Getting Real About Study Time
Getting Real About Study Time
Transcript
It's common refrain on college campuses. You hear it all the time. I was up all night studying. I spent my whole weekend studying. I have to spend the rest of my day studying. That verb, to study, means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. And what we often find is that students talk about studying to actually talk about a whole series of things that aren't actually learning and retaining information. Sure, they're sitting in the library. And sure they might have their notes open, but they're also on Facebook. They're also contacting people on their phone.
And they're also socializing. The best way to make your studying as effective as possible is to really isolate your studying into just that, the activity of going over information, taking notes, doing problem sets, learning material for the purposes of being evaluated. But when we talk about studying casually, we often talk about something that means a whole lot more. And so, here I'd like to just raise a couple of questions to help people think about what they mean when they talk about studying and possible ways to make your study time more effective so that when you say you're studying, that's actually what you're doing. A couple of questions to ask yourself when you think about studying. Where are you studying? When are you studying? With whom are you studying?
And what kind of studying are you doing? Where are you studying? Are you studying in a quiet library? Are you studying in a library where students allowed to talk and work together? Are you studying on the subway? Or are you studying at your desk at home? Different settings and different locations are going to be more or less beneficial to particular people and for particular tasks. And so, rather than just studying in the same place because that's what you've always done, ask yourself the question, is the setting where I'm studying helping me achieve my goals for my study time? You may find the answer is yes. That where you're studying is absolutely conducive to the studying you're doing. But it may also be the case that you could benefit from a change of scenery.
When I was in college, I always did novel reading on the subway. Doesn't seem like a particularly useful or conducive place to study. But I was able to get a tremendous amount of reading done on the subway. I could never, however, have done a foreign language problem set or a biology problem set on mass transit. That worked for me, the question is what works for you? Asking the question is productive and can help you make changes that will be really beneficial. The second question is, when are you studying? Are you steadying in the daytime? Are you studying at night? Are you studying during intermittent breaks between classes? And are you studying for short bursts of time or long sustained periods of time. Again, asking yourself when you're studying and asking, are you achieving the study goals you want to achieve given that timing is an important question to ask.
Some people think that they need to spend six, seven, eight hours studying. And some people can only find time to study in little bits between classes or other obligations. If you're achieving what you want to achieve, keep doing what you're doing. But if you feel like you could bolster your studying, thinking about what you're studying is a good place to start. Are the people that you study with beneficial to you or is their presence a hindrance to you? Sometimes we study with people because they're excellent study partners. Sometimes we study with people because we just like them. And those folks aren't always the best people to study with. So again, this is a process of self-assessment. Are the people I'm studying with helping me or hindering me? And if the answer is that they're hindering you, if they're a distraction to you, then you may need to break up with your study buddy.
And finally, what kind of studying are you doing? Depending on the task that you're doing, the kind of note review, the kind of exam prep, the kind of lab prep, the kind of reading may require you to study in a different kind of way. So if you're doing the exact same kind of studying for different kinds of tasks, you may not be getting the best possible result. So again, ask yourself, are you accomplishing the goals you wish to achieve? And if not, think about making small meaningful changes.
A couple of things you want to think about if you want to trouble-shoot your studying practice and maybe optimize it a little bit. The first is to be aware of large chunks of unstructured time. If we look at a weekend, for example, and we have all day Saturday and all day Sunday with minimal other obligations, we can feel like we have a tremendous opportunity to do a lot of studying. But that unstructured time is dangerous because it can lead to a lot of wasted time if there aren't specific tasks that need to be accomplished. So see if you can break that unstructured time into more manageable pieces of time and assign yourself specific things to accomplish within those smaller chunks. That will allow you to structure your time a little bit more effectively and to get a little bit more accomplished in a more organized way.
Second, and again, beware of people who aren't helping you study. If they're not helping you achieve your goals, then you may not want to spend as much time studying with them, even if it's a lot of fun to spend time with them. This is something to think about too when you're working in larger groups or when you're doing group study. Group study is an excellent way to test your own understanding of the material before the test tests you. But make sure that the person you're working with is testing you and not distracting you. Speaking of distractions, do your best to minimize distractions when you're in a period of focused study. I know it's tempting to have your cell phone on the table. And I know it's tempted to be connected. To feel like you can be reached by cell or by e-mail.
But it's important to try to limit those distractions when you study because it's easy to feel like you've studied for an hour when in fact you've spent 30 minutes studying and 30 minutes looking at your phone. Technology is a very powerful tool to help us achieve our academic goals, but it can also be a powerful distraction. So do your best to limit that when you're trying to focus and study. And finally, find ways to make tangible progress when you're studying. Again, spending six hours just doing something called studying doesn't make you feel like you've necessarily accomplished a lot. But if you take that six hour period and break it into two hour chunks, two hours doing textbook reading, two hours working on a write-up for a lab and two hours going over concepts with friends, you now have done three separate things, all of which count as studying but make you feel like you're making forward progress.
Anything you can do to structure your time in such a way that you can check off boxes and feel that you've achieved something will help you continue to make forward progress as you study. Again, all manner of sins are covered under the word studying. From long study breaks in the cafe, to checking Facebook obsessively. Make sure that when you're spending time studying, you're actually studying. And as you do that, think about ways for you to optimize your practice so that the time you're spending in the books is as productive as possible.
And they're also socializing. The best way to make your studying as effective as possible is to really isolate your studying into just that, the activity of going over information, taking notes, doing problem sets, learning material for the purposes of being evaluated. But when we talk about studying casually, we often talk about something that means a whole lot more. And so, here I'd like to just raise a couple of questions to help people think about what they mean when they talk about studying and possible ways to make your study time more effective so that when you say you're studying, that's actually what you're doing. A couple of questions to ask yourself when you think about studying. Where are you studying? When are you studying? With whom are you studying?
And what kind of studying are you doing? Where are you studying? Are you studying in a quiet library? Are you studying in a library where students allowed to talk and work together? Are you studying on the subway? Or are you studying at your desk at home? Different settings and different locations are going to be more or less beneficial to particular people and for particular tasks. And so, rather than just studying in the same place because that's what you've always done, ask yourself the question, is the setting where I'm studying helping me achieve my goals for my study time? You may find the answer is yes. That where you're studying is absolutely conducive to the studying you're doing. But it may also be the case that you could benefit from a change of scenery.
When I was in college, I always did novel reading on the subway. Doesn't seem like a particularly useful or conducive place to study. But I was able to get a tremendous amount of reading done on the subway. I could never, however, have done a foreign language problem set or a biology problem set on mass transit. That worked for me, the question is what works for you? Asking the question is productive and can help you make changes that will be really beneficial. The second question is, when are you studying? Are you steadying in the daytime? Are you studying at night? Are you studying during intermittent breaks between classes? And are you studying for short bursts of time or long sustained periods of time. Again, asking yourself when you're studying and asking, are you achieving the study goals you want to achieve given that timing is an important question to ask.
Some people think that they need to spend six, seven, eight hours studying. And some people can only find time to study in little bits between classes or other obligations. If you're achieving what you want to achieve, keep doing what you're doing. But if you feel like you could bolster your studying, thinking about what you're studying is a good place to start. Are the people that you study with beneficial to you or is their presence a hindrance to you? Sometimes we study with people because they're excellent study partners. Sometimes we study with people because we just like them. And those folks aren't always the best people to study with. So again, this is a process of self-assessment. Are the people I'm studying with helping me or hindering me? And if the answer is that they're hindering you, if they're a distraction to you, then you may need to break up with your study buddy.
And finally, what kind of studying are you doing? Depending on the task that you're doing, the kind of note review, the kind of exam prep, the kind of lab prep, the kind of reading may require you to study in a different kind of way. So if you're doing the exact same kind of studying for different kinds of tasks, you may not be getting the best possible result. So again, ask yourself, are you accomplishing the goals you wish to achieve? And if not, think about making small meaningful changes.
A couple of things you want to think about if you want to trouble-shoot your studying practice and maybe optimize it a little bit. The first is to be aware of large chunks of unstructured time. If we look at a weekend, for example, and we have all day Saturday and all day Sunday with minimal other obligations, we can feel like we have a tremendous opportunity to do a lot of studying. But that unstructured time is dangerous because it can lead to a lot of wasted time if there aren't specific tasks that need to be accomplished. So see if you can break that unstructured time into more manageable pieces of time and assign yourself specific things to accomplish within those smaller chunks. That will allow you to structure your time a little bit more effectively and to get a little bit more accomplished in a more organized way.
Second, and again, beware of people who aren't helping you study. If they're not helping you achieve your goals, then you may not want to spend as much time studying with them, even if it's a lot of fun to spend time with them. This is something to think about too when you're working in larger groups or when you're doing group study. Group study is an excellent way to test your own understanding of the material before the test tests you. But make sure that the person you're working with is testing you and not distracting you. Speaking of distractions, do your best to minimize distractions when you're in a period of focused study. I know it's tempting to have your cell phone on the table. And I know it's tempted to be connected. To feel like you can be reached by cell or by e-mail.
But it's important to try to limit those distractions when you study because it's easy to feel like you've studied for an hour when in fact you've spent 30 minutes studying and 30 minutes looking at your phone. Technology is a very powerful tool to help us achieve our academic goals, but it can also be a powerful distraction. So do your best to limit that when you're trying to focus and study. And finally, find ways to make tangible progress when you're studying. Again, spending six hours just doing something called studying doesn't make you feel like you've necessarily accomplished a lot. But if you take that six hour period and break it into two hour chunks, two hours doing textbook reading, two hours working on a write-up for a lab and two hours going over concepts with friends, you now have done three separate things, all of which count as studying but make you feel like you're making forward progress.
Anything you can do to structure your time in such a way that you can check off boxes and feel that you've achieved something will help you continue to make forward progress as you study. Again, all manner of sins are covered under the word studying. From long study breaks in the cafe, to checking Facebook obsessively. Make sure that when you're spending time studying, you're actually studying. And as you do that, think about ways for you to optimize your practice so that the time you're spending in the books is as productive as possible.