14 Great Study Skills

The general rule of thumb at the college level is that 3 hours of study time are required for every 1 hour of lecture time. But these days, with more and more students taking full course loads (12 to 20 hours per semester), plus all the extra work assigned by professors (extra reading and class related projects), plus extracurricular activities (dorm R. A.s, sports, ban trips), and having to work to help pay for college and life necessities (gas, car payments, food, insurance, rent), most college students don't have this kind of time to devote to studying. Even high school students who are serious about heading off to college, frequently have jobs, heavy academic loads, and extracurricular activities, and are facing the same difficulties finding adequate study time. The cure isn't to add more time to the day, but to spend the time you do have as effectively as possible. Go through this list of study skills. You may not need, or be able to use, all of them, however, so just add to your study arsenal whichever skills you feel you can use or are appropriate to the way you learn.

1. Reading Your Notes

Second only to taking good notes when reading and listening to lectures, is organizing and reading your notes when you study. They act as reminder of everything you've read and heard on that subject and offer an opportunity to draw the connections necessary to gain a deeper understanding of the material. One way of taking good notes is to jot down page numbers of key points, taking notes in one color ink and writing questions and comments about items you don't quite understand in another color ink. This points to the areas where further investigation is required in order to gain a better understanding of the material.

2. Answering Text Book Questions

If your textbook has questions with each chapter, read through them before reading the text. Textbook questions offer a way to direct your attention to important information and how different pieces of information connects with each other. By directing your attention in specific ways, you avoid the pitfall of just skimming through the words without actually gaining any understanding, and without retaining any of the information that you just read.

3. Memorization

Memorization doesn't work for everyone. Some of us have a tough time memorizing material because it feels like you're just trying to remember a list of facts that don't really mean anything. Repeating by rote, though, does work well for some people. For those who find memorization easy and helpful, by all means go for it. Besides just repeating your notes verbally (either to a beat or not), repeatedly writing certain key facts may help to remember the key facts, which can then be filled out with the details on evidence on any essay question test.

4. PQRST Method

PQRST stands for preview, question, read, summary, and test. This study skill is a way of prioritizing information to be studied to break down the information into key subject areas that may potentially be asked on exams. Previewing calls for glancing through the syllabus, notes and reading material to identify major headings for which to break down the information to be studied. Questions are further inquiries that still need answering once the material has been studied. Reading requires delving into other reference material to locate the missing information, that info that will answer the still open questions. Summarizing involves condensing the subject headings into a few sentences, or a paragraph or two, which may become the basis for answering exam essay questions. Testing involves asking yourself, or a fellow student, questions to see how well each of you can answer the questions without looking at the material.

5. Flashcards

Everyone knows what flash cards are and how to use them. Create yourself a set of flashcards while taking reading notes or following lectures. List keywords on the blank side of a 4x6 inch index card, and the write out the explanation and information on the lined side of the card. Run through the flashcards when studying, setting aside the ones you remember easily, and continuing to go through the ones that give you difficulty.

6. Summarization

Summarize key areas of your notes and other study material. Break down the information into a few sentences or paragraphs. Use the summarizations to study by. If necessary, add a bulleted list of details and dates underneath, that may help you prepare for an essay exam. Then go through the summarizations ( and details) as necessary when studying.

7. Visual Imagery

Some people are visual learners. So simply studying words doesn't help. They need some sort of visual imagery to help see what's going on in the reading material. For this either find or create images that stimulate your recall and the ability to make connections. You may need to take photos or draw images (even stick figure drawings work), or find pictures online that can be copied and pasted into your e-notes. Also add diagrams (i.e. bar, line, or pie charts or diagrams with arrows linking key words or phrases) to your notes to help illustrate connections and information.

8. Mnemonics

Mnemonics makes use of a simple expression, idiom or other prompt to remember lists of information. For example, the mnemonic My Very Ethereal Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas, is a mnemonic for the nine planets (used when Pluto was still considered a planet). The first letter of each word stands for a planet Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.

9. Time Management and Organization

Time management means making the most of a little bit of study time. Use 15 minute here to collect notes together, 10 minutes there to number, highlight, or organize notes into subject headings, and 20 minutes there to place the study material into specific study skills. Use the time between classes or over lunch to organize your study materials so that when you sit down to study, you've got everything organized and ready. It makes it easier to focus your study periods.

Then study subjects and subject areas that are important, and the hardest for you to understand, while your mind is freshest. Next move on to subjects that are important but take a bit more time to wade through. Finally, save the easiest, least complex material for last, the information that's easiest for you to understand.

10. Use Multiple Sources

Use more than one source to study. Use lecture and textbook notes, but add to these any fiction articles and novels (historical novels) that you've read that somehow relates to your studies as ways of adding vivid illustrations of the material. Fictional material can bring an otherwise boring subject to life and make it seem more real. Find interviews given about some aspect of your subject area or read biographies about the people you're studying - not the full length books, but the brief articles that give a few additional details about the person's life that explain their motivations. Go through any handouts from the teacher, internet sources, or periodicals that have related articles. Anything that provides additional details that add to your understanding of what you are studying. And there's no law that says you have to read the whole thing, only read the paragraphs or sections that answer any questions you may have.

11. Study Groups

Join a study group. Meet in a library, lunch room, a court yard or anyplace convenient to all of you. It may only be 15 minutes before class, but it's 15 minutes of good study time. It offers everyone in the group the opportunity to collaborate and compare notes and to test your understanding of the material. It may also point out areas where there may be a deficiency either in your own understanding of the material or the understanding of others in the group.

12. Outlines

Organize your notes into outlines, using subject headings as the major points. The information can be broken down into finer and finer details the further you get into the outline format.

13. Study Space and Study Time

Make your study time more productive with a few simple tactics. First, eliminate procrastination. If you find your attention wandering, take a 5 minute bathroom, exercise or cold drink break. Be aware of your learning style (e.g. auditory, visual, tactile) and use as many of those types of study aides in to bring more meaning to your study time. Many people need music to help them study. Probably the best types are music with a beat (studying with the beat produces a rhythm to the studying which can help to create connections) and instrumental music (for some people, the song lyrics interfere with the written words they're trying to study). These are only suggestions. If you need music, find the music that helps you focus your study energy the best.

14. Minimize Distractions

You may not be able to eliminate distractions entirely (i. e people talking around you, interruptions, cell phones), but try your best to minimize them. If you really need to spend serious time with your study materials then try a few simple tricks. Use headphones with your music to tune out those talkers around you. Tell your friends and acquaintance that you need serious study time and you'd appreciate their not visiting between certain hours. Better yet, put a do not disturb sign on your dorm room door, or go to someplace where you know you'll be undisturbed. Turn off your cell phone. You can always retrieve your voice mail and text messages later.

Conclusion

Making connections between events, people and dates is far more important than simply learning a series of facts, which are easily forgotten. Facts are just facts, they don't really mean anything if you don't understand all the things feeding into that event, or the events that will occur because of the way the current event plays out. Just keep in mind that it isn't necessary to use all of the study skills to gain an understanding of what you are studying. Some study skills are better suited for some people than for others. Also, you may need to use 2 or 3 of these study skills for subjects you find more difficult to remember or understand, while you only need one study skill for easier subjects. Go through the list, and decide on a case by case basis, which study skills will make your study time more effective.