Work Smart, Not Hard: A Few Practical Study Tips And Tricks That Have Worked For Me

Work Smart, Not Hard: a few practical study tips and tricks that have worked for me

(Note: These tips are not geared for students who are already doing well and would like to excel in their classes. These are for students who are trying to pass and find themselves overwhelmed and strugging to keep up. I have never been the former student, but I have certainly been the latter. "Work smart, not hard" is a mentality of pragmatism, not perfectionism, and the following tips are geared towards that.)

Ask your instructor what they want you to learn in the course (and what they're going to put on the final)

This tactic is especially helpful for big-picture people. Having a bird's eye view of the class as a whole can help you avoid getting overwhelmed with details. Though the "learn everything you can!" mindset is beautifully romantic and often espoused by professors, most of the time it is not practical. Within your class not all information is going to be equally important. Some sections are probably going to be more crucial to the course than others so instead of dividing your energy evenly across everything taught, focus in on studying and understanding that material. In courses that build upon previous information, this would mean focusing on the foundational topics

Secondarily, do not be ashamed of directly asking what is on the exam. Some instructors might take offense to that but you can always dress it up in alternative language to sugarcoat it. Suggestions of how to ask include "What are the key takeaways for this course?" and "What should we come of this course knowing?" or my favorite, "I want to really understand the material. What should I focus most of my studying on first?"

Don't set up study plans before a course begins (and/or don't force yourself to stick to them)

This is an optional and potentially controversial tip but I have a reason for claiming this. Too many times, I've gotten halfway through a semester only to realise that the study plans or summary reading sheets that I created at the start of the term have been untouched. Or worse, I've been using them and completely ignoring more efficient way to study. Classes, especially STEM classes, can really vary in how they are taught and what you are expected to learn/do within them. Some courses rely heavily on a textbook and structured reading notes help with that. Some courses list a textbook but barely use it, in which case stuctured reading notes aren't going to be particularly efficient. Sure, it would be nice to read the suggested text and put together a document of notes, but if reading the textbook isn't necessary to learn the material (which, in some courses, it honestly really isn't) then you are under no obligation to do so.

However, if you know what your course is going to be like and know that you work best with a study plan set out before the course begins, then use a study plan! You know how you study best (more on that later)

Set achievable goals (or break down your goals into smaller more achievable steps)

It's great to push yourself and to want to do the best you can do and set these lofty ideals (I'm looking at freshman first semester me right now) but that's also a really great recipe for burnout and a plummet in self-confidence. If you're an average studyblr tag following student, I'm sure there's been times where you've not managed to check off everything on your to-do list and felt a sense of guilt for not doing so. You shouldn't feel guilty, but I also do that on a daily basis and know that me just saying "don't feel guilty <3" isn't particularly useful.

So instead, break down your lofty goals into smaller steps. It would be great if I could read three chapters today but based on past experience I've only been able to do one or two a day, so I'll just change my goal to one for today and balance out the rest of my week's tasks so I can still complete all of my reading. Alternatively, put the bar to reach in a different place. Maybe I do need to read all three chapters today but instead of reading them as academic sources and taking notes, I'll instead set a goal of reading through all the words like a storybook. It might not be as ideal or perfect, but I'm still going to get a subset of the necessary information that way and it's something I know I can achieve.

Shameless point grabbing is your friend (and partial credit is better than no credit)

This one is pretty self explanatory; point grabbing is a blessing, particularly on non-multiple choice exams. Circling back to the "ask your professor what they're putting on the exam" point above, sometimes if you simply demonstrate that you understand (or are trying your best to understand) what they want you to learn, they may be more lenient in their grading. There have been many times where I've gotten stuck on an exam question with limited time left on the clock, and quite literally written out in words my thought process and what steps I was trying to do. I have written the names of concepts on my exams. I have written notes about how my numbers feel off and should be in this other numerical range instead. And sometimes, I have gotten credit and points back for doing so.

Good instructors want you to learn and understand that uni is difficult, so if you can show them that you are learning in some capacity they may let things slide a bit. It's the academic equivalent of looking an approaching driver in the eye while crossing the road; most of the time people's conscious kicks in and they avoid totaling you or your grades.

And most importantly: Learn how you learn (and don't always listen to advice on the internet)

I wasted the most study time trying to apply tips given to me by other people that were counterintuitive to how I actually process information. Thanks to a lot of self-reflection, I've discovered that I learn best when I am working alone to understand the information, asking my instructor or peers specific questions to patch in where I feel inadequate, and then going to review sessions to gauge where I am in relation to the class at large. Therefore, no matter how hard I tried, constantly working with other people in study groups was never going to be an efficient use of my time.

Figure out how you process and catagorise information in your own mind. Figure out if you need others to bounce ideas off to, or if you need the silence of an empty room. Figure out if you need wide open spaces to physically lay out your notes or if you need a small tidy desk with only a few things on it. Figure out if you need handwritten notes that force you to slow down and summarize instead of copying slides, or if you need digital notes full of thorough information that you can quickly rearrange. Figure out what you don't need. Figure out if you need a combination of everything depending on the material that day, or if you need one method that's tried and true.

Learn how you learn, so that you can work more quickly, more efficiently, and more intuitively.