How to study smarter, not harder

Sometimes it doesn’t matter how long you spend studying, you just don’t seem to be making any progress. Your study habits just simply aren’t cutting it and you’re starting to mildly (or majorly) panic that you won’t be exam ready in time for summer.

It’s fairly normal to struggle with studying and more often than not, it takes a bit of time to ascertain what study methods work best for you so you can study most effectively.

But to get you started, here are a few ways you can study smarter not harder and spend less time being unproductive!

Aim to teach

A great way to see if you’ve retained and understood something is by asking yourself whether you’d be able to teach it to someone else. You practice this on your own by verbally recalling information you've just been revising or practicing. Trying to explain material in your own words will help you to figure out where you are confused and uncertain. Alternatively, you can turn to a friend, parent or sibling and take 5 minutes to see if you can teach them something.

Understand the study cycle

The Study Cycle was developed by Frank Christ and breaks down the different parts of studying: previewing, attending class, reviewing, studying and checking your understanding. Whilst this may seem overly simplistic, many students miss out stages (intentionally or unintentionally) and this can lead to holes in learning which become particularly noticeable when you start revision.

Be an active learner!

Reading is not studying! This is a very common misconception, especially when it comes to revision. Re-reading your notes from class is going to do very little on the ‘retaining information’ front. Re-writing notes is helpful but again limited if you’re copying word for word. Use writing your revision notes as an opportunity to test your memory… how much of a topic can you recall without looking at your notes. Testing is key across all subjects, test yourself at every opportunity, formally, informally, practice papers or text book questions, the more the better.

The calm before the storm

Beware of resting on your laurels. A week that seems ‘easy’ usually means that there’s a harder week coming up. And while it’s tempting to get a bit too comfortable in R&R mode when one such week arrives, see it as an opportunity. You could get started on those revision notes you wanted to write or get your notes organised or even squeeze in a cheeky past paper. Make sure you’re prepared for whatever follows the ‘easy week’ by not taking too much time off.

Get spaced out

One of the most successful learning strategies is ‘distributed practice’ which means spacing out your studying over several short periods of time over several days and weeks (Newport, 2007). The most impactful practice is to work just a short time on each subject every day. This will help you to learn the information on a deeper level and retain it much more successfully for the long term.

Sleep well and exercise

The importance of maintaining a healthy physical and mental state whilst your studying cannot be understated. Pulling all nighters is never a recommended course of action and for good reason, your brain needs time to rest not only so it can function properly but so it can process and digest the information it’s taken in during the day.

Multitasking is a no go

You might think it’s effective to try and absorb multiple kinds of information at once but trying to solve maths questions whilst listening to Shakespeare on an audio book will do you more harm than good. There are many studies to indicate that multitasking does not improve efficiency and actually negatively affects results.

Routine is your friend

Plan your week in advance, not only will this free up valuable brain capacity by removing the ‘where am I meant to be now?’ and ‘what am I meant to be doing?’ questions but it also allows you to get used to studying as part of your everyday life. Not only this, but a routine and a weekly plan will help you to distribute those study blocks evenly and make sure nothing is missed out.

The most important thing to remember is how to use your study time, not how long you study for.

We hope you found this ‘avoiding procrastination’ blog helpful. If you have any further questions about procrastination or EasyA’s on-demand tutoring, please do get in touch! We look forward to helping you excel.