Are you interested in learning how to develop study skills for college? Do you want to get the highest grades with the least amount of effort? Too many undergrads (and their GPA’s) are consumed by their poor, counterproductive studying habits. Don’t be a victim. Read and apply these tips so you can enjoy and make the most of your college career without having to spend all of your time in the library.
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- Become interactive with your studying. If you’re reading a text, ask yourself to summarize the past few passages or try to identify the main arguments. If you’re studying math, ask yourself why the variables are arranged in that specific way for an equation. Try to incorporate this with your studying and you will find two benefits: 1) you’ll understand the material a lot more, and 2) you’ll spend less time re-reading and re-studying the same material trying to make sense of it. College is about understanding the “why” not just retaining facts.
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- Stay organized. I know you’ve probably heard this one a thousand times, but that’s why it’s so important. Being organized will minimize a lot of the stress and uncertainty associated with college and assignments and save you time and energy from searching.
- Study with other classmates. I found this one to be especially useful when learning how to develop study skills for college. Studying the material and then explaining the concepts with someone else from your class can be HUGE. It not only gets more of your brain firing, but it will help give you feedback and a critique on what you know about a certain topic. This can be one of the best and most time-efficient ways to study.
Regarding one of the main foundations of studying in college versus high school is consistency. Whereas it was easier to get away with cramming the night before a test in high school, it will be much more difficult to pull that off consistently – and the price you’ll pay from the stress and lack of sleep won’t be worth it.
Something you should try to develop in yourself is spending a specific amount of time per day for each class – even if you do not have anything you should specifically be working on. Go over old notes or start reading for future classes.
You’ll probably have big end of the semester assignments and cumulative exams, so, by staying consistent with your studying, you’ll spare yourself the torture of being unprepared like the majority of college students and undoubtedly end up with much higher grades.
