10 Best Study Tips

Our brain can potentially memorize 2.5 petabytes of information. In order to use some of that staggering capacity a little more effectively when you learn. Here are some useful tips that are based on widely accepted and researched by neuroscientists and learning experts.

Synapses Learning Strategy

To maximise your learning, study short but often. Neuroscientist proved that synapses the million billion connections in your brain that make you remember and understand, grow mainly at night when you are asleep. 

This means that it is more productive to study regularly with sleeping breaks in between. Practice something for an interval of 15 minutes and you’ll be surprised by your progress within week.

Find Your Own Style

Some enjoy watching videos over reading books, others study with friends and some like sitting in silence among a million of books. Everybody is different. Sleep and dreams are vital to processing and storing new information. 

A Harvard study showed that students who had a good night’s sleep remembered their study materials 5% better than those who studied in the morning to take a test in the evening.

Focus

If you tend to procrastinate, which means that you tend to switch from doing something hard like studying maths to something easy like browsing the web, protect yourself from distraction. One way of doing this is to shut down your mobile phone or go to a quiet place like a library.

Pomodoro or break down Technique

Set a timer to 25 minutes when you focus entirely on your studies. When the timer rings, relax for 5 minutes. If you want to continue just set the timer again. The small breaks in between are relaxing and motivating to keep going.

Hard Stuff First

Do the things that are difficult first. Because if you are like most people, you have the strongest willpower in the morning. Once you are done with the hard stuff you will feel better for the rest of the day and probably more motivated to get other things done.

Exercise, Meditate and Converse

There are few activities proven to grow your brain however physical exercise, regular meditation and good conversations apparently do exactly that. They lead to the creation of new neurons inside your brain and therefore grows its potential.

Change Places for studies

You can create deeper memories of a subject by learning in a richer environment that offers more visual clues. In an experiment, two groups of students had to remember random words. One group changed the classroom while studying, the other didn’t. The group that studied in two different rooms (one was small and windowless, the other big and bright) was 40% more likely to recall the words better.

Space Your Studies

In order to remember things for a longer time, repeat the material in spaced intervals. Facts or vocabularies for example are best learned if you review them the first time 1-2 days after the initial study and then again after 1 week and after 1 month.

Read and Recite

If you have one hour to learn to recite a poem or prepare for a speech spend 20 Minutes of the time on studying the text and 40 minutes on practicing to recite. This ratio usually leads to the best results. In the case of an emergency, put a glass of water next to you. Take a sip whenever you lose it.

Instant Self-Test

When you finish your studies, finish up with a quick quiz. Immediate recall in form of a test or a short summary on what you’ve just learned can increase retention by as much as 30%. Because it’s much harder for your brain to reflect than to read, that extra effort creates deeper traces in your memory.

Whatever it is, find a fun way to practice or study. In modern learning science believes that positive emotions are very important for increasing your learning potential. So do yourself a favour and have a good time.