Study effectiveness is not measured by how much time you spend reading your books or learning lessons but by how much information you retain. How often have you tried to learn something but failed miserably before even making any progress? Well, it is totally okay and common for people to struggle to recall what they learned. But if you love to learn and find it difficult, then you have landed at the right place. This article contains super helpful strategies on how to learn smart and fast.
1. Take notes by hand
While it is much easier to take notes on a laptop but using a pen and paper will help you learn and comprehend better. A recent study at Princeton University revealed that the students who took notes by hand were able to identify important concepts, understood better and they listened more actively. Writing out the information fosters comprehension and reframing the notes in your own words helps students retain the information longer. Whereas, taking notes on a laptop leads to distraction.
2. Boost your mental health
Wanting to concentrate on studying but can’t is one of the most frustrating things that eventually kills your motivation. A student’s attention span and the ability to focus differs depending on various reasons such as lack of sleep or inability to block distractions. However, these things can be improved by exercising regularly, sleeping for at least 7 hours, eating healthy, staying hydrated, meditation or by training your mind with games and puzzles.
3. Squeeze in short study breaks
Studying in short sessions has always proved to be more effective and smarter. The human brain can focus on one thing for a short period of time, so it is important for us to take breaks. Instead of trying to cover the whole topic in one long session, try taking short study breaks to freshen up your mind. This approach can easily help you learn smart and fast.
4. Take a study nap
Taking naps in between study sessions can surely help in boosting your mind. Taking short study naps has proven to be extremely important as it helps keep the mind fresh. In fact, a psychological scientist, Stephannie Mazza in her latest research stated that sleeping after learning is a good strategy but sleeping between two learning sessions greatly improves your mind and helps understanding the lesson better.
5. Divide study material into chunks
Study materials can be daunting especially if they have piled up over time. The topics are easier to cover if divided into smaller portions and learned in different sessions. Divide your topics and create a schedule to know how many sessions you will be needing to cover those topics.
6. Learn information in multiple ways
When you choose multiple ways to learn topics, you will get to use more regions of the brain to store information about those lessons. This helps to make that information more embedded in your brain. This helps create a redundancy of knowledge within your mind which is also beneficial as you truly learn the information and not just memorize it. You can do this by reading textbooks, reading notes, watching lectures, or listening to podcasts on the topics. The more resources you use, the faster you learn.
There are no reviews yet.