It is quite hard for a student, whether in college or high school, to do well academically and in extracurricular activities at the same time. What most students face is anxiety, a conglomeration of stress and a time crunch. The familiar horror scenario is this:You have to get up early to go to school and wait until 3:15 to get out. Before you can go home, you have football or volleyball practice, or maybe a big game is being played an hour away. You also have two big tests the next day, but don’t know when you’ll be able to fit in the time to study, especially if you get home late. Then you have to take a shower, eat dinner, and be in bed at a reasonable hour for school the next morning.
Where do you get the time to study?
The first step to solving your time crunch is to review your school work frequently. On nights when you do not have a big game and have extra time, you should not only completely finish your homework, but also review what your teacher said in class. By reviewing every subject for about fifteen to twenty minutes each day, by test day, you will have gotten the information into your long-term memory. By practicing this strategy, not only will you improve your test scores, but also retain the information longer. Then, on game night you don’t have to learn every bit of information; a quick review will be sufficient.
One of the biggest mistakes a student can make is just trying to get through class and not listening to anything the teacher is saying. This makes it much harder to study because everything is foreign to you. By listening well, and taking good notes, when it’s time to review, the material will come back to you and you will not have to study as long.
Another step to solving your problem is to ask your teacher questions on materials that you don’t understand. Don’t let it stay in your mind and go to class the next day without understanding the materials covered the day before class; chances are that the lesson the next day will be built on the materials covered on the previous days. If you don’t understand the lessons from previous days, you will have a hard time trying to move on, and you will be left behind.
If you are a student who does not have the problem of the time crunch, you may simply not know how to study properly. You may spend hours reviewing your material, but still can’t seem to grasp it. There is not one simple solution to this problem; it’s one you may have to figure out for yourself. If you get nowhere by reading your textbook or notes, there are other ways to study. It’s beneficial to study with your fellow students at school. If you can’t understand something, they may be able to explain it to you. You may want to get one of your friends or a family member to quiz you on the material. You can also make flash cards or practice writing out what you know on a piece of paper.
To be able to use and understand notes taken in class, you have to take them correctly. Using notes is much easier than going back through the book and reading everything because you are reading the important facts, not the excess words that fill a textbook.
The key to note-taking is to listen for the main points. Write down things the teacher writes on the board or words you don’t understand. Make sure to put your notes in a format that will be easy to follow when you go back and read them.
Written homework is another battle to face. It’s difficult when your teacher gives you written homework and says it will only take 30 minutes. What he or she doesn’t realize is that every teacher is giving 30 minutes of homework. This adds up to what seems like endless lines of work. However, because it is important to your understanding of the subject, homework has to be done. The key to doing this is to do it at school whenever you have free time, like a study hall. Don’t get stuck on problems that you don’t understand; move on and come back to them later if you have time.
These methods don’t guarantee an A, but they will make it easier for you to do what you need to do in the little amount of time you have. It requires effort and participation on your part, which is sometimes hard to manage, especially learning something you don’t find very interesting.
The worst thing to do is procrastinate and not get anything done at all. Although cramming can work sometimes, it won’t ever work as well because you aren’t able to retain information that way.
If you follow these study tips, you should gradually find more time in your schedule and better grades.
Lawrence Chen and Rob Kay, are juniors at The Donoho School. Email: yourwordz@ annistonstar.com.
