How to Study for College Classes

How well and how much you study will determine how successful you are in college. If you don't study at all, then you will fail all of your classes-there's no way around that. However, studying too much can be a colossal waste of time.

In addition to the amount of time that you spend studying, you must also consider your study methods; if they entail watching movies and eating popcorn while quickly glancing down at your textbook every 15 minutes, even "studying" for 10 hours per day won't get you anywhere. In the end, carefully considering your study methods can be a sure way to make sure that the time you do spend studying is worthwhile.

Scheduling

Scheduling is your friend. In fact, this friend can lead the way to straight A's all by himself. If, like me, you didn't use the planners that you were given in school for the first 12 years of your education, this can come as a shock. The key is that you must make your planner, or whatever other scheduling tool you're using, work for you. The planner is your slave. You are not a slave to the planner.

With this in mind, schedule all of your schoolwork out so that you have concrete, accomplishable goals for every day of the week. That's right, every class, every day. From now on, you're going to study for every class every day of the week. By doing this, you avoid having to study for 2 hours every Sunday night by instead studying for 15 minutes every day. This also keeps the material that you're studying fresh in your mind.

The nice thing is that most college professors hand out syllabuses with all of the assignments and due dates already scheduled out for the semester. Do you have long reading assignments? Divide up the pages a month ahead of time so that you only have to read 10 pages per day. That way you have small, easily accomplishable assignments to do everyday instead of 15 hours of studying at the end of the semester before your final exam.

Taking notes

Only study from your notes. Did you study from your history textbook for your history tests in the past? Not anymore. Just like during lectures, you need to take notes during every other study session. You need to filter all the information that you glean from your textbooks and other places by note-taking. In addition to ensuring that you have processed and understood the material, this helps organize the material in your mind.

As far as note-taking, I recommend mind mapping. This method is vastly different from-and far less boring than-linear note-taking (i.e. writing out everything the professor says line-by-line). The idea behind mind mapping is one of visually organizing information in a superior and fun manner. Basically, you start by writing down a word representing the central concept of whatever you're learning in the center of the page. Then you gradually branch out and add additional specific concepts. I could give you a detailed tutorial, but the fact is that no two people end up implementing this strategy the same way. You can find innumerable tutorials on the internet, but it is something that is best learned by practicing it yourself.

Mind mapping is a very personal process and will be different for every person, but, with practice, I think you will find it to be a superior way of organizing information when compared with linear note-taking.

The overarching theme, here, is the division of labor. Divide up the amount of work that you have to do to provide consistency to your study habits. Consistency breads success. In the end, gauge your success by how much, if at all, you have to cram for tests. If you do have to cram for tests, then you're probably doing it wrong. Practice skills and review material everyday for lasting success.