Nothing is interesting about studying in school. All-nighters, stress, fatigue, and the inevitable expectation in whether or not you will do well in what you studied for. Growing up I never enjoyed studying because it was boring and sometimes I didn't do well. In high school and college I have discovered tactics, mindsets, and came upon other information from other sources that have helped me do well in school and understand the material that I was studying for. Spacing, a positive mindset, critical thinking, and patience have helped me do well in school. These tactics have earned me a one and a half year cumulative 3.87 GPA in college, entrance to an honor society, and three times being on the presidential honor roll. I also came up with a hypothesis on why whenever we have homework or any type of school work good things seem to be going on. I hope these tactics and mindsets can help you and provide insight in doing well academically.
Spacing:
We all know that cramming is not a good study habit but we do it anyways. Maybe you were busy with work and/or other person issues in your life that prevented you from studying earlier, you didn't know about the upcoming quiz or exam, and/or you decided to go on Facebook, hang out with friends, and waste your time on non-essential things instead of studying. I have to admit than I did all of the above sometime in my life. But don't let these excuses validate you for not studying. We have 168 hours in a week. According to the Princeton Formula, for every hour spent in class we are supposed to spend three hours preparing for class. Here is the equation:
15 units= 15 hours of class each week
15 units= 45 hours preparing for class
168-45= 123
Therefore we have 123 hours left to do whatever we want. Surprised, eh? Well we could use our time wisely and study efficiently. That's where spacing comes in. If we know that there is going to be a quiz or exam in the next couple of weeks then it would be wise to study ahead of time in order to not cram. Studying ahead of time has benefits. You're able to take the time and actually understand the material and it's stress free. For example, if you have a five chapter test in Biology and you decide to study two weeks in advance then you can study one chapter a day and still have another week to learn! Believe it or not you'll learn a lot more because the brain will take integrate information at a nice easy pace (think eating slowly as opposed to eating a large amount of food in a short time). Also, you'll give yourself more time to ask questions to the professor and form study groups.
A Positive Mindset
Constantly thinking about how studying bores you, how hard it is, and how it takes time away from the things you enjoy doing isn't going to make studying better. As a matter of fact, it will make it worse. I came up with a positive mindset that has helped me study and do well in school.
"There are two ways that can hurt me and one that will benefit me. One, is not studying. If I don't study I won't do well and it will affect my GPA and look bad on my transcript. Two, if I complain about studying it will be a tedious and onerous task every time I study and therefore my complaining won't stop. Three, if I study and put away my complaining then I will succeed and I want to succeed."
Somethings in life won't be easy. There are times where we need to take life by its horns and wrestle with it until something desirable comes out. It takes practice and patience to get this mentality, but it's worth it. You'll develop maturity in your study habits and you'll do well which will make you feel good. Don't you love it when you try something difficult and feel good when you accomplish it? It's a high I love!
Critical Thinking:
We've heard of these words before and some know what it is actually about. In Argumentation and Critical Decision-Making the definition given for critical thinking is, "Self-awareness and reflection on your own thinking and open-mindedness towards others..." When applied to studying one is can have a self-talk. Ask yourself questions about what you are studying and make sure you understand the concepts at least in your own words. Act as if you were discussing the meaning of what you are studying to someone else in your head. Discuss with other students who are studying the same thing and evaluate what they say. Having these self-talks and discussions help me understand the material a lot better and make it more clear. Also, applying what you learned to real-world examples helps you understand the material much better. By understand I do not mean memorizing the definition word for word. Memorization and understanding something are completely two different things. Let the concepts in your studies bounce around in your head and be creative with that you come up with to aid you in your understanding of the material.
Critical thinking takes practice. You won't excel in it in one take. Trust me on this one. However, don't beat yourself up if you don't get it. Keep trying. I can't tell you a time frame on how long it takes to become a good critical thinker but I can tell you that practice and patience are vital. When applying my methods for studying I do not expect you to get it in a day, especially if you've had bad study habits for a long time.
Whenever I study good things happen...
Maybe you can relate. Whenever there is an exam, work, quiz or homework that needs to be done there always seems to be something more interesting happening but whenever I do not have homework or a school-related project nothing seems to happen and everything is boring. I hate that feeling. Once when I finished the 6th grade I expected the first day of summer to be fun, fun, fun. I was wrong. I was so bored that I wanted to literally cry.
To my understanding, I think it all has to do with perception. Truthfully, not too many people enjoy studying. There is no pleasure in it. When we have to study some of us tend to focus on other things that will bring us pleasure or at least entertain us. What we are doing is simply juxtaposing something entertaining, pleasurable, and fun, with something tiresome, boring, and at times difficult. Obviously most people would pick the former. So, by juxtaposing, the differences we see against the two sides can equate to our perception on other things when we have to do something less desirable, in this case studying. Our perception can be that everything seems to be more interesting than studying and we have a wanting to fulfill those other things.
When we don't have homework or anything to study then we have what I call a fulfilled peace. We are content with our free state to do anything without having to do something less desirable. Some things that seemed more interesting while studying now seems neutral or a little less interesting. To better understand this example here is an analogy: When you're hungry all types of food seem appeasing and cause you to salivate. When you're full those foods that looked so good while you were hungry don't seem as appetizing anymore. Again it's all perception. When we are at a fulfilled peace we become complacent and our perception changes and we don't find the need to quench our nature of something desirable.
Conclusion
I hope my blog at least helped you gain an understanding of study habits and our perceptions while studying. Most of the things I said are subjective while a few things in here are objective and taken from literary sources.
Sources:
-http://www.memory-improvement-tips.com/best-study-skills.html#spaceout
-Argumentation and Critical Decision-Making book
-San Bolkan's "So, you are going to college?!"
