14 Tips to Improve your Study Skills

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2. Keep Showing Up
Professors and instructors put in a lot of effort to prepare for classes. Regular class attendance proves to your instructors that you value the time and knowledge they expend on you. Missing classes happens and that’s life – try to keep it to a minimum.   Borrowing notes is better than nothing but not really a great solution.

Remember you are paying for this!   Make sure you get the most out of each class and each course.  Read your syllabus and prepare for each class .

3. Stay in Front
Stay out in front physically and stay on top of your studying.  Sitting in front gives the class maximum attention and reduces distractions. It also increases your rapport with tour professors.

Don’t fall behind!   Keep up with assignments, essays and studying for tests. Regular review material.

If you don’t understand something don’t skip it!   That will come back to bite you later.  Get help when you need it!

4. Participate
Participating in class is an important way to motivate and stimulate your instructors. Body language of students is very important. It also helps you to pay attention. You can smile, nod, comment in discussions and pay attention when your instructor is teaching efficiently.

Participating starts to involve more of you senses than just hearing and sight.  The more senses you can involve in learning the better and deeper your understanding of the material.

5. Listen Attentively
Don’t just attend classes but listen and pay attention when you are there. Concentrate and focus on the important points of the lecture. Take notes and jot down the main points. Your ability to listen, take notes and study will determine how well you succeed in college.

When you are in class, be in class – that is what you are doing.  After class you can do whatever you want – when you are in class give it your full attention!

6.  Make concise and clear notes

Take notes during lectures. After a class you can then try to jot down the main points that you can recall on a piece of paper. Next, you review the notes you took during lecture with the notes of what you recalled from memory.

Tips for Taking Better Notes

7. Be nice to fellow students
All students have something of value to contribute and so be grateful for contributions of other students. Do not try to show your fellow students that you know more. It is even worse to try to show you know instructors that they don’t know enough.

School is not a competition – and you might need other students help later.

College and school is like anywhere else – there is politics and cliques and all that – try to be yourself and avoid getting involved in politics and gossip as much as possible.

8. Express your opinions
Everyone has an opinion an nobody’s is better than anyone else’s.  Express your opinions clearly and without anger. College is a place to learn new ideas and opinions. Try to learn from the differing opinions and don’t be shy of having a unique opinion.

9. Be diplomatic
Be pleasant and accommodating with your instructors and fellow students. Be ready to go the extra mile for good grades and so be ready to offer to redo a project, do a make-up test or write an extra paper.

10. Read everything!
Read your study materials and don’t forget to read your study outline or syllabus. It is meant to guide you.

How to Study from Textbooks

11.  Submit assignments when due
Late submission of assignments is definitely not a good sign of a serious student. So take your study serious and submit assignments when due.
Plan ahead, get organized and keep it together!
How to make a study plan

12. Keep a copy of every grade report.
Grades, credits and courses have been known to go missing. Keeping important documents is an important life skill.

13. Avoid Excuses
Professors and instructors have heard all forms of excuses and so try to avoid situations when you would need to give excuses. Do the work so you don’t need to give excuses.

Nobody like excuses – either you do it or you don’t!   Don’t fight reality.  Yes the assignment may seem silly, and yes some students are better suited to taking tests and all that is true.  But at the tend of the day you really have to do the assignments and take the tests so get organized, do the work and get it over with!

14. College is not a Competition
Everyone learns and studies at various rates and in different ways. Don’t compete with anyone for grades. Learn at your own pace and there is no need to feel embarrassed or shy about how fast or how good you are compared to others.

Get the Book Students are Talking About!

Get Organized – Study Less – Get Better Marks!
… without endless hours of cramming
… without the need for tutoring
… and without sacrificing the things that matter to you!

How to Study Handbook