20 Study Tips-Smart Made Simple

Smart Made Simple

1>Drink up, Breathe deeply and Sit tall.

It’s all about Oxygen and Water: your brain needs them to max out. Lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue! Drink in small sips throughout the study session and the day.

2>Be There!

Show up mentally as well as physically with intent to learn. Waste-of-time reading steals your time and gains you nothing.

3>Being Bored = a sign you are not learning.

You are in charge of changing that. Question the information, compare it with what you know, apply it to new situations. Think of every fact as income you are receiving — toward a grade, toward your future.

4>Make your Study Style = Test Style.

Simulate the format of your test. Does the test require writing your thoughts? Then practice writing answers to your own sample questions.

5>Answering an legal question well requires a lot of planning: you have to recall the targeted information, order it, apply it, use good grammar and spelling and write it down legibly within a short period of time. Don’t make the mistake of trying to do that for the very first time on the actual test when it counts for a grade. Be ready -- practice ahead of time when you can edit your work and look things up to support your positions.

Test Success!

6>Start early – a strong memory requires rehearsals and regular review.
Read the directions! Get all available credit and avoid time-consuming mistakes.
Prioritize: Go for the most points first . Usually there’s no bonus for completing the test in sequential order and you don’t want to run out of time before getting to the biggest cache of points.

Wait!

7>Make yourself review each part of the test for accurate numbering, marking, all questions answered, making sense. Every point counts!

8>Positive self-talk.

It doesn’t come naturally because we’re our own worst critics, but research shows positive thinking makes a huge difference. Create visual reminders on post-it notes around your study area, bathroom mirror or locker with positive encouragers such as, “ I Rock! I can do this,” or inject optimism with phrases like “I’ll do it better next time.”

Mistakes?

9>Simply the price you pay for learning and improving. Make paying that price worth it. Release yourself from self-criticism and old behavior patterns by putting a positive spin on a negative situation. Try saying, “Next time, I’ll do it differently.”

Time Habit.

10>Save yourself from yourself. Set a regular Study time. Just do it! Tell your friends when you will not be available.

Create Your Space.

11>Make where you do homework right for you. Enough room, good chair, right tools, stimulating color, comfortable lighting, positive visuals, music, etc. Be aware of the things around you and how they impact your productivity. When you notice things that distract or interrupt you, what positive changes can you make to enhance your surroundings so you can concentrate, feel motivated and create good work?

Active! Not Passive.

12>Doing things like Cornell note taking/Mindmapping/Flow-based diagrams, reviewing flaash cards and creating visual graphics actually make learning happen. Passive stuff like just looking at a book or writing linear(regular) notes does not. You’ll be amazed at how much faster learning occurs when you get involved in some hands-on way with the material.

Go Beyond.

13>Merely listening to your teachers and completing their assignments/reading classnotes is never enough.
That is just the beginning. Personalize your learning; find better ways, better sources, go above and beyond.

Turn in a professional product!

14>Your examiner will lower expectations for quality(read as marks) if presented with a messy, incomplete looking anaswer sheet even if you write it correctly.

15>Be a Monday morning quarterback -- In otherwords, learn from what was right and what was wrong so you don’t make the same mistakes next time.

16>Know how long your work takes to complete.

How else will you accurately schedule your favorite TV? The formula for task completion is: Estimated # of minutes x 2, plus 10 minutes. So a project you think will take you 30 minutes, will really require 70 minutes!

17>Consider giving up the never-ending dream of “no studies tonight.”

Use the time to review and keep knowledge fresh, to work on a long-term project, and to keep your hard-earned homework habit. It’s a maturity thing. You can do it!

18>Sit up front.

Sit up front in Coaching classes where you can interact with your teachers, see overheads, gestures and other signals. Visual learners are easily distracted in a room where they’re positioned to watch the actions of everyone else. Use your learning style to your advantage.If you are an auditory learner,you can sit in the back.

19>Rally to remember.

Be creative & competitive with yourself by crafting your own memory games to make connections and improve recall. Visualization and Association are the keys to memory, and since the mind gravitates to the unusual and quirky, use multiple mnemonics and memory tricks to tag and chunk information. Categorizing, chunking and making associations have proven to increase recall from 19% to 65%.

20>Don’t get hung up on perfection – excellence is your goal, so finish this course in the optimal time.

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