Best Study Hacks For College Students

Studying can get challenging in college. You find yourself having to juggle multiple classes, extra-curricular activities, and social life.

If you find yourself breezing through some semesters and struggling through others, it’s good to remember that this is perfectly normal. However, it’s not a situation you should allow to linger too long as all the bad grades you rack up along the way lower your GPA in the end. 

If you ever start falling behind and need help, use these study hacks to get back on track. 

Find Effective Study Aids

While some students seem like they get stellar grades without breaking a sweat, most students need a little help from time to time. 

One way to augment your studies is by finding study aids that help you study better, faster, and understand information better. With everything being online these days, it’s straightforward to find online study aids. Follow this link to see one such site.

Once you find a handful of good study aids, take the time to familiarize yourself with the resource and learn everything you can learn about it. 

Learn The Pomodoro Technique

This technique helps people work within the time frames they have. Aside from this, this technique helps students learn using a cycle system that has been proven to be very effective. 

How the Pomodoro technique works is that you study for 25-minute cycles, with short 5 minute breaks; get through 4 processes of 25 minutes each; then, you can take a 15 to 20-minute break. This technique is beneficial, especially during exam time when you have to study for hours. This technique helps invigorate you to learn in a more effective, productive manner and for longer. 

Study In A Group

Consider joining an existing study group; this will be useful for several reasons. The first is that your group members expect you to show up for your study sessions. This demand brings about an accountability factor that incentivizes you to attend all sessions, which improves consistency. 

Another thing group study does help break the monotony of solo study. By being a bit more fun, you will likely look forward to your group study sessions. One more benefit of group study is that it helps students share ideas amongst themselves instead of reading blocks of text. 

Study As You Write

This method works for both lectures and individual study time. When you settle down for your lessons, listen and take notes on the critical points mentioned in class. Note down any anecdotes and examples that will help you recall the topic of discussion later on.

Do this as you study privately as well. A great way to use note-taking is by quizzing yourself. Once you get through a topic, close your textbook and write down the critical points learned. If you find yourself struggling to do this, go back and read through the subject again. 

Note-taking helps you study actively as opposed to passively; this is a better way to internalize information. 

Seek To Understand Applications

Applications tell us how particular sets of information are supposed to be used in the real world. Understanding applications means you go beyond theory to understand more about a concept. 

Seeking to understand applications is an excellent way to study because it allows you to engage more deeply with your material. It also pushes you beyond cramming and memorization. By going about it in this way, you internalize what you learn; this is very useful in exams and the corporate world.