Study tips!

[Minibit]

students of the past and present! Do you have any tips or techniques for studying, reading, academic writing, or research?

Share them here!

I'll repost from my blog:

Study Tip for Gamers
1: set a short homework goal, like 10-15 pages of reading or 1-2 pages of math problems
2: set up your game, make sure it's one that you can pause, or which runs in sections
3: when you meet your goal, you can fight another round, start the next quest, etc. Do more homework for longer game sections
4 (optional): leave the game on while you study if the music is helpful, some folk find it harder to study in silence

Use your Campus Resources
Writing Centre: if your school has a writing centre, use it. The tutors can review your papers and help you with your composition struggles
Mental Health Counselling: it's not just for psychopaths, they can help you get your sleep schedule balanced, manage your stress and anxiety, even lend an ear to vent into.
Library: Librarians are your best friends for finding answers and sources. They can even help you brainstorm project or paper ideas on a subject. Make friends with them and treat their facility with respect. The Library is also a great place to study in silence with minimal distractions.
Computer Labs: save your work to a cloud service and work on it from a place with less distractions than home.
Academic Advising: trying to choose a major? Not sure what jobs you can do with your skills and interests? Have a goal but don't know how to get there? Starting to feel like this isn't the path for you? Feeling overwhelmed? Academic advising's got you.
Your Profs: note their office hours and don't be afraid to email to clarify assignments or follow up on lecture. Some profs will even glance at your assignments before due dates and offer suggestions.
Your Classmates: find at least one person in each class with whom you get along and can study buddy or share notes with, should one of you miss a class.


Reading Tips
1: commit to a reasonable page number
2: place a bookmark at your goal page so you can see your progress
3: read aloud when you feel tired
4: keep a dictionary handy
5: when you finish a chapter, summarize it in notes for quick review later.

Essay tip: Organizing With Pretty Colours
You will need: coloured flash cards and a pen, or text software which will allow you to change text colour and move blocks of text around easily. The different colours make the parts more distinct and easy to organize.
1: on your cards/text blocks, write the basic components of your essay (i.e.: in a persuasive essay, your arguments. In an analytical essay, the parts of the thing)
2: write down also the purpose of your essay, be as specific as possible (i.e.: to convince that the Oscars are unimportant, to explain the origins of rap music)
3: rearrange your cards under the purpose to find an order that makes sense in accomplishing that purpose
4: you may want to rephrase or combine some cards
5: write down the best order. The best order is the one where the parts transition from one to another in a clear train of thought; you can understand how each one relates to the ones before and after.
6: have a cookie; you just organized the most complex part of your essay.


Research Tip: Making it Fast
1: start by organizing your project (i.e.: an essay) and deciding on a narrow focus
2: decide the specifics of what you will address in the project (i.e.: the invention of a thing, how the thing developed, its possible future)
3: look for sources specific to the subject and points you want to address. Ask the librarians at your school library to help you find pertinent info
4: give yourself time to read, and make notes of the ideas and quotes you might use

 

[Soulless]

If you have executive functioning issues like me (difficult to begin, organize, due dates):

Baby yourself. If you know full well that you are not capable of handling online time while studying at the same time, go somewhere with no connection or keep your phone turned off. If you know that you're easily distracted, set your environment appropriately. Keep a calendar and write dates down as soon as they are given to you. For big projects, have notifications like "4 WEEKS TILL DUE DATE" or something.

 

[K3l]

ye, drop out

 

[Kestrel]

Don't study where you play. Get out of the house. Libraries are your second home now.

Walk to wherever you're going to study. Or bike. Or make sure you've exercised before studying. Additionally this will make you mind your meals 'cause studying on a full stomach sucks.

Push deadlines forward. Have a minimum viable product of your shit done a few days early. That way you can polish at your own pace without stress. In group projects, never tell anyone else you do this.

Daily routines suck but reserving time every day to study and then doing it will make it easier to start in the long run.

Drink excessively when done.

 

[Rainjay]

I honestly get more distracted sometimes when I leave my home/usual 'play' spots. So instead I keep that place as neat as possible, listen to music (different music works for different subjects/people. Personally I prefer music with vocals when doing math and instrumentals with reading, and mood music for writing), and I usually snack. Snacking keeps me occupied in multiple things at the same time so I don't get bored, but isn't enough of a distraction to get me off task.

For big chunks of work though I usually have to set up a reward for myself. I portion the workload and let myself have a reward after I get through each portion. Make these portions as early as possible so they're smaller in size.

Reading aloud helps some people get information to sink in.

Chewing gum can help focus-as with snacking its a background task so you're less idle and fidgety.

I also write on post its while I read. I'm a lazy writer so storing on a small post it forces me to be concise and capture the main idea instead of going on a tangent.

Don't study in windy places.