I’ve been coaching study skills and time management for over five years. Having worked with a diverse set of high school, college, and adult learners, I’ve noticed that there are several recurring pitfalls among students that, once addressed, result in significant academic performance and personal confidence. Here are three common pitfalls and how to address them:
1. Reading and highlighting to study
My students often tell me that they spend a lot of time reading and highlighting their textbooks only to perform poorly on their exams. This is actually not an effective way to study because these learning strategies involve passive learning.
Rather, opt for active learning methods such as the following:
- Flashcards – some great options is Quizlet and Anki. I have personally used both. I live by Anki. In medical school there is an overwhelming amount of material about the human body to remember. Med students swear by this flashcards software that has an algorithm for achieving long-term retention. A great feature of Anki is spaced-out repetition which has been shown to improve retention for longer term
- Create concept maps – these will help you interrogate the relationship between related information while also reinforcing the knowledge you’ve gained
- Practice questions and tests – actively assess your knowledge.
- Teach someone else – one of the best ways to evaluate whether you understand the topic is if you can explain it to someone else. Having a study partner to ask each other questions and explain concepts to each other can be very helpful active learning.
2. Spending lots of time “studying”
Students often tell me that they sit down for a large chunk of time but do not see their time pay off on exams. A more effective way to study is using the Pomodoro method.
I suggest the web app mytomatoes.com since I like to have it on my computer. I can set it up so that I study for 25 minutes increment, record what I accomplished during that time, and then collect my tomato! There are other phone apps that you can download that utilize the Pomodoro method.
3. Studying a few days before the exam
Procrastinating is not good at facilitating learning. This is why it’s critical to plan your schedule ahead. Have a way to plan ahead and keep track of every deadline in one place. I personally prefer Google Calendar.
For students who received their class syllabi during the beginning of the semester, I have my students fill out all their assignments and exams ahead of time. Then we meet to plan their week or weeks in advance with action items for each day to plan adequate time to study for an exam or complete an assignment.
Additionally, I enjoy using the project management tool Quire.io
In conclusion…
- Prioritize active learning through
- Flashcards (Anki and Quizlet are some great resources)
- Practice questions
- Time management
- Pomodora method
- Planning
- Google Calendar
- Quire.io
It’s important to acknowledge that each student has their own unique learning styles and needs. What I’ve shared are general pitfalls and strategies that I observe in many students. I make these recommendations as a way to have students experiment with what works for them.
If you are not getting the results you want, then the first place to start is to reflect on your current study habits and tools. Then a week to optimize your studying by experimenting with new tools. And to see the results, you must stay consistent!
