Most of the readers here are educators, but you are not the target audience for this particular post, which focuses on high school level kids, regardless of where their education takes place.
So, you have two choices. First, you can read the post yourself and then, teach it to your kids or students. Or, if you’d rather, print it out, hand it out or put your teen in front of this post to read it.
Why?
Because. Study skills are not common sense. We learn study skills by failing. “Well, that didn’t work,” we say, “I need to study differently next time.” Or worse, we don’t recognize it was our poor study skills that led to our bad grade, and it takes us a few failing grades to figure it out.
We have to help our kids, so they don’t beat themselves up thinking they’re stupid.
That’s just wrong.
Our kids are not stupid.
Our kids are studying wrong.
And if they stop making these 7 study mistakes, they’ll do fine; really.
So, get your older kids to this post. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
1. Don’t type your notes. Write them by hand.
It’s slow. It’s laborious. It isn’t high-tech. Guess what? That doesn’t matter because it’s the best way to learn.
Research shows if you write your notes, you will learn more and test better.
Your argument that you can type faster than you can write is the exact reason you need to write.
When you write notes from lectures, whether online or in a classroom, you can’t possibly take word-for-word notes. So instead, your brain assimilates and summarizes the information enough for you to write it down in your words.
When you type, your notes are a transcript of the lecture, not a learning process for the brain. Your brain does not have to engage as much, so it doesn’t, and you process the information on a shallow level.
2. Don’t procrastinate and start studying too late (a.k.a. Don’t cram.).
It doesn’t matter how many times you hear stories of your friend’s friend who never studies until the night before the exam and always gets an A–that isn’t you.
For you, the scenario looks a bit different. You intend to study, but let other things get in the way – responsibilities, work, extracurricular activities, and then you realize you’ve one week to study for a semester exam or a final. Aaack!
You launch into cram mode…again.
Don’t do this to yourself. Instead, plan to make studying a daily part of your life.
You cannot go to the gym, work out for one very long night and emerge a body builder the next morning.
You need to work out for several days, repeating scheduled, rotating exercises over time to build muscle, strength, and endurance.
The same with a mental workout.
You cannot hole up in your room or the library for an all-nighter and expect academic excellence the very next day.
You need daily, dedicated practice over several weeks.
3. Don’t study in chronological order. Study what you don’t know.
You have a unit, semester or final exam coming up and logically, it seems you should start from the beginning, right?
Wrong.
Just because your exam may cover everything does not mean you need to study everything.
It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s not because there are many things you fully grasp and do not need to review or study.
To review or study those things is wasting your very valuable time especially if you’ve been reviewing all along.
Don’t go back to the beginning. Start with what you don’t remember or what you didn’t fully grasp.
It’s an uncomfortable thing to do, which is why you don’t want to do it, but to do anything else is a waste of time.
Study what you don’t know.
Don’t study what you do know.
It’s a simple formula that will get you very far in academia.
4. Don’t Re-read the Text
You’ve read it once. If you didn’t procrastinate, you’ve reviewed it too–via your amazing notes that you didn’t transcribe word-for-word.
Re-reading the text will not increase your comprehension at this point; it will waste time.
If it’s a semester or final exam, it’ll waste a lot of your time.
Can you agree with me that it is ridiculous to think you have time to re-read all you’ve read the entire year?
If you agree, that means you’d have to skim or read your highlighted bits, right?
Well, neither of those two options actively engages your brain, which means you are getting nothing from it but an illusion of your understanding.
What should you do instead? Choose an active study method.
Here are a few “active study method” choices that work:
a. Teach the information to someone else, real or imagined.
b. Chunk-up the material and create an infographic or a mind map.
c. Develop a memory palace along with mnemonics.
These are just a few choices, but each one of them repackages the information, which forces your brain into super-drive.
5. Don’t study the same way for all exams.
Your parent/teacher/online instructor tells you that your test will be a timed essay.
What do you do?
Huh huh?
WHAT DO YOU DO?
Go home and re-read the text? No.
Go home and re-read your notes? No.
Go home and practice outlining and writing timed essays on the subject matter?
Ding*ding*ding!
Some tests will be multiple choice. Some will require you write essays. Some will be a combination of both, plus some short answers. Usually, you know in advance, or if not, you can ask, so you know how to study.
If you discover you have a multiple choice test coming up, then you have a few choices.
a. Make a practice test with questions about the information you do not know/remember well on flash cards with correct answers on the back. Study them or have your parents/siblings drill you.
b. Organize a weekly study group and drill each other (because you aren’t waiting until the last minute). Make it a game. The winner gets a Starbucks or piece of pizza courtesy of the loser.
c. Create exams for your friends and have them create them for you. Grade them. Help each other study what you didn’t know. Take the time to explain things to each other because you now know teaching is such a valuable study tool).
I’ve already given you an option for what to do if you have timed essay exams. You can do this alone or again, in a weekly group setting where each of you come with an essay idea for the group. Compare answers. Constructively critique each other on the essay’s organization, competency of the material, and clarity.
6. Don’t replace understanding with memorization.
Don’t misunderstand this one; there are facts you may need to memorize because they are…well, facts.
For instance, you may need to know that Black Tuesday was on October 29, 1929. That’s a factoid. It’s annoying to need to memorize it, but in some cases you might have to, so read the suggestions in #4 to help.
So, memorize what you need to, but make sure you grasp the underlying concepts of everything you’re learning. If you memorize what you don’t understand instead of making sure you grasp it, you cannot build upon it for more advanced concepts.
On the simplest level, you can memorize 2×2=4. But, if you don’t understand why 2×2=4, then understanding that two shirts and two pants make four articles of clothing, may escape you.
What you need to know about this study mistake is that you can’t study something you don’t understand.
If you don’t understand something, ask for help from a friend, parent or teacher. Check out free online resources or seek a tutor.
Find someone who can explain it to you until you grasp it, and then move forward with confidence and understanding while studying.
7. Make a plan. Work the plan.
Don’t wait to be told what to do. Take charge of your education. Take responsibility. Make a plan!
You are your biggest indicator of your success – that is, the work you put in determines how far you get.
The same applies when creating strong study skills.
You know how you work. You don’t have to study like someone else studies. You just need to figure out what works for you (and yes, this does take a bit of trial and error), make a plan and stick to it.
You just have to do it. It’s like learning to tie your shoes. Some people make both the bunny ears and then loop them around each other. Others make one bunny ear, loop the lace around, tuck it in the hole and pull out the second bunny ear on the other side.
It doesn’t matter HOW you do it, it only matters THAT you do it.
Decide you will study new information for 1 hour/day in 15 minute intervals (with 5-minute breaks), on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Put it on your calendar. It’s an appointment from..say…3-4 pm.
Now, you have a starting point and an ending point.
Don’t let anything interrupt it. Don’t get up and get a snack. Don’t check your texts, Instagram, or take the dog out.
Focus for that short period, and then you’re done.
You can do the same thing with other areas of your academics, including that 20-page research paper assignment, your PSAT or SAT prep work, and, etc.
Get a calendar.
Use your smartphone’s calendar.
Map out the week and make a plan.
I’ll tell you what I tell my kids, “You’re too smart to act stupid.”
Now that you know these mistakes don’t make them. There are plenty of other mistakes to make, I assure you.
Heather Sanders is a freelance writer who prefers to stay home and work while homeschooling her three kids. If you’d like to learn how to pursue your passions and earn an income while working from home, subscribe today.