Hello my study bugs,
As it is the snowball-of-assignments time
of year down under, I thought it would be appropriate to embark my years of
accumulated study wisdom upon you.
I was diagnosed (which ended up being a
misdiagnosis…) with Lyme Disease just after I had tasted about two seconds of
freedom from finishing high school. I still managed to get a high enough ATAR
for my second university choice (thank you, language boost!), but found it
incredibly difficult to adjust to the high demands of a health science course.
Finding a balance between effective study and recuperation time seems near
impossible, but I have a few tips that may help you to achieve your academic
goals without sacrificing all of your energy.
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| Let's get started! |
1. Set broad, forgiving goals
The
worst mistake you can make is to set rigid study goals for yourself. Instead of
forcing yourself to get through
extensive amounts of material in a short period of time, try to space
out your work over the day. This will help to reduce feelings of being
overwhelmed, and will make sure you get as much work done as you’re capable of!
2. Don’t procrastinate!
Most people you will encounter at tertiary
institutions will leave all of their work to the last minute. DON’T DO IT, IT’S
A TRAP. If you’re anything like me, your body is not ready to pull an
all-nighter. It’s best to do very small contributions to study/assignments over
a longer period of time as this ensures that your work is actually of some
quality, as well as gives you time to correct mistakes you may have made.
Besides, the earlier you study, the more prepared you’re going to be!
3. Take breaks
Be nice to yourself. Don’t sit for hours at
a time going over materials again and again. It has actually been proven that
shorter study intervals result in better encoding of information. In
psychology, this is called the “spacing effect” (wow, look at me with all this
knowledge). Many of my tutors have also suggested taking a nap after a period
of study, as this helps the information to not be disrupted by external forces
e.g., Tumblr, YouTube, etc. Yes, I’m giving you permission to nap. Don’t
question it, just let it be.
4. Highlight (within reason)
Although it has been proven that
highlighting is not an effective study tool, I find it extremely useful at
keeping my attention when I have brain fog. Just try not to highlight entire
pages at a time, just focus on those key words, friend!
5. Get an extension if you need it
Sometimes, our bodies aren’t our best
friends. If you’re too sick to complete an assignment or tests by the deadline,
I would recommend contacting whatever support services are in place at your
institution. At my university, we have a disability support office that helps
students with conditions such as my own to have more leeway when it comes to
assignment deadlines. This tool is extremely helpful when you have a flare that
won’t quit!
6. Find out which memory strategies work
best for you
Nobody studies in the same way. However, I have learned some techniques in my
psychology degree that have been proven to help store information into
long-term memory. Some simple ones are:
The generation effect : generating
information from the study material helps you to have a better memory for that
material, as you’re creating meaning from what you’re reading.
The self-reference effect: relate study
material to yourself. This has been
labeled one of the best mnemonic techiques you can use. So go ahead, be
self-involved!
The testing effect: testing yourself
repeatedly results in better learning. This is because the long term memory
becomes focused on the information that you’re required to remember. Besides, creating
colourful test sheets is the fun part (…well, at least for me.)
7. Get visual!
Creating diagrams is a great way to learn
information. There are apps such as Simplemind that let you create endless
mind-maps in all kinds of pretty colours. Most lecture slides come with
diagrams (depending on the course), so you can always jazz those up with
highlighters as a last resort!
Don't let your life revolve around study/assignments!! You deserve to kick your feet up every once in a while. So go ahead, watch an episode of your favourite tv show (JUST one, cheeky), or even get out of the house for a while if your energy levels permit it. Straining yourself with learning materials won't help your stress levels, so please let yourself have some relaxation time. You've earned it!
Lastly, I found this amazing master post on
study techniques on Tumblr. Hopefully this covers everything I’ve missed!
I hope that this has been helpful!
