ARTICLE SUMMARY

There is no question about it: if you can take good notes in college, you have a better chance of getting good grades. But, what really constitutes good note taking? You could take diligent notes as you read through your course materials or keep up during lecture, trying to capture everything that’s presented… But, is that enough? In this note taking guide, I go over various techniques that will help you improve your performance. You will see why so many students end up being ill-prepared for their tests and exams and how you can avoid this problem for yourself.

This guide will get into the following topics:

1. The exposure process
2. Note taking for readings
3. Note Taking in lecture
4. How to process notes

The Exposure Process

In general, learning occurs in a predictable manner, through a series of small steps. Most students, without even realizing, approach their studies in a way that conflicts with the natural learning process. I refer to this ideal learning method as The Exposure Process, in that I have identified four key stages of learning that factor into the optimal learning & retention. If you can master these four stages, you will have no problem recalling what’s necessary during exams and tests. Read my article on this topic for more details.

Note Taking For Readings

Your readings will make up your first exposure to the course material. As such, the material will be foreign to you and you might find yourself tempted to jot down everything you read that you don’t understand (your reading notes). Many students do this and quite honestly, it is a waste of time to do so because you are more than likely going to end up re-writing the book. I’ll never understand why students are always tempted to do this. Rather than rewrite the book (which will mean nothing to you during exam time, believe me), take the time to simply read through the materials and then jot down any major questions that pop up as you work your way through. This is the first step of my exposure process. This is a wise approach because you will be exposed to the materials in lecture a second time around and so you don’t want to be concerned with too much the details at this point. Rather, you are aiming to simply understand the material well enough to follow along in lecture. Your lectures will then explain all the details as well as highlight what is most important and that is when you want to take comprehensive notes.

If you approach your readings in this fashion, you will get through them much faster and you will end up absorbing and understanding a lot more information in a single session.

Note Taking In Lecture

Good note taking in lecture is all about capturing all the material that is presented in your notes and understanding everything that is being presented.

Unlike your readings, lecture is perhaps the best time to be constantly taking notes on everything. The reason for this is simple: anything that is covered in lecture is extremely important. In light of this, you really want to be like a rocket that’s ready to launch as soon as the lecture starts.

Since you’ll be writing very quickly, to help you along, avoid getting into any fancy note taking… For instance, avoid color pens, trying to be too neat or the worst of them all, slowing down and ignoring the professor in an efforts to concentrate on and better understand what you are writing. When I discuss processing in more detail, you’ll understand why I suggest the above.

As soon as the teacher starts transcribing notes on the whiteboard, projector or PowerPoint slides, start copying everything down exactly as it’s laid out. As a side note, you might have access to a course website (many professors are doing this these days). On such a site, you will find a syllabus of all the lectures and even better, lecture notes posted! If there’s a PDF or PowerPoint, by all means, print off the lecture the before and then have it handy when they’re doing your readings, to help guide your efforts. To be sure, doing your pre-readings in general will help you prepare adequately for lecture. However, having the notes in advance will get you prepared even more so.

Now, you might have an objection to what I suggested above (i.e.: not slowing down in order to better understand what you are writing). To this, I say: if you have prepared in advanced for your lectures, you will have no problem blazing forward without slowing down too much. In addition, if you follow my exposure process, you will have already jotted down several questions for various aspects of the lecture that you do not understand. As such, your mind will already be geared to finding the answers to these questions throughout the lecture, and as such, you will be more inclined to be listening to the professor rather than tune out to organize your notes.

The last recommendation that I want to make is to make side-notes. As you go along and write down everything as it is laid in the lecture notes, you also want to be quickly jotting down any side notes (when relevant) that will support your understanding. Now, doing this is not the same as slowing down in order to understand your notes. When you slow down, you stop hearing the professor. With side-notes, you are still very much tuned into your professor’s voice, only you will make quick notes here and there to support your understanding. For instance, suppose he/she says something that will not necessarily make sense to you as it is laid in the notes but will make more sense to you with an extra side note? This is when you take the extra few seconds to jot down the extra information in order to help you out later on when you’re studying. In reality, you will forget certain concepts after your lecture has passed it will be your little side notes that save you in the end, when you are trying to re-process the information.

How To Process Your Notes

Lets be honest: do you study directly off of your lecture notes, or worse, your reading notes as well as your lecture notes? You can be honest, now is the best time! The truth is, most students make the mistake of using their lecture notes as their final study materials. Have you ever tried to study off of (and, understand) somebody else’s notes for a missed lecture? How well did that go?

By now, you will have had 2-3 exposures to the material made up by third-party sources (your reading materials and the professor’s notes). Because this material is not in your own words, it is not effective to study off of. If you truly want to master the material, you must re-write it in your own words so that you can teach the material to somebody else, re-teach it back to yourself when you study and finally, explain it back to your professor on a test or exam. Hence, the processing stage. At this step, you will take all your sets of notes (your initial questions written down during your readings, your lecture notes and side notes) and combine them into a fresh new set, complete with fancy colors (if you really must), neat headings, and whatever layout that suits you best in order to help you effectively understand the material. Processing is pretty much like putting the pieces of a puzzle together. When you did you readings, you were fact-finding, developing questions and getting background information. Then, your lecture provided you with all the answers to your questions. In addition, your side notes represented all of your understanding of the material. Now, in processing all this, you will produce a final set of notes that will combine all of these pieces of information into one coherent set of notes that will make up your final study guide. If you don’t understand anything at this point, now would be the most ideal time to get help. If you forgo your opportunity for help at this stage, you will most likely forget to ask for help later and you will never get your question answered, which could cost you points on an exam.

Once you process your notes this way (and, the sooner after lecture you do this, the better), the more successful you will be in the course. The reason for this is because your mind will become imprinted with course material in your own words (while it is fresh) and you’ll be basing all your notes on what is relevant and important in the course (i.e.: the professor’s notes) rather than guessing what you think would be important. Make sense?

Final Thoughts

This process may seem quite straightforward to you but ironically, most students choose to do the opposite of what I’ve suggested and end up complicating matters for themselves (more so than what is necessary). Once you implement this strategy and turn it into a habit, you will be on your way to simplifying your studying process so that you can enjoy your time in college and find balance.

ARTICLE SUMMARY

This article discusses The Exposure Process, Jay West’s 4-step program that will help you maximize your learning and master your course material in the least amount of time. These are the note taking strategies that A-students utilize to get all the good grades in the class!

There are 4 stages that I have identified, which I believe fully encompass the entire processing of learning and mastering course material. Each stage is important and you must not skip any of them. Successful students implement all of these note taking strategies:

Exposure 1: Pre-lecture Preparation
Exposure 2: Lecture
Exposure 3: Processing
Exposure 4: Mastery

Exposure 1: Pre-lecture Preparation

In the section on How To Study Well, I touched on the importance of making sure you do all the required pre-lecture work. Why is this important? Imagine what happens when you’re reading something for the first time. Suppose you’re in a first-year biology course and your next lecture requires you to do pre-readings about animal cells versus plant cells and how they both differ. Since you’d be looking at this material for the fist time (lets just assume), you will not have any background knowledge. That means, as you try to understand and process what you are reading, you are going to have plenty of questions. This is very important because questioning in and of itself sets the stage for learning. When your mind is posing questions, what’s really going on is that information is being processed so that your mind can understand it. As such, as you do your readings, jot down all your questions.

TECHNIQUE 1:

Take a blank sheet of note-paper, write the lecture title on one side and the current date on the other. Beneath this first line, write down all your questions in bullet form as you work your way through the reading. Then, Draw a straight line after the last question, once you’re done the required reading, and slip the sheet into your binder so that you can go back to it when you attend lecture.

Exposure 2: Lecture

I would say lecture is perhaps the most important exposure (and, one that should never missed). With all your questions fresh in your mind (from your pre-readings), you will be in a state of mind that is ideal for learning. As your professors goes through all the material, your questions will start to get answered, one-by-one, and the material will start to make sense in a unique way compared to before, when you were doing all your pre-readings.

Compare this to the state of mind of students who don’t do their first exposure… Do you ever notice anybody falling asleep in lecture? You are not likely to snooze if you have all those questions bubbling around in your head because those very questions will actively engage you, whereas the snoozers will be passively taking in their first exposure, which runs them the risk of trailing off – you might be able to relate!

TECHNIQUE 2:

Put the current date under the line and then start taking your lecture notes, as the professor starts going through the material. You’ll have your questions handy and the lecture format should most likely be in the same order that the questions are. Quite often, most of those questions will get answered, but if there are any that remain, PUT UP YOUR HAND AND ASK! You’ll be busy taking down all the key information that your professor will be focusing upon, but make it a point to tick off each question that has been answered as the lecture proceeds. This way, if it’s really fast paced, you’ll at least know what to get help with later on when you’re able to visit your professor privately.

Exposure 3: Processing

Processing has to do with solidifying your learning. After lecture, you will have gained a solid understanding of the material because you will have been actively engaged and all your questions will have been answered. Having advanced this far, all that you will be required to do next is to process the information in a way that you understand it so that you could literally re-teach it to your professor the way he/she taught it to you.

The best time to do this is immediately after lecture (or, as soon as possible after lecture that you can manage). I have laid out a great system in my book, Easy GPA Booster that you can use to manage your time so that you will have time to do all of this.

TECHNIQUE 3:

Re-write your notes in your own language. Don’t take too much time doing this. Some students like to make fancy notes, complete with colors and legends, etc. A simple re-write will suffice, such that you fully understand the material. This is the time to get any help if you need it. The goal here to produce a complete set of notes that you understand.  Attach your lecture notes to your revised notes, once you are done.

Exposure 4: Mastery

This exposure is concerned with review. After your third exposure to the material, you are going to feel pretty good. You will feel like you have a good grasp of the material, so much so, that you will not feel the need to review it. Sound familiar? Many students make the mistake of not reviewing the material, even if they fully understand. Trust me, by reviewing your revised notes periodically (even if it’s just once per week), you will be doing yourself a great service when it comes to exam time.

And, what about all those questions you produced in your first exposure? Use them as a study guide! Quiz yourself and make sure you understand the material.

TECHNIQUE 4:

There is nothing further required in this exposure. This step is mainly about review and you should be reviewing at least once per week.

Final Thoughts

In this article, I talked about what I call the four stages of exposure and how these stages relate to learning and note taking techniques. Use this information and you will notice an improvement in your performance. If you want to put a full-fledged study system to use, download a copy of Easy GPA Booster and start making a change today!

ARTICLE SUMMARY

Are you having a hard time retaining the information that you need to know? This article provides various study help tips that you can use right away!

Many students face this problem. Between keeping up with all the preparation required for their classes, to preparing for tests, quizzes and assignments, it’s all just too much!

In general, when it comes to study help, there are a few basic principles that you should know, such as:

• how to concentrate
• how to manage your time
• have a studying system

With respect to study help, here are few tips you can put into practice right away to help you succeed more at remembering everything you need to know but in less time:

1. Take good notes

Good notes start with taking comprehensive notes in lecture. By keeping up during class and writing down everything that’s important, you will help yourself when it comes time to studying. The best study help advice I can offer you is to start with this first. Then, you will have to internalize your lecture notes and output the information in terms that you can understand.

You know what they say: teach something to learn it? Well, pretend that you are teaching yourself your own lecture notes. This will help you study tremendously! Just how might you have to work through your notes, if you had to teach it to yourself? You would certainly have to know the notes very well in order to be able to teach it, wouldn’t you?

Hence, the phrase: teach something to learn it. This is your first study help tip!

2. Review daily

The next study help tip I am going to share with you is rooted in the concept of repetition. The human mind works on the basis of needing to have important information remembered. Think about a phone number that you must remember… When somebody gives you the seven digit number, how quickly do you forget it? Pretty fast, especially in today’s day and age (with pre-programmed numbers in cell phones)! You simply cannot negate the nature of the mind, which has short-term memory capacity as well as long-term capability. As you know, information that sits in your short-term memory does not last there very long. In order for it to transfer over into long-term memory, it must be ‘pushed’ there, so to speak, via a process of repetition.

In bringing this logic over to your studying, if you hope you learn your course materials quickly an efficiently, you must understand the materials first (my first study help tip) and then you must review what you understand and this must be done everyday (my second study help tip). By exposing yourself to the materials on a daily basis, you will facilitate the process of learning the material.

Now, there is a detailed memorization process I get into in my book, Easy-GPA Booster that will help you master this process very quickly and easily, however, for now just understand how your mind works and use that knowledge to your advantage.

3. Quiz yourself

The next study help tip I have for you is to quiz yourself. So, first teach it and then memorize what you understand, and then quiz yourself. Isn’t that essentially what your professor does for all the students in the class? Well, you will do the same for yourself. Practice this study help tip and come exam time, you’ll be laughing your way through the test!

4. Find study partners

The final study help tip I have for you is to find productive study partners to work with. Notice how I’m stressing productive and not just friends. It can be very easy to socialize and waste a lot of time when assembled in study groups, especially if the group consists of all friends. So, if you’re guilty of doing this (and, many college students are), then I suggest you find partners who are not necessarily your friends but students you can work productively with. The next part of this study help tip involves, you guessed it, quizzing each other. Once you’ve taught yourself the materials, teach it to your partners for all the reasons I talk about above.

If you practice some of the tips I have mentioned above, you will find that studying will become enjoyable. You don’t really need study help as much as you do a strategy. The above tips help take advantage of the learning process and they contain all the study help advice you need!

ARTICLE SUMMARY

The 5 key areas that you need to focus upon in order to create a strong foundation for yourself and succeed in college.

This article is a round-up of 5 other articles that I’ve written, which are all available on this site. I believe these 5 important topics will create a solid foundation to help you succeed in college.’

Read through the articles and apply the knowledge you gain for your benefit. It is not enough to simply read an article, agree with the advice and then do nothing. Make positive changes and positive results will follow.

Here are the five articles I’d like you to read:

1. Explore areas of study
2. Pick your major early
3. Reduce stress in college
4. How to find balance in college
5. Be a strong player

ARTICLE SUMMARY

You want your college experience to be a good one. Part of that involves getting good grades. Getting those A’s requires that you come from a position of strength. A 4.0 GPA along with fun is all possible. Here’s how to do it.

What does it mean to be a strong player?

Being a successful student in college requires you to be a strong player. What this means is that you should always be in control of your experience. The moment things start getting out of your control that is when disaster strikes.

You might be familiar with the pattern… At the start of each semester, you feel fresh and invigorated. In your idealistic state, you vow to make a splash going forward. The A’s on your transcript feel so real, you can just taste it. For the most part, this enthusiasm carries on with right through the first 2-3 weeks of classes. Then, it rains… Literally! The warmer half of September fades away to usher in the cooler half and the inevitable coolness of falls starts to settle in. Along with the crisp change in weather comes a crisp change in productivity. Suddenly, B+’s start to seem more realistic that A’s (hopefully) and it goes down from there.

Why does this happen?

Most students fail to maintain themselves from a position of strength. They start out with the right attitude but by the time their third week of classes rolls around, the game is over and they succumb to an inevitable fate of lacklustre performance and grades.

The next logical question naturally is, how does one stay optimistic past the initial three weeks of classes and right on until the end of the semester?

If the goal is to have a magical college experience, complete with all the fun and excitement as well as good grades to match, then you must refrain from ever being passive about your experience. Successful students know this and that is why they always work from a position of strength.

How successful students come from a position of strength

The following is a list of 5 tips that successful students use to come from a position of strength:

(A) Make a plan

This is perhaps where 95% of college students make their first mistake. Planning is so key, there is simply no reason not to do it. And, it doesn’t just start on the first day of classes. It starts well before you even get into college and then, well before the start of every semester/term. Now, if you’re in your second or third year (or, even your fourth), don’t panic. You can still put these ideas into practice and make your remaining time in college productive as a result. I go into more detail about this in Easy-GPAbooster.

(B) Remain focused & driven

A good plan will only go so far – you must also stick to it and resist the urge to favour other paths and abandon the original plan. Again, this applies to the grand plan and mini-plans along the way. Extreme focus and being driven (which are the essential building blocks of having a purpose) is the very ingredient that will sustain your efforts throughout your years in college. Having a plan starts this process, being focus and driven completes it.

(C) Utilize a good study system

You need an effective study system that works. Doing what you think you need to do, based on what’s on your plate this week simply won’t do. Most students approach their work haphazardly and fail miserably as a result. You need to know how to study, how to approach your readings and lectures, what to do before a test and how to plan the semester, etc. This material alone is far beyond the scope of this article. If you want to know more about how to do this, read up on my book Easy-GPABooster and download a copy.

(D) Establish support systems

Get to know your professors, teaching assistants and any applicable study partners in your classes. Having a genuine interest in your professor (versus just doing it for the sake of doing it) can lead to great things for you, in particular all the help and coaching you will need. All students need feedback and coaching, only few every take it. The same applies to your TA’s and study partners. Build those relationships.

(E) Practice what’s described in succeeding in college

Go through my article on Succeeding in College and put into practice what I’ve suggested. This article is of course, one of the five suggested readings. Utilize the other four articles as well.

If you put the five tips above into practice, they will work for you and you will be coming form (and staying within) a position of strength.

Will you take the next step?

ARTICLE SUMMARY

If you have always looked at the A-students and wondered how it is possible that they can do all their school work, get A’s in all their courses and still have a social life, then read this article!

No matter how much you choose to take on in college, be sure to find a balance between your school work and your own personal life.

I do realize that this advice will be met with plenty of protest, especially if it is mid-term, a time when students find their loads increasing along with their stress levels! So, how do you find balance when it seems like (or, at least feels like) everything is supposed to be due, like, yesterday?

Before I give you some advice on how to find balance in college, let me enlighten you about one important point about the sort of stress college life can create.

You can’t put a price tag on the skills you’ll gain

I’m not going to lie: working your way through college will be tough at times – nobody ever said it would be easy. That said, you should be pleased to know this because challenges (and, overcoming them) is what defines us in the end. College is a great place to grow for this very reason. It’s the challenges that are presented, which mould students and help them becoming better in the end.

Take my example. I used to feel ‘trapped’ at times, when I was caught up in a rut, as I call it. I liken those times as periods of pure misery. There was so much work to be done and I couldn’t simply just blow it all off and do whatever I pleased. It had to be done. But, you know what? That pressure helped me fight off the urge to procrastinate. I had deadlines and they had to be met, regardless of how ‘trapped’ I felt. The demands also helped me to work effectively under pressure and it taught me how to handle a heavy workload. I also learned the value of never giving up; seeing through my frustrations in order to achieve a goal. These are valuable skills that are not assessed on your transcript, nor are they written in any fine print during the application process!

Frustrations aside, how do you suppose these valuable skills (all, by-products of being a college student) serve me today? Learning how to beat procrastination is extremely valuable in the ‘real world.’ That is, the mental process that you have to put yourself through in order to beat the urge to delay your work is very useful and the skill helps me tremendously today. What about knowing how to deal with emotions of being frustrated – and moving through them – so that goals can be accomplished?  Would this skill serve you well after college? I would say so. And, what about being able to work well under pressure? In the real work, things can get pretty ugly very fast. If you can handle the typical stresses of everyday life, that will be a wonderful skill to have and it will separate you from those who succumb to pressure. I could go on, but you get the idea… I rest my case!

Embrace everything college life has to offer – yes, even the ugly side!

How to find balance in college

So, how can you beat the pressure (no matter when it hits)?

If you have to work, then you must. There’s no question about that. But it doesn’t hurt to have certain tools in your arsenal available to you. For instance, utilizing a good study system will help decrease your workload so that you can accomplish more in less time (read Easy-GPAbooster for more about this as well as the section on university study skills). It would also serve you well to know more about how to handle stress in college. Even when you must work at times and give up on some of your efforts to find balance (as you normally would on a typical day without all the stress), a good study system will help you to find instances of balance during these stressful times. So, you won’t go that social function but you can head over to the gym for a workout, couldn’t you?

Lets say that deadlines aren’t looming, however, and yet the stress is still upon you. What then? In thinking about balance, remember that a huge part of college life is having fun as well as being able to excel in your academics. Socializing and mixing with people and getting involved in other activities is also all a part of the learning process and necessary for your growth. To not do all of this would be like hoping to pass a bunch of classes that you skipped out on all semester long. In the end, you would fail those classes and you would have to repeat them. Well, the same applies to your socialization and extra-curricular activities. If you skip out on them during college, the lack of skills that will manifest as a result  of your choices will catch up with you later in life. Trust me on this!

So what’s the solution?

Allow yourself (and, I use these words deliberately – allow) to date and have romantic relationships, go to parties and functions, make tons of friends, get fit and be active… Do all the fun social things that everybody typically does. All of these pursuits will take a huge load off and will help you in your socialization later on in life.

One word of caution: know where to draw the line. Balance is all about getting it all done and indulgence in any one area is simply not a part of the equation.

While the struggling students toil away, trying to keep up, the top 5% of students do what I’m suggesting above. That is why they can have it all. While the struggling students look down on them (with envy), the top students simply follow a good system and stick to it. Finding balance is a part of that system.

A system you can use

If you want to learn more about a good study system, pick up a copy of my book Easy-GPABooster. In this book, I lay out an easy, step by step system that you can follow to achieve the results you want out of your entire college experience.

Put the advice laid out in this article to use. You will notice a difference soon enough.

ARTICLE SUMMARY

This article goes into the importance of choosing an area of study early and then gives practical advice on how to pick a degree proram quickly.

While it is productive to explore various areas of study, don’t delay in nailing down a major. By the end of your first year (your first semester, in fact), you should pick something. The reason for this is that programs have certain course requirements and you want to make sure that you will be taking all the required courses in the four-year period allotted to you. Some schools will require that you declare a major right away, other schools will be flexible. If your school is the latter of the two, take a page of out the book of successful students and declare something as quickly as possible.

Regardless of what you choose to study, you can still take courses in other areas of interest (be it as electives or as a minor area of study).

The reason why you need to declare your major early on is that it will help you focus, get on track and achieve school-life balance.

Your four years in college will move by very quickly and if you fall behind (as a result of not declaring a major), then you will find that your college experience will dim and succeeding in college will become a little more difficult for you.

How to declare a major sooner than later

Flip through your course calendar and study the courses that really capture your interest. Be honest and choose the courses you are really drawn to as these could make up a minor area of study and/or make great electives.

Now, you may have goals to get into some sort of graduate program (getting an MBA, or an MD or a Law Degree, etc.), which will require you to focus in on a certain area of study. If this is the case, then narrow down your options by short-listing relevant programs for your planned studies that are of most interest to you. Make a commitment to pick something within a week of starting the contemplation process.

Program advisors are a great resource. Book an appointment with them and get their input and advice. It will help. Once you nail down a good program, you will then be able to see how your coursework will be laid out and where all your electives and/or areas of minor study might come into play.

Final thoughts

That’s really it. Your interests could possibly have you contemplating on two or three major areas of study (many students have this problem and end up with double majors), but don’t let that create a dealy in making your choice. Whatever you ultimately choose, limit the amount of time you dwell on exploring so that you can move onto the task of setting goals and mapping out a solid plan to follow for the four years you’ll be in college.

ARTICLE SUMMARY

It is important to pursue an area of study that interests you. College is a great place to discover. Allow yourself to explore different fields and you will stumble upon something very interesting for yourself.

As you enter college, you can take plenty of general courses that will be prerequisites for upper level courses that you’ll take later on so it is not damaging to you if you explore areas of study and see what really peaks your interest.

Now, you might already know which area of studies you need to focus in on in order to reach a future goal (such as business, engineering, pre-med, pre-law, psychology, etc.) but don’t let the areas of study that you have to do deter you away from courses that you really want to do.

For instance, I pursued a bachelor’s of science degree but I always wanted to take communications courses as a side interest (especially communications courses that had to do with book publishing, magazine publishing, etc). Unfortunately, I could never find the space or time to fit all the extra courses into my schedule that I wanted to take mostly because I had taken so many different courses in my first year and I didn’t have any more options left in my allotted space for electives. During my first year, I took far too long in my quest to nail down an area of study. Consequently, I had taken far too many courses that I didn’t really end up needing to get the degree I was after. Long story short, I should have chosen an area of study sooner than later (always a good idea) and I should have used my electives in the areas of study I was genuine interested in. Had I done this, my college experience would have been much more desirable.

As it turns out, the tugs of interest that captured me in the college days weren’t simply idle fascinations. Publishing was and is a huge passion of mine and today my career is rooted in none other than the publishing industry. Case in point: if you want to enjoy your coursework, mix it up and pick courses that you enjoy in addition to the courses that have to take due to requirements.

By awarding yourself the freedom to explore different areas of study, you will stumble upon an field of interest in your life that could very possibly result in an ideal career choice for you.

ARTICLE SUMMARY

This article goes into how to find a balance between your course-work and enjoying the college years. Finding an even balance between the two will make your college years some of the best years of your life.

Since college is about expanding your horizons, learning more about people and life in general, you really ought to get involved with some sort of activities beside academics. Not only will you enjoy the time away from your studies, you will expand your social network, do something useful with your time and, here’s the big one, de-stress!

Half the problem with the struggling bunch of students is that they don’t take the time to step away from their studies. As they fall behind, they naturally conclude that more time spent hunched over their books will prove fruitful. While such a conclusion seems logical, it defies the very nature of what your mind and body will allow. As it turns out, most of that time that goes towards over studying is simply wasted because the mind will only absorb so much information in any given amount of time.

Ask yourself: if you were in this boat, would you rather enjoy yourself and actually de-stress so that you can do better the next day, or would you rather choose to toil away over your books all evening/night, even if you knew that doing so would not get you any further than you know it should?

Regretfully, so many students do the latter of the two, if for no better reason than just to avoid the guilt they feel. It is a form of punishment inflicted on the self and you may be guilty of doing it to yourself. If you have done this, consider what will happen the following day when it is your normally scheduled time to work. How productive would you be if you were toiling away at your work the previous night? If you’re as human as the next guy (or, even the all-might A-students), then you would be burnt out. This is the point when despair kicks in, shortly followed by decreased attendance in classes, missed quizzes, etc. You get the idea.

The key to reduce stress in college

Your experience can be different and the key is to reduce stress in college. Make it a point to seek out balance and join something! Join various groups if you must or just allow yourself to be more social. It will pay off, guaranteed.

Ask yourself:

• Are you interested in business? If so, join the entrepreneur’s club.
• Are you a huge soccer fan? Join the soccer league.
• Like politics? Run for student office!
• Are you a social butterfly? Join a fraternity or sorority.

You get the idea…

As a side note, you should know that the relationships that you forge during your college years will go on to help you later on, in your career years. In business and careers, networking is very important and a great lead-in to networking later on in life is establishing a network that’s wide and deep when you are in college.

Allowing yourself to reduce stress in college through the use of extra curricular activities is a smart move. You may even discover a passion that you never even knew you had.

Go for it!

ARTICLE SUMMARY

Read this article if you want to learn how to do better in your college-level courses. Are you in need of some good how to study tips? This article contains useful tips and shows you how to study more effectively. From time management, to study techniques, to dealing with procrastination, this article will give you a quick rundown – especially if you’re really busy!

So what are successful students doing that you aren’t already doing yourself? It seems that with the passing of each semester you get busier and busier, studying evermore harder than the previous term, and yet your grades fail to keep up with your efforts. Sound familiar?

You’re not alone.

Many students study hard and end up with less than desirable results and the problem lies in their how they choose to study. A-students (all those guys in the top 5% of the class) already know the secrets to good grades and it doesn’t involve studying hard. Easy GPA Booster goes into this in more detail, but for now, work your way through this article as it gives you some of the basics to get you going.

With respect to studying, A-students have a few good tricks up their sleeve. The following is a list of all their best study tips:

1. Concentration while Studying

Have you ever tried interval training with your cardio workouts? It works. The body responds much better to intervals of intensity compared to a single session, monotone session without bursts of intensity. If the body responds this way to stimuli, so does the brain. It turns out, if you really want to know how to study, concentrating your studying efforts into short bursts (such as 20 minute sessions) is much better than sitting down and bombarding your brain for a single, tedious session (such an hour-long session). It’s not uncommon to find many students perched over their books for more than 2-3 hours at a time, especially during exam time. This is a mistake. After about 20 minutes, your brain will start to absorb less and less material. You are better off getting on the books for 20 minutes, then getting off and grabbing a snack, for instance, or making a call to a friend, etc.

2. Procrastination & Studying

I know what you’re thinking… If you step away from your books and/or work, you are bound to trail off and do something else. It’s true, many students do this and waste far too much time. The truth is, it should not be a risk to practice interval studying IF you understand how to manage procrastination. Lets be frank, shall we? You are in school to better your future. Instead of working, you are pursuing an education in order to get a better lot in life once you’re done. That means, your school work is your current job, essentially. Now, if you were at work, would you not return after a 15-minute break? Would you allow yourself to trail off and procrastinate? Most likely, the answer is no. So, why then, would you allow it to happen to you when you are studying? Another how to study tip is to simply say NO to procrastination. Now, I can write a whole series of articles on this topic (perhaps even a book), but for the scope of this article, you simply just need to understand that procrastination should be completely rejected. The next point will help you accomplish this.

3. Time Management & Studying

The most successful students know how to manage their time effectively when they are studying. They never allow procrastination to consume them because they do the following:

(A) Allocate planned study times every day

Your schedule may fluctuate each day, but put aside a good chunk of time (2 or 3 hours per day) for focused study time. This could include 1.5 hours in the evenings, and an additional 1.5 hours dispersed throughout the day.

(B) Set goals for each session

Another good study tip is to make your study sessions extremely focused by realistic setting goals. Plan out a realistic course of action and you will be less bound to procrastinate and/or wander off from your work.

(C) Start studying as planned

Put all those feelings aside (they get you into trouble)! Your approach to your work should be ‘robotic,’ if you will. Just get out there and do it. Once you start working, as planned and on time, you will soon get over any feelings that will prevent you from getting started. Eventually, the habit of focused work will carry you on and you won’t have to contend with feelings and/or laziness.

(D) Tackle the hardest tasks first

Do the hardest and/or most important tasks first. They will consume the most out of you. Then proceed to the lesser tasks. You will be glad you did.

4. Review

The practice of daily review is essential and one of the greatest how to study tips of all time. Learning occurs through repetition and understanding. In short, that means that you have to spend time with your reading and lecture materials in order to learn it properly. By reviewing daily, you will find that your study sessions will become management and much less stressful.

5. Get help

This study tip is a no brainier… Get help from your friends, classmates, teaching assistants and professors. Don’t waste time if you don’t understand something, just ask for help. You’d be surprised if you knew how many students do this. Even worse, many students just put their nagging issue out of their mind and eventually forget about it, until exam time when the nagging issue resurfaces once again! Don’t do this to yourself; get all the help you need when you have the time and resources to do so.