top 10 study tips

scared of what you’ll face when you get to college? don’t worry! check out this list of 10 tips to help you ace the exams that await you in the future. 🙂

want to start out college on the right track or just need a productivity boost? here are a few tips to help you study more efficiently and make the dean’s list!

1. review, review, review! many students make the mistake of attending lecture and then never looking at the material until a couple days before a midterm/final. make time to review lecture notes after each lecture; trust me you will thank yourself later. something even as simple as reviewing the lecture material for each week during the weekend for an hour can help retain information and make studying much more effective during exam time.

2. teach. studies show that you are likely to retain the majority of the information that you teach to your peers. whether that involves helping out your fellow peers on clusterflunk, getting a tutoring job, or even just taking turns to teach lessons in your study group, everyone will benefit!

3. study groups. you have to be careful with this one. studying with others can certainly have its benefits when done efficiently, but it is also easy to get off track and goof off with friends. form study groups with highly motivated individuals who are likely to encourage you to stay on track.

4. attend lecture. as simple as that, go to class! it can be easy to blow off class in college, especially when no attendance is taken and if you have early classes, but going to class is important!

5. do the reading. before class, skim through the reading – get an overall idea of what the class is going to be over. then after class, do the reading again, but this time focusing on the material you covered in class. getting this double exposure to the same material will not only give you different ways of learning, but also help lock in the information into your long-term memory.

6. take advantage of resources. this means attending your professor’s office hours, using the university’s free tutoring services, and using online study websites (such as clusterflunk).

7. clusterflunk! this is such an important resource that it deserves its own category. having difficulty with a problem or just need help understanding a concept further? make a post a clusterflunk! you would be surprised at the number of students willing to help you. make sure you also help others too, though–as i mentioned above, you retain more information when you teach it, so in a way you’d be helping yourself!

8. time management. this one is huge – there are 24 hours in a day, but somehow days seem to go by so fast and it seems as if there’s just not enough time to get in all the studying you were hoping to do. set a schedule and stick to it! prioritize the activities in your life, and make studying one of the top ones. learn to say no – you will still have friends if you don’t hang out with them every single day.

9. study in portions. instead of spending a continuous 6 hours studying and getting burnt out, study in 3 two-hour intervals with breaks in between. also, make sure you switch off classes–for example, studying chemistry for 6 hours straight is tough, so make sure you space out your studying!

10. sleep & relax. don’t forget to relax! you don’t want to burn yourself out before the exam. schedule in time for workouts and hanging with friends. studying is important, but don’t neglect the other aspects of your life. studying can be much more effective if you aren’t stressed out – so just relax!

there you go – you don’t necessarily need to study more to get better grades; you just need to study smarter. develop good study habits from the beginning and stick to them! keep yourself motivated and stay on schedule, and you will be on your way to getting straight a’s next semester! good luck. 🙂

this blog was written by a clusterflunk user, deepika mehta. if you are looking to get help with school work and improve your grades, check us out.