How to Study Smart Not Hard

So many students, no matter what the subject or their education level, find themselves studying really hard but aren't getting the results they hope for. While others invest half the time in studying and get better results. The key isn't in the hours that you study, it's in how you study. Here are a few tips that may help.

Preparation

1. Get a study game plan

One great time is to not dive head first into the topic you want to master. That would actually cost you a lot of time. Instead, create a study plan where you create a daily schedule of tasks you want to accomplish, create a detailed to-do-list, and itemize the various tasks and exercises you want to do for preparation

2. Summarize

Reading every chapter in a text book or all of your notes takes a lot of time. Create summaries, while working through the book or notes. That way, you establish the fundament on which you can build upon, during the upcoming study phase, without having to read the book all over again. But you also train yourself to quickly identify the key statements in large texts that are very likely to be included in a test.

3. Separate the Content

Separate information that is important from the unimportant. Take notes of the important points your professor/teacher talks about and add annotations to your notes. Making these important additions to your script will help you at a later time to grasp important coherences. You can also highlight important sentences or passages from the text so that you can easily avoid reading through large amounts of unimportant data in your script.

Mindset

1. Give 110%

The big mistake people make is to study hard and for long periods of time, but not always focused on what they were doing. People get distracted by cell phones, the internet, TV or any other amusement one can think of. When you study always give a 110%. Reduce distractions to a minimum and avoid procrastination. You may have a time limit of 1-2 hours, but want to make use of that time as much as possible.

2. Continuity

Instead of opting for all-nighters, consider spending half an hour after each day with post-treatment. All this preliminary work will help you to spend more time with studying, instead of having to engage with all kinds of inefficient tasks, such as extracting data from your books, trying to grasps operations and building an understanding etc.

The Main Part

1. Don’t try to memorize, understand!

One of the major mistakes people make when studying is to learn by heart, which is really time-intensive. Rote memorization is fine if an upcoming exam requires you to reproduce what you have learned word for word. But for the most part your understanding and the ability to draw consequences will be tested instead. In most cases, memorization corresponds to studying hard, not smart. Focus your attention on the understanding and comprehension of the knowledge that is taught. Try to spot ties between different topics and establish links between concepts that overlap.

2. Keep the bigger picture in mind

According to Planet of Success, the constructing of a car can serve as an example of the learning process. Your professor supplies the “know how” during his lectures. For instance, the detailed knowledge how an engine works. Learning materials supply you with the chassis, frame, tires, and bolts. But, it is up to the student to make use of the know-how, in order to use it for the combination of the delivered material. It’s the student’s job to put the car together and to keep the bigger picture of what is taught in mind. If the student stubbornly tries to memorize the position of each part in the car, he/she will not be able to construct a car from a thousand of individual parts. Memorizing the different names of each part will not help either.

3. Perfect your type of studying

There are basically four basic types of studying: Visual, Auditory, Emotional, and Kinesthetic. In order to study the smartest way, you need to discover which type of studying you prefer. Once you know what works best for you, align your process of learning to make the most out of it. Students that are mathematically talented should put their notes into spreadsheets, graphs, and charts; kinesthetic learners imagine the learning material as vivid as possible; linguistic learners discuss the material with others or record their voice while reading the subject out-loud, etc.

About Crescent Schools

Looking for a fun and exciting career? Crescent School of Gaming and Bartending can train you for a dynamic, well-paying job in the hospitality or casino industry today.

You can be ready to bartend in just three weeks. Be around fun people and have cash in your pocket every night as a mixologist, or claim your place in the ever-growing casino gaming industry in as little as three months. Financial aid is available, if qualified. You can start one of Crescent's top-quality programs with no money down.

Crescent is an accredited bartending and table games dealer school in the United States.