Photo Credit: 123rf

If you are like most people, you hate studying. You will much rather be on a social network chatting away. The toughest part about studying in college is that there is no supervision. You are your own boss, and you tend to be too lenient with yourself. Unless you are an Einstein, or have a photographic memory, you couldn’t  really do some real learning with the following.

5. Studying with friends all the time. I’m not talking about group discussions, those are very important to get stuff in your memory and to help explain things you don’t understand. I’m talking about having your books in front of you while all the time talking with your friend about the European Champions League. It is very difficult to to concentrate solely on studies with your friends around. Put down at least an hour a day, where you study alone, with no distraction.

4. Beautifying your notes. It is important to have your notes organised, but spending time to turn your notebook into a calligraphic masterpiece would do nothing to get what’s in it into your memory. In fact, more than likely, you will be missing a lot of what your lecturer is saying by concentrating on design instead of content. Get the important facts, and get them quick, no matter how ugly they may look in your notes.

3. Highlighting your books. Highlighting certain lines in your textbook or notebook does not imprint them in your memory. The best way is to write them down, recite them a few times and write it down from memory. Highlighting does nothing but to turn your book into something a toddler will design with a crayon. Write those points down!

2. Having gadgets around. No matter how much you don’t want to hear this, having your cellphone or laptop around will distract you. Don’t make the lame excuse that you may need to google something. Most likely you will be tweeting or chatting on Facebook or WhatsApp. Shut your gadgets down, or deliberately exhaust your data bundle before studies.

1. Skipping lectures. Copying your friend’s notes will not make up for missing a lecture. Neither will reading the textbook or looking up your course on the web. Lecturers usually put premium on their own words written back to them as answers in a test. There really is no way of getting around this, not even tape recordings are good enough, especially since marks can be given just for attending. Make it a point to attend lectures, no matter how boring they can get.