Study Smart not Harder.

There comes a time when you realise your studying habits are not cutting it. This is when you have spent hours on hours studying but still not getting the results you so desire or had anticipated. The cross-night hours studying, the mental blocks leaving you re-studying one chapter more than once and still not understanding it, and the understanding of a concept but later realising you actually do not get it.

One of the fundamentals of studying smart, is the ability to form effective studying habits that help you engage with the material. Engagement of material entails the rearrangement of the content into different scenarios that assists you in understanding the material. Additionally, this includes the chronological assembling of content, summarizing, key point detection, management and active engagement.

Bad Study Techniques.

Reading, re-reading, highlighting, underlining, simply note taking & re-reading notes, rote memorisation, and cramming is not studying effectively. These bad study habits only lead to forgetting and may cause and or heighten exam anxiety resulting in panic, doubt, confusion, incomprehension and forgetting of concepts during examinations.

Locus Control.

The most important aspect of studying is you. It is to know yourself, this way you are able to self-regulate and know what works and what doesn't work for you. There are two types of locus control. These two types allow us to self-regulate and control our beliefs, focuses and or attention. Which one do you want to be? See figure 1 below.

Fig 1. Locus Control.

Active Study Habits.

• Read the chapter's introduction and conclusion first.
• Identify concept key points.
• Formulate questions, scenarios, problems and quiz yourself.
• Become a teacher - Ask or explain concepts to yourself, study group members, teachers, peers and friends.
• Create and derive examples relating to your experiences.
• Create mind maps, concept maps and diagrams.
• Develop shortcuts or symbols to represent concepts.
• Develop a photographic memory for concepts (imagine concepts as images or a series of images).
• Explain, compare, contrast and re-evaluate concepts.

Self-Regulation.

Straight A students self-regulate. These are students who have autonomy and control, they monitor and adjust their behaviours to support their leaning needs (Davis, 2007). They develop desired goals, time frames to work towards those goals, dissect needed actions to achieve goals, self-motivate and are often highly organised using timetables, calendars, sticker notes, research and scheduling. These aspects are implemented in what is known as The Study Cycle. See figure 2.

Fig 2. The Study Cycle.

The cycle consists of studying with intention. This includes a well thought out and a systematic approach to the task. The process should be intensive and short. Intensive study sessions are implemented in uninterrupted bursts. That is studying for an hour or two which is far more effective than spending long exhaustive hours studying. Remember the key to active studying all boils down to management and engagement with the content. With the key-points mentioned above mastered, studying will be efficient and more straight A goals will be achieved.

Bibliography

Davis, S. G. and Gray, E. S. (2007). Going Beyond Test-Taking Strategies: Building Self-Regulated Students and Teachers. Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, 1 (1). doi:https//doi.org/10.3776/joci.2007.v1n1p31-47.