Best way to study(7 Tips that will quickly boost grades)

Do you often feel burned out when studying? Or, do you want to make a good study habit but are failing to make one? Maybe, in this COVID situation, you are confused about how to study online, as there are presentations, PowerPoints, notes, and many more materials to cover. 

Or, maybe you simply want to find the best way to study so that you can be as productive and confident as possible.

If any of the above situations match with you, then this article is for you. Because it turns out that the best way of studying is not that hard. A little bit of planning and time-management is all you need to become the next school or college batman. Here is the plan in detail:

Don’t just read, try to teach what you read

Many students think that:

The best way to study is to read the textbook only. 

This is a very bad misconception because reading is not studying. What you read, you need to understand that, conceptualize that. One of the easiest ways to do this is, by teaching. So, after reading a concept, try to explain it to someone. If no one is around, pretend you are in a classroom as a teacher and try to teach an imaginary class. This way, you’ll find your weak spots as you will get stuck explaining topics. This teaching method is not just a good way to study, it is even suggested by the legendary Richard Feynman in his “Feynman technique”. If you want to find the best way to study, then teach what you have learned.

Choose a fixed time and place to study

If you want to use the best way to study, then you need to have a fixed study place first. For that, you need to choose a quiet, low-distracting place. After choosing a fixed place, choose a fixed time. It can be as little as 20 minutes at first. The main motive is, you will dedicate 20 minutes of your life every day to study. This will create a habit and gradually you will be able to increase the time. Whatever happens, try to sit for 20 minutes at first. Even if you just open the book and eyeball your content, that will be better than studying nothing at all.

Identify repetitive tasks and automate them

In our day-to-day lives, we do almost 95% of our works, out of habit. We do this works almost subconsciously. For example, when you are brushing your teeth or eating your dinner, you aren’t consciously thinking about brushing or eating. Now, if you observe your daily activities, you’ll find that most works you do are just like this. But we overestimate some of these works, that ended up taking more time and mental resources than they deserve.  One of the best ways to study is to conserve your energy for studying and automating or doing these repetitive works subconsciously.

So, if you manage to identify and preplan them, you don’t have to think about performing those tasks regularly. You just perform them subconsciously like a habit, and instead of wasting your time thinking about them, you reserve your cognitive abilities for other productive works.

Workout

This is maybe one of the cliches advice you have ever heard. But there is a reason, this is cliché advice because it works. In his book “The Power of Habit”, Charles Duhigg said that

“Typically, people who exercise, start eating better and becoming more productive at work. They smoke less and show more patience with colleagues and family. They use their credit cards less frequently and say they feel less stressed. Exercise is a keystone habit that triggers widespread change.”

And yes, it is true. Exercise might not seem one of the best ways to study, but it is more like a substitute booster for the brain and body. By watching yourself getting stronger physically, exercise will boost your confidence, and encourage you to be as much productive as you can.

Take Notes

Another cliché of advice, that is so simple but very effective. There is a reason in every “Best way to study” articles on the web, you will find notetaking as one of the key points. The reason is, when you take notes in your class, you are not only engaging with your class but also actively studying the material. This helps a lot to understand and conceptualize what your professor is teaching. So, start taking notes in every class you attend.

If you ask how to take notes, then my personal opinion is it doesn’t matter. Choose any style that you understand and like to use. If you like to take bullet points, take bullet points. If you like drawing your notes, do it. Remember, you are taking notes for yourself, not for others.

“There is a reason in every “Best way to study” articles on the web, you will find notetaking as one of the key points.”

Use Pomodoro Technique

The best way to study starts with studying regularly. If you don’t have a sturdy study habit, then you need to build one. The Pomodoro Technique helps a lot in this case. In simple words, the Pomodoro technique is a technique where you focus to do something for some fixed amount of time(mainly 20 minutes), and then take a short break of 5-10 minutes. After repeating the whole work-break-work cycle for 2-3 times, you take a large break of 20 minutes to let’s say. You can use this technique in your study habit also. For example, you can take a 20 minutes study session where you focus to study only, then after 20 minutes you’ll take a short break of 5 minutes. This technique will not only help you build a stable study habit, but also make you disciplined.

Review What You’ve Learnt

There is a very cool phenomenon I was reading on the web couple of days ago. It’s called The Curve of Forgetting. Basically, the main idea is this: When you hear a lecture or study something new, you retain up to 100% of what you’ve just learned, after the lecture/studying. Now, if you don’t review the material within 24 hours, you will end up retaining 50-80% of what you originally learned. This drops significantly after a week and after a month, you only retain 2-5% of what you learned.

You can reverse the effect by regularly reviewing the material you learnt. The fun part is, you don’t need to review for like 20-30 minutes every day till your exams. You need to review what you’ve learnt for 10 minutes daily, and after one week you’ll need less than 10 minutes to recall what you’ve learnt. After one month, you’ll need only 2-3 minutes to recall what you originally learnt.

The key thing is you need to review the material at least for one week and you must review the material once within the first 24 hours.

In the End

Lastly, you should also not feel stressed about your study, all the time. By smartly managing your time and planning your activities, you can bring back the fun in your life and also manage a good CGPA. Remember, the best way to study is to study smart, not hard.

What do you think is the best way to study? What works for you in your study? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.