Study smart p1 - Military - Education Strategies and Tips - Military Times EDGE

Someone told you that you could spend less time studying but still earn golden grades? Before you dismiss it as too good to be true, consider this: Experts insist it’s not about how much you study but how you do it — with careful planning and good time management if you want to be successful.

“If you show up at college and just start randomly taking notes and reviewing without serious planning, then you deserve the stress and fluctuating grades you’ll probably encounter,” says Cal Newport, a computer science doctoral candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of the books “How to Become a Straight-A Student” and “How to Win at College.”

Newport’s and two of his fellow experts’ advice for starting the new semester off right:

Organize your schedule

Step one: “You have to start with a schedule and be motivated to stick to it,” said Bob Kizlik, a former college professor and developer of the ADPRIMA instructional system and Web site. By “schedule,” he means a thoughtful, organized, in-depth assessment of every day.

Before even forming that schedule, consider your goals, recommends Carl Thum, director of the Academic Skills Center at Dartmouth College. “These goals should be both short- and long-term, academic and nonacademic,” Thum said. Keep that list short — four or five goals will do.

The actual scheduling starts with a to-do list of everything from work and school to exercise, time with friends, eating and sleeping. Newport recommends carrying a notebook to jot down obligations, tasks and deadlines. Then, on your computer, make a master to-do list of everything that you are obligated — or want — to do. Review this list regularly, but don’t become too attached to it, Newport advises. Instead, assign important tasks to certain days. Reserve a block of time to study for algebra on Wednesdays, for example. The experts contend that this level of planning and specificity actually saves time in the long run. Just don’t get too bogged down with it. “Try it out and see how it works, then make revisions as needed,” Kizlik said.

Notes on note-taking

While time management is key, other factors affect the success of your study system. Chief among them: Taking good notes. “There are two sources of information at college — what you hear in class and what you read,” Thum said. “Usually, what you hear in class is most important.” Thum said he’s a fan of the widely used Cornell note-taking system, distinguishable by a page layout that includes margins for review and summaries.

Get super-familiar with your notes, Thum said. Before each class, review your notes from previous classes. During class, take thorough lecture notes. Then, stay in your seat for a few minutes after class, going over the notes you just took and folding those notes in with previous notes.

One word of warning from Kizlik: “I used to watch students try to take down every word in my class. Bad idea.” Instead, “You’ll know what’s important by the way I say it, how many times I say it (and) what I write on the board.”

Rules for reading

Just as you can’t take down every word in class, you may not be able to keep up with all the readings recommended on your class syllabus, and your professors likely don’t expect you to, Thum said.

Obviously, the rules vary by class. If you’re studying Shakespeare for a literature class, you have to read Shakespeare. Otherwise, “see the reading as something you need to keep up with but you don’t need to know in and out,” Thum said. “Take some notes — not too many — then review that information with your notes from class.”

Online courses require discipline

Air Force Master Sgt. Kenneth R. Henkel swears by time-management and self-discipline skills as keys to his success in pursuit of an online master’s degree in homeland security management from University of Maryland University College. As an online student, “you have nobody looking over your shoulder,” Henkel said.

To keep track of his work, Henkel sets his schedule as if he is going to a physical classroom. He typically tries to do three hours of work per class two times a week and then a few hours on weekends. He suspects a bachelor’s-degree student could get by with less.

Final thoughts

Our experts have one last warning: During the time you have allotted for studying, make sure you actually study and don’t just go through the motions of studying. Newport calls it “pseudo-work” — the mistaken belief that time spent studying equals work accomplished. You sit down with your biology text, for example, and per your schedule, spend an hour “studying” it. Instead, you sit turning pages as your mind wanders to other commitments or your eyelids start to droop. At the end of the hour, you feel good about yourself for satisfying your study goal, but, realistically, you haven’t learned a thing.

“If you are studying and you become sleepy after 20 minutes ... you are doing something wrong,” Kizlik said. “If you are studying and you become distracted after 20 minutes, you are doing something wrong. You need to change something.”

Maybe you are not interested enough in your study material and you need to reconsider your major. Maybe it’s as simple as the need to build more time for sleep into your schedule. Or maybe you need to stop equating quantity with quality when it comes to studying. On his popular Study Hacks blog, Newport advocates studying in short, focused “bursts” with plenty of time in between to recharge.

“I never pulled an all-nighter in college,” Newport said. “I rarely studied after 8 p.m. During finals, I would sometimes pretend to be studying so my roommates wouldn’t feel bad. ... When you have a plan and specificity, work takes much less time.”

Exam strategies

Stop final exam fear in its tracks with these sure-fire tips from Bob Kizlik, a former college professor and developer of the ADPRIMA instructional system and Web site.

• A little reconnaissance is a good thing. See what you can do to find out — legally and ethically — what’s on the final exam. What’s past is prologue. Ask the professor if you can see copies of previous final exams.

• Be consistent in how you study.

• Don’t waste your time. If you don’t function well in study groups, for example, don’t join one to study for your final exam.

• Be positive. Your feelings about how you’re going to do on the final actually affect how you do. Don’t go in with fear and trepidation.

• Get a good night’s sleep. Pulling an all-nighter before the test is ineffective.

• Two final things: Apricot juice and bananas. Kizlik firmly believes that partaking of one these two high-potassium foods just before the exam will give you an edge.