Becoming an A+ student in a class is not that difficult. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to be super smart to get high grades. You just need to adopt the right set of study habits to become that successful student.
Habits are the foundation of what makes a person succeed or fail in anything and that also applies schooling. Developing good study habits is necessary because (1.) once they set in your system, it’s hard to kick it out and (2.) learning will require less effort.
Habit formation consists of a loop with three different parts: the cue, the behaviour and the reward. The cue is anything that triggers the behaviour, the behaviour is how we respond to a cue, and finally, the reward is what makes us repeat the behaviour.
Now how are you going to apply this information in forming good study habits? Let’s list down the latter first then we’ll proceed with some suggestions on how to reinforce them.
1. Be healthy.
That means getting enough sleep, eating well and exercising regularly. Becoming sluggish will not help your mental and emotional performance especially when there’re lots to tackle in school – socially, intellectually and even physically. Living a healthy lifestyle will help you be at your most optimal level all the time. There’s tons of articles supporting this philosophy.
How to develop this habit:
Always remember to think of a “cue” when adopting a new habit, as that will trigger the behaviour.
Say, for example, for exercising, you can prepare your exercise outfits the night before then set the alarm early in the morning. Once you hear your alarm and you see your exercise outfits, that would be the cue for you to exercise. Take a shower after and that sense of accomplishment plus that great feeling of being fresh and energetic will be the sort of reward you’ll have.
2. Prepare before a lecture.
Read the outline of a subject or a chapter of your textbook before heading off to the lecture. That way, you’ll get a gist of the material and you can take better, active notes. You’ll know where the discussion is going, what question should you ask, what specific things are confusing you and you can just listen more while only jotting down key information.
How to develop this habit:
Eg. Again, setup a cue that will help you remember to do this action. Set the alarm a half hour earlier before class (cue), start reading for 15 minutes (behaviour) and get some coffee (reward!) on your way to class.
3. Take great notes.
Know what note taking method suits you best in taking notes during lectures or while studying from a textbook. Effective note taking is one of the best ways in studying smarter, helping you remember better and longer. We can’t stress this enough, but your notes will become a lifesaver so take the time to get into the proper technique note taking.
study habits
How to develop this habit:
Learn first what’s the most comfortable note taking method for you. It might take you a while but a finding a suitable and effective note taking technique would make your studying so much easier.
Carrying your notebook or iPad to class (cue), writing notes while listening to the lecture (behaviour) and being able to understand the lesson better because of your awesome, pretty notes (reward) is the whole habit itself. Or think of a better reward, you must always have a reward after doing the behaviour so you’ll be more encouraged to do it regularly until it gets ingrained in your system.
Remember to write your notes neatly or if you can, rewrite them after every lecture so you’ll be more encouraged to read and study from your notes.
4. Stay organized.
You’ll be taking tons of note taking and reading your whole school life and the best way to avoid getting overwhelmed with the amount of study materials you’ve accumulated is to get organized. It will save you time, it will aid in memorization, and it will help in providing a relaxing, clutter-free environment for you to study if you learn how to organize your things on a daily basis.
How to develop this habit:
Do it one habit at a time. Ideally, It would be great if you can get organized in all aspects of your life but trying to change it all will take a toll on your motivation, eventually leading you to abandon developing any organization habit.
Just stick to the easiest item on your list, say organizing your files on your computer. Each time you create a new document (cue), save it immediately in the proper folder (behaviour). Don’t wait until you’ve finished writing something on that document, just save it in the proper folder after creating it.
5. Study every day.
Regular reading and studying will make it doable to memorize and absorb big chunks of information without feeling overwhelmed. Studying every day will allow you to break down the material into bite-sized information that you can efficiently learn in a short period of time.
If you’re interested, we have some great tips in studying from your textbook, section by section then chapter by chapter using the Cornell note-taking method here. Spaced repetition is also mighty helpful in studying every day.
How to develop this habit:
Eg. Get a calendar and map out your study sessions every day. Write down on your to-do list what you need to study for the day – the more specific, the better. Then set the alarm (cue) and once it goes off, proceed to study (behaviour). At the end of every study session, tick off your study to-do list, and then give yourself a small treat (reward) by a taking short walk, eating snacks, anything not to wildly stimulating though as you need to process what you just studied.
A scientific way to build a habit is to create behaviour chains. You build a chain of triggers that links to one another that will eventually lead to doing the habit. For example, instead of saying, “I will study every day.” you could aim for, “When I go back to my room, I’ll change my clothes then study afterwards.” So you basically build a series of cues based on your routine that will finally lead you to doing the habit.
6. Focus and prioritize.
Managing your time well by prioritizing the most urgent and most important tasks and avoiding multitasking will help you focus better on the subjects that you need to study, allowing you to understand the lessons more effectively.
Check out this video from SparringMinds about what the Internet is doing to our brains, most importantly, how it’s affecting our short term and long term memory. It’s worth a watch so as to make you understand the importance of focusing on just one task.
You need all your mental powers to process, learn and remember your lessons one subject at a time, so it’s necessary that you learn how to focus and prioritize on the things that matter.
How to develop this habit:
In general, this also falls into the “study every day” habit but focusing and prioritizing, also involves eliminating certain distractions. If you can’t focus because of your phone, then keep it and put it in a silent mode. If you can’t focus because you’re mind keeps wondering and you find yourself watching video after video or liking away on Facebook, then stay away from it by using certain apps.
7. Study the hardest subjects first.
Do the hardest subject first because (1.) you’ll have the most mental energy at this phase (2.) studying will get easier as it will be out of the way.
You’ll be giving a sigh of relief once you’ve tackled the hardest subject first.
How to develop this habit:
Prioritize the hardest subject on your study schedule. Then place the notes for that difficult subject on top of any other studying materials you have on your table. Place a sticky note on your wall or board, where you can immediately see it then write the in large letters, the title of that subject.
As long as you can always see all those things in your study area, you won’t miss studying that subject, and there will be a sense of urgency for you to actually do it (behaviour). When you’ve finally finished studying it, take a break, or if you still have the energy, tackle the easier subject, it will feel like a reward for you.
Or you can just create another set of behaviour chains. Think of your regular routines and create a chain of cues around it.
8. Study alone.
It depends on your studying style but we recommend studying alone as (1.) you’ll be able to absorb the lesson without any distractions and (2.) you’ll be able to process and analyze the information better and put it in your own words, rather than just relying on your study partner’s answers.
How to develop this habit:
Set a place and time to study and always go that spot every day at the same time, regardless if you need to study for an exam or not. If you prefer studying in your room, then keep it always clean and organized so you can study better. Put up some motivational poster so you’d be more inspired to study.
If you’re sharing a room with someone, better talk to them about your study schedule and work out a plan with them on how you can study quietly. If a friend invites you to a study session, better study earlier on your own then study with them later. Or let them know that you’d prefer to study alone first as it distracts you less.
The process is similar to that of developing the “study every day” habit – set a recurring alarm on your phone (cue), study (behaviour) then take a break (reward).
Plus tip: Find out your learning style.
Do you learn better when using pictures and images? Are you more comfortable studying with soft music playing in the background? Are you more effective studying alone or with a group? Identifying your learning style will help you determine the most optimal opportunity for you to study: the best time/ place, how should you study and what are the things that may distract you from studying effectively.
It might take some time before you fully adopt to these habits but just be persistent and you’ll reap the rewards after.
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