3 Study Habits of Successful Students
Mostafa
Kamal
A lot of students with decent grades in high school find themselves struggling in college. The classes move faster, delve deeper, and the instructors expect you to do more on your own. There’s a small cost for the freedom you’ve been dreaming about. You can do it, though. It doesn’t have to be so hard to play at the college level. To be successful, you just need to build a few key study habits.
As a researcher I have been looking 3 study habits of successful students.
1.
Successful students plan study time and know what to study next.
The successful
students with the highest result regularly scheduled their study time.
This means
that, rather than delaying studying until they felt like they were behind,
great students used regularly scheduled blocks of time to get their coursework
done. And, they studied what they’d scheduled.
Good students generally have the luxury of a course
syllabus. This document tells you exactly what material you will be covering
over the semester, along with any applicable due dates. Successful students
know how to use this information to their advantage.
Instead of
constantly scrambling to finish whatever’s due next in class, or just going
back to topics they find most interesting, successful students use their plan
to stay on top of assignments.
And avoiding
the all too pervasive last minute rush lets them relax more fully when the day
is done.
2.
Successful students test themselves habitually.
As if it
wasn’t enough to be tested by a teacher, successful students learn how to test
themselves on the material they are learning. They might make lists of
vocabulary words and have someone quiz them on their meanings. They may pull
out important points from a textbook and create sample test questions based on
these concepts or facts. They may even take blank charts, pictures, or maps and
fill in all of the information they know. Interestingly, most of the students
who used some form of self-testing did it to see how well they had learned the
material.
3.
Successful students read and reread their course material.
The good
news is that you won’t be confined to one class after another doing exactly
what the teacher dictates from moment to moment. You can set your own agenda,
work at your own pace, and read a lot.
The most
successful learners read the material. And later on, they read it again. When done strategically, rereading can be an
efficient way to improve retention and boost test performance.
You can also
step up your reading game further by using an advanced method, such as the SQ3R reading strategy.
Even a simplified version of SQ3R helps when you’re up against a challenging
text or need to be ready for open ended tests, like essays.
