Developing Effective Study Skills
Developing effective study skills is an incredibly important step in doing well on a standardized exam. And it's one that is often overlooked.
Here's a short example to help prove to you just how important effective study skills are.
We're all busy people. We all have lives to lead, jobs to go to, and people to spend time with. So when something like a major exam comes up in your life, you're likely going to have to squeeze in the time to study for it. Let's say the most you can squeeze in is 10 hours a week for about 6 weeks. If you multiply that out, you'll see that if you're in this position, you would have about 60 hours in total to study for your next big exam.
Now although we'd all like to admit it, none of us are perfectly productive. What I mean by perfectly productive is to be productive 100% of the time designated for a task. It just doesn't happen. You're going to look out the window, stretch, get a drink of water, go to the bathroom, get distracted now and again, day-dream etc. We all do it.
So let's say you can be productive 80% of the time (which is still probably an over-estimate, but I'll give it to you). You're now left with about 48 hours. That's pretty good. Most likely, you're already going to know most of what's covered on any one of these standardized exams. So 48 hours to review the material and learn the question format should be plenty.
But how you use that time will determine whether you pass or fail, score in the high percentile or low percentile. So in order to get the most out of your study time, you need to start developing effective study skills.
For starters, you need a special place to study. On the sofa with the T.V. turned on and a bag of chips handy is not the most ideal set-up (well, maybe you think it is, but it really isn't the best for learning). A desk is more ideal for studying as you can sit up and focus on your books or other study materials.
In order to really maximize your study time, you need an environment with limited noise and interruptions. You need proper lighting and neatness (or at least enough that you can find your books and notes). So a desk or table in a room with adequate lighting is a great place to study. Close the door if you need to in order to block out noises around you.
Try to minimize your interruptions by turning off your phone. If you have others living with you (spouse, children or roommates) make sure they know when you're studying and that you'd appreciate not being interrupted during those times!
Keep everything that you need in one place. Keep your books, pencils, notes, calculator, whatever you need all in one convenient place. Otherwise you will be jumping up every few minutes to find what you need. You don't want to spend 15 minutes at the beginning of each study session looking for something to write with and a sheet of paper. You don't want to waste time looking for your notes. This time will add up and it also affects your mindset more than you might imagine.
A checklist can really help you develop study skills. With a handy checklist, you can see at a glance what you have accomplished and what you still have left to learn. We highly recommend spending 30 minutes to an hour creating a checklist of all the information you will need to learn for your exam. We do offer a few test checklists that you are free to download.
With just the few study skills we've mentioned here, you should be on your way to maximizing your study time and acing your next exam!
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