, managing and organizing class notes, and conditioning your brain to concentrate are all important. But for many students, the technique of questioning is one of the best ways to enhance learning. Study routines should always include questioning, either by yourself as a means of self-evaluation or by fellow students who are studying with you. Just as important, however, is to learn to ask yourself better questions; questions that lead to more and even deeper questions, as well as answers.

Even before Socrates, who repeatedly asked his students questions as a way of teaching, questioning was a common learning strategy. Some questions require only factual recall without much thought or analysis; others are thought-provoking and force you to think on a deeper level. These are the types of questions that make you learn. There’s a big difference between your asking “When did Lincoln deliver his Gettysburg Address?” and “Why was Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address an important speech?” Each question has its place, but the second one makes you analyze the speech in terms of the issues surrounding the Civil War. The second question makes you think and really enhances learning. Here are some effective strategies for using questioning as a study tool:

1. When reading, ask yourself questions to find the main point. For example, if you’re reading about immigration patterns from different countries, ask questions about important issues such as “Why are these people immigrating? From which countries are they coming? How are their lives being changed? How is their immigration affecting the country they are immigrating to?” It’s also a good strategy to ask the general question, “What’s the point here?” All this questioning will help you focus on what you’re reading and force you to study actively rather than passively.

2. Discuss material with other students. Being actively involved by forming study groups and discussing topics forces you to concentrate on the material. Therefore study sessions and study groups are so effective. Someone in the study group will always come up with a thought-provoking question or look at something in a way that no one else had thought of. Discussing makes you think; and taking advantage of the group’s participation and total knowledge is a great way to absorb information.

3. Immediately after a lecture, write down important questions about the topic and then answer them. This technique forces you to think about what you did and did not understand about the lecture. Ask yourself questions like “What’s the most important thing I learned today?” “What didn’t I understand about the lecture?” “What can I do to help me understand the material better?” “How can I explain in my own words what I learned today?”

From: How Anyone Can Learn Anything: A Guide to Study Skills, Creativity, Test-Taking & Lifelong Learning