If your study felt flat last term, or you’re keen to shake things up; maybe it’s time to ditch the old techniques. We’ve compiled a few of the study habits that you should strike from your list, and the new, fresh, battle-tested techniques to try instead. Happy studying!!

Highlight Textbooks vs ‘In Your Own Words’ Summaries 

Highlighting:

  • Highlighting is a form of passive learning, which means it does not engage your brain to think critically, or problem solve.
  • This technique prompts excessive focus on minor details (such as how sentences are structure) rather on the broad concepts that will better serve you in exams and assignments.
  • It is time consuming! It often takes huge chunks of your study time to finish just one page.
  • The criteria for highlighting can change session to session, meaning you might have huge chunks highlighted on one page, and next to nothing on another. 

Summaries:

  • Engages your brain actively, by breaking down the content into its most important parts and synthesising it.
  • Writing in your own words tests your understanding of a topic and can show you where further reading/review is needed to fill the gaps.
  • Offers a more sustainable use of time, and a better study resource for the future! 

Multitasking vs Time Blocking: 

Multitasking:

  • Multitasking divides your attention and halves your productivity.
  • This is most common when you have personal devices near you while you study, making it easy to flick open TikTok in the middle of the session.
  • You cannot train your brain to truly multitask, the quality of your two task outcomes will always suffer.

Time Blocking:

  • This technique allows you to stay productive without having to lock in for hours at a time.
  • Procrastination often comes because of boredom, so to combat that, work in smaller blocks of time based on subject specific smaller tasks.
    • This might mean 5-6 Maths questions, A paragraph of an English assignment, 2 sources highlighted and annotated for History, 2 run-throughs of some Study of Religion flashcards, making the three graphs needed for your Biology assignment etc.
  • These blocks are ideally 20-40 minutes, followed by a short break when you can stretch and move before the next set. 

Long Study Sessions vs Active Study Sessions

Long:

  • In a recent article, we talked about how to make the most of long study sessions that are unavoidable. But if you can, its best to avoid extended sessions, especially on a single topic.
  • These kinds of sessions can lead to information overload, increasing difficulty retaining and recalling information.
  • Long periods of study can also contribute to feelings of burnout, stress and mental fatigue.

Active:

  • Active study sessions are focused on developing the critical thinking/problem solving parts of your brain in relation to the content.
  • This means putting away notes and textbooks and digging into practical questions.
  • Flashcards, writing, verbal study, gamified study, watching videos, practise tests/exams/questions etc are all ways to get your brain moving and building pathways.
  • Active study will alert you to where you might need extra work on your knowledge base, this is when you pick up your books again!