Academic Success Center

Where to Start?

Similar to learning styles, everyone has their own unique study style. Use this quiz (linked here) to find out what your study style is!

Plan!

Planning is the key to success with studying. Your syllabus will be the blueprint for your planning to keep on track. Some ways to do this are:

• Study schedules or routines
• Semester calendars with important course dates
• Daily or weekly to-do lists
• Excel spreadsheets with assignments, readings, and quizzes

Study Spaces

Find a space or spaces where you can study with ideal concentration, focus, and attention to tasks. If not possible, get creative; this could include your bus ride to work or your lunch hour. Put an organizational system in place for keeping study materials together. 

Divide Tasks Into Small Chunks

Cramming can often be a detriment to learning. It might get you through an assignment, but you might not retain the information for as long as you want and/or need. Take the time to read, reflect, and review the readings and discussions through consistent short study sessions. 

Build on Success

Try not to change a study schedule that works well for you. Once you have developed some habits and made lifestyle adaptions that support you and your success, stick with it! Problem-solve how to add additional study times, lengthen current ones, or make existing sessions even more productive. Use what is working to figure out how to "plug in" more ways of getting it all done. 

Stay Mentally Alert

It is easy to become distracted when you are fatigued from being stationary for too long. Stay mentally active and engaged through getting up and moving or stretching once you start to lose focus. Doing chair yoga can be a helpful movement exercise that does not require you to change the study environment too drastically. 

Keep Motivation Alive

Take a few minutes to assess yourself and your growth as a professional. Knowledge slowly seeps into our way of being and moving through the world. If we don't take a moment to reflect, we might miss the many ways that we are growing and evolving. 

Use affirmation, positive visualizations, and quotations to keep your vision strong. Reaching academic goals is rarely easy but it is always a worthwhile endeavor.