Set your study goals and create a flexible study plan: 

In order to achieve exam success you need to know what you want to achieve. That’s why it is extremely important to set your Study Goals now and outline to yourself what you need to do. With your study goals in mind and your end of year exams weeks and months away it makes sense to have a flexible study plan as opposed to a rigid one. The closer you get to your exams the more concrete your study plan should be, but at this point it should be porous. It should be broad enough to allow you to add and change aspects but concise enough so you know you’re covering each subject/topic as best you can at this point.

Get Creative with online study tools: 

Don’t feel obliged to just sit in front of a book with a highlighter; there are many different ways to study. You should pick whatever works for you. Try using as many study tools and techniques as possible to help you study better and find what works best for you. Perfect examples of such study tools would be online flashcards, mind maps, mnemonics, online study planners, video and audio resources. Login to your ExamTime account now to access your free online study tools; mind maps, flashcards, study quizzes and practice exam answers and bring your study notes with you wherever you are.

Don’t be afraid to ask study questions: 

Of course, depending on what you’re studying, it may be quite difficult to get into a position to understand a concept,theory or other information you need to learn. This is where it is invaluable to ask questions of your teachers, lecturers or other educators. Don’t be afraid of asking a ‘stupid’ question – there really is no such thing when it comes to study and learning! Embrace your curiosity, for as William Arthur Ward said: “Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.” Doing so will allow you to fill in the blanks and better prepare you for exams.

Study tips

Understand your study topics in your own words: 

Your teacher or lecturer can explain something to you, you can learn it from a text book, your friends can study with you, even your own notes can explain it to you but all these explanations are of little use if, by the end, you can’t explain what you have learned to yourself. If you don’t understand a study concept that you need to illustrate in an exam to get top exam results, then you won’t be happy with your end exam result. To combat this, get into the habit of explaining whatever it is you are studying, in your own words, so you understand your study notes. The key to help improve your memory is to understand what you’ve learned when you are studying it. So don’t just memorise and tick off the list – make sure you understand your theory.

Study Tips & Study Skills

Everyone is different. Different methods work for different people; the following are only suggestions on improving upon your current studying techniques.Students with better study methods and strategies score higher on their exams.

It is best to review the material right after class when it's still fresh in your memory.

Don't try to do all your studying the night before the test. Instead space out your studying, review class materials at least several times a week, focusing on one topic at a time.

Have all of your study material in front of you: lecture notes, course textbooks, study guides and any other relevant material.

Find a comfortable and quiet place to study with good lighting and little distractions (try avoiding your own bed; it is very tempting to just lie down and take a nap).

Start out by studying the most important information.

Learn the general concepts first, don't worry about learning the details until you have learned the main ideas.

Take notes and write down a summary of the important ideas as you read through your study material.

Take short breaks frequently. Your memory retains the information that you study at the beginning and the end better than what you study in the middle.

Space out your studying, you'll learn more by studying a little every day instead of waiting to cram at the last minute. By studying every day, the material will stay in your long-term memory but if you try to study at the last moment, the material will only reside in your short-term memory that you'll easily forget.

Make sure that you understand the material well, don't just read through the material and try to memorize everything.

If you choose to study in a group, only study with others who are serious about the test.

Test yourself or have someone test you on the material to find out what your weak and strong areas are. You can use the review questions at the end of each chapter, practice tests that the teacher may give out or other pertinent materials.

Listening to relaxing music such as classical or jazz on a low volume can relieve some of the boredom of studying.

Don't study later than the time you usually go to sleep, you may fall asleep or be tempted to go to sleep, instead try studying in the afternoon or early evening. If you are a morning person try studying in the morning.

Adapted from http://www.testtakingtips.com/study/

Where you study is important?

Where you study is important

A lot of people make the mistake of studying in a place that really isn’t conducive to concentrating. A place with a lot of distractions makes for a poor study area. If you try and study in your dorm room, for instance, you may find the computer, TV, or a roommate more interesting than the reading material you’re trying to digest.

The library, a nook in a student lounge or study hall, or a quiet coffee house are good places to check out. Make sure to choose the quiet areas in these places, not the loud, central gathering areas. Investigate multiple places on-campus and off-campus, don’t just pick the first one your find as “good enough” for your needs and habits. Finding an ideal study place is important, because it’s one you can reliably count on for the next few years.

Adapted from: http://psychcentral.com/lib/top-10-most-effective-study-habits/000599

The Way to Cut Test Study Time by 50%

Kids have far more homework do to now than we ever did when we were growing up. It is big problem – kids today have a huge amount of homework. My sons have between 30 minutes and 90 minutes of homework per night, even though they are only in grade school and middle school.

You will have heard the horror stories about high school. It is common for kids in high school to have 3+ hours of homework per night, especially if they are in honors classes.

Frankly, I do not want my kids doing 3+ hours of homework (although they should do some homework). But on the other hand, we want them to get into decent schools when they get to college, and that will lead to a decent job, yada yada. So we need a way to do the same amount of work in less time.

Studying the traditional way takes a long time, and it is difficult for your child to determine if they really know the material using traditional study methods. This is not good enough. We need a way for kids to understand their assignments faster, and verify they can accurately do the work for tests.

It turns out this is entirely possible. Your kids can learn their homework more deeply, retain the information better, and do it all in less time. It is called the Feynman Technique, and Scott Young created the definitive outline on how adults can use it.

Scott Young is an amazing guy. He is a guy who went through an entire MIT computer science degree courses in just one year. He did 4 years of MIT classes – one of the top technical schools in the world – in just one year. Astonishing!

We talk a ton about effort here, and a growth mindset. A growth mindset is where you believe that effort and working hard will allow you to understand anything. Scott’s amazing results show what is possible with a growth mindset.

BUT, keep in mind that being motivated to learn, and actually learning are not the same. We need both motivation and techniques to be successful.

But let’s get back to the example of Scott Young and finishing MIT in only one year–There is no way to learn this much information and do this much work with normal studying techniques. It is just not possible. To learn this incredible amount of difficult material in such a short time, Scott had to:

1. Use a repeatable method to understand difficult material quickly
2. Verify he knew the material well enough to ace the tests.

Scott has a way to learn more quickly, deeply, and verify he knew the information – it’s called “The Feynman Technique”.

We are going to modify the Feynman Technique a bit so we can use it with our younger kids.

The “Feynman Technique” itself is pretty simple. It involves pretending you are teaching someone else what you are trying to learn, and then creating easy to understand analogies that cement the idea in your mind. It is really simple to understand how to do it, but incredibly powerful to use.

Why is it called the Feynman technique? It’s named after Richard Feynman, who won the Nobel prize for physics. Honestly, winning the Nobel prize was one of the least impressive things about him.

He was known by the other top physicists as being able to figure out problems nobody else could. Then, he was known as one of the greatest teachers of physics. These two incredible qualities are linked by the technique he used to learn new ideas and topics.

Whenever Feynman was faced with some new idea he didn’t understand, he would pretend he was teaching it to someone else. This forced him to identify the problem, find the important issues, pinpoint errors he was making, and then find a way to explain it simply and easily.

Feynman used this technique on himself – and propelled himself to a Nobel prize even though his IQ was only measured to be 125. He used this same technique to teach others – and become a legendary teacher of ideas.

So what is the Feynman Technique and how can your kids use it when they are doing their own studying?

It’s simple: Make your kids teach you their homework. Have your kids teach you what is going to be on their upcoming test.

Do this early in the evening, before they actually do their homework problems. Doing the teaching early makes the kids learn the material very well – so they can do the homework faster.

Then, because they are using words, drawing pictures, doing some work on paper, it gets ingrained in their memory for the tests later.

You don’t have to sit with them doing homework. You will know they have a solid grasp of the material – and they will too. If they are having difficulties, they will get it right before getting stuck in the middle of homework.

What if they make mistakes when they are teaching you their homework? Ha! Great! Use these mistakes to reinforce the growth mindset in your kids – where they respond to difficult problems with grit and determination to solve the problem.

The mistakes point out places where your kid needs to learn the material more deeply, and you can use them to foster a growth mindset.

If they make a mistake, say “I can tell you are putting a lot of effort into explaining this to me. Let’s go back to the book and see what it says to do here – We both need to understand this better”.

This script praises them for the effort they are putting into this task – and it “assumes” they can learn nearly anything with some effort.

If they make mistakes, look back to the book and correct the mistake right away.

Here are the basic steps for doing the Feynman Technique at home with your kids:

1. Let them know they need to explain it to you like you do not understand it at all
2. Have them first tell you what the idea/goal is in very simple words
3. For a math problem, Say “ok, what do I do first?”
4. For other topics say, “What do I need to know?”
5. Let them explain the material/steps
6. If they make a mistake, praise their effort for teaching you, and go back to the book to find the correct technique, answer, or idea
7. Once they explain it in full and correctly, ask if there are any analogies they can think up to “help me remember it more easily”.

These steps work extremely well with the new common core math. The techniques used in common core math are different than the techniques taught years ago, but are pretty easy to pick up.

Try it just a few times, and your kids will learn the Feynman Technique. They will discover on their own all the power of explaining and teaching new material. They will discover the power of analogies in remembering.

The Feynman technique is incredibly powerful for learning material quickly. It is even better for retaining the material longer.

After a few weeks of doing this with the kids, let them know they have been learning a new study technique – and tell them about it. Then, have the kids use the technique as their go-to method of studying and learning – just completely bypass the traditional method of studying.

- See more at: http://studysmartsystem.com/the-1-way-to-cut-test-study-time-by-50/#sthash.DqnkP5UX.dpuf

Study Smart, Not hard

Consider the process of studying for class as ongoing. Approaching it this way helps you avoid study marathons and allows you to review content in shorter, more frequent sessions.
Spend two to three hours studying outside of class for every hour in class. Listen to the lectures and read the texts, but balance those activities by finding ways to write, speak about, and graph or draw the content you are learning.

1. Prepare for Success: Study when and where you are most alert and plan your time.
2. Preview, Read, Recall: Identify relevant text or notes; scan chapter headings, keywords and diagrams; read chapter intro and summary; and formulate questions you want to answer. Read actively, find answers to your questions, take notes during lectures, and synthesize lecture and reading material. Talk with your professor, TA, or other students and consult your textbooks to fill in gaps and correct misunderstandings; put the main ideas of lectures and readings into your own words.
3. Self-Test: Create possible test questions, keeping in mind different levels of learning. Do practice problems and apply your knowledge to real-world solutions. Trade and discuss your questions with a partner or a group.
4. Test: Arrive early with all necessary materials, use appropriate test-taking strategies, and analyze returned tests.

Adapted from: http://www.utexas.edu/ugs/slc/study

8 Ways to Train Your Brain to Learn Faster and Remember More

So how do you train your brain to learn faster and remember more?

1. Work your memory.

Twyla Tharp, a NYC-based renowned choreographer has come up with the following memory workout: when she watches one of her performances, she tries to remember the first twelve to fourteen corrections she wants to discuss with her cast without writing them down. If you think this is anything less than a feat, then think again. In her book The Creative Habit she says that most people cannot remember more than three.

The practice of both remembering events or things and then discussing them with others has actually been supported by brain fitness studies. Memory activities that engage all levels of brain operation—receiving, remembering and thinking—help to improve the function of the brain.

Now, you may not have dancers to correct, but you may be required to give feedback on a presentation, or your friends may ask you what interesting things you saw at the museum. These are great opportunities to practically train your brain by flexing your memory muscles.

What is the simplest way to help yourself remember what you see? Repetition.

For example, say you just met someone new.

“Hi, my name is George”

Don’t just respond with, “Nice to meet you”. Instead, say, “Nice to meet you George.” Got it? Good.

2. Do something different repeatedly.

By actually doing something new over and over again, your brain wires new pathways that help you do this new thing better and faster.

Think back to when you were three years old. You surely were strong enough to hold a knife and a fork just fine. Yet, when you were eating all by yourself, you were creating a mess. It was not a matter of strength, you see. It was a matter of cultivating more and better neural pathways that would help you eat by yourself just like an adult does. And guess what? With enough repetition you made that happen!

But how does this apply to your life right now?

Say you are a procrastinator. The more you don’t procrastinate, the more you teach your brain not to wait for the last minute to make things happen.

Now, you might be thinking “Duh, if only not procrastinating could be that easy!” Well, it can be. By doing something really small, that you wouldn’t normally do, but is in the direction of getting that task done, you will start creating those new precious neural pathways.

So if you have been postponing organizing your desk, just take one paper and put in its right place. Or, you can go even smaller. Look at one piece of paper and decide where to put it: Trash? Right cabinet? Another room? Give it to someone?

You don’t actually need to clean up that paper; you only need to decide what you need to do with it.

That’s how small you can start. And yet, those neural pathways are still being built. Gradually, you will transform yourself from a procrastinator to an in-the-moment action taker.

3. Learn something new.

It might sound obvious, but the more you use your brain, the better its going to perform for you. For example, learning a new instrument improves your skill of translating something you see (sheet music) to something you actually do (playing the instrument).

Learning a new language exposes your brain to a different way of thinking, a different way of expressing yourself.

You can even literally take it a step further, and learn how to dance. Studies indicate that learning to dance helps seniors avoid Alzheimer’s. Not bad, huh?

4. Follow a brain training program.

The Internet world can help you improve your brain function while lazily sitting on your couch. A clinically proven program like BrainHQ can help you improve your memory, or think faster, by just following their brain training exercises.

5. Work your body.

You knew this one was coming didn’t you? Yes indeed, exercise does not just work your body; it also improves the fitness of your brain.

Even briefly exercising for 20 minutes facilitates information processing and memory functions. But it’s not just that–exercise actually helps your brain create those new neural connections faster. You will learn faster, your alertness level will increase, and you get all that by moving your body.

Now, if you are not already a regular exerciser, and already feel guilty that you are not helping your brain by exercising more, try a brain training exercise program like Exercise Bliss. Remember, just like we discussed in #2, by training your brain to do something new repeatedly, you are actually changing yourself permanently.

6. Spend time with your loved ones.

If you want optimal cognitive abilities, then you’ve got to have meaningful relationships in your life.  Talking with others and engaging with your loved ones helps you think more clearly, and it can also lift your mood.

If you are an extrovert, this holds even more weight for you. At a class at Stanford University, I learned that extroverts actually use talking to other people as a way to understand and process their own thoughts.

I remember that the teacher told us that after a personality test said she was an extrovert, she was surprised. She had always thought of herself as an introvert. But then, she realized how much talking to others helped her frame her own thoughts, so she accepted her new-found status as an extrovert.

7. Avoid crossword puzzles.

Many of us, when we think of brain fitness, think of crossword puzzles. And it’s true–crossword puzzles do improve our fluency, yet studies show they are not enough by themselves. Are they fun? Yes. Do they sharpen your brain? Not really.

Of course, if you are doing this for fun, then by all means go ahead. If you are doing it for brain fitness, then you might want to choose another activity

8. Eat right–and make sure dark chocolate is included.

Foods like fish, fruits, and vegetables help your brain perform optimally. Yet, you might not know that dark chocolate gives your brain a good boost as well.

When you eat chocolate, your brain produces dopamine. And dopamine helps you learn faster and remember better. Not to mention, chocolate contains flavonols, antioxidants, which also improve your brain functions. So next time you have something difficult to do, make sure you grab a bite or two of dark chocolate!

Now that you know how to train your brain, it’s actually time to start doing. Don’t just consume this content and then go on with your life as if nothing has changed. Put this knowledge into action and become smarter than ever!

So devote 30 seconds and tell me in the comments: what are you going to do in the next three days to give your brain a boost?

10 Tips to Study Smart and Save Time

Learning Holistically

The alternative strategy is to focus on actually using the information you have to build something. This involves linking concepts together and compressing information so it fits in the bigger picture. Here are some ideas to get started:

1. Metaphor – Metaphors can allow you to quickly organize information by comparing a complex idea to a simple one. When you find relationships between information, come up with analogies to increase your understanding. Compare neurons with waves on a string. Make metaphors comparing parts of a brain with sections of your computer.
2. Use All Your Senses - Abstract ideas are difficult to memorize because they are far removed from our senses. Shift them closer by coming up with vivid pictures, feelings and images that relate information together. When I learned how to do a determinant of a matrix, I remembered the pattern by visualizing my hands moving through the numbers, one adding and one subtracting.
3. Teach It - Find someone who doesn’t understand the topic and teach it to them. This exercise forces you to organize. Spending five minutes explaining a concept can save you an hour of combined studying for the same effect.
4. Leave No Islands – When you read through a textbook, every piece of information should connect with something else you have learned. Fast learners do this automatically, but if you leave islands of information, you won’t be able to reach them during a test.
5. Test Your Mobility - A good way to know you haven’t linked enough is that you can’t move between concepts. Open up a word document and start explaining the subject you are working with. If you can’t jump between sections, referencing one idea to help explain another, you won’t be able to think through the connections during a test.
6. Find Patterns – Look for patterns in information. Information becomes easier to organize if you can identify broader patterns that are similar across different topics. The way a neuron fires has similarities to “if” statements in programming languages.
7. Build a Large Foundation - Reading lots and having a general understanding of many topics gives you a lot more flexibility in finding patterns and metaphors in new topics. The more you already know, the easier it is to learn.
8. Don’t Force - I don’t spend much time studying before exams. Forcing information during the last few days is incredibly inefficient. Instead try to slowly interlink ideas as they come to you so studying becomes a quick recap rather than a first attempt at learning.
9. Build Models – Models are simple concepts that aren’t true by themselves, but are useful for describing abstract ideas. Crystallizing one particular mental image or experience can create a model you can reference when trying to understand. When I was trying to tackle the concept of subspaces, I visualized a blue background with a red plane going through it. This isn’t an entirely accurate representation of what a subspace is, but it created a workable image for future ideas.
10. Learning is in Your Head – Having beautiful notes and a perfectly highlighted textbook doesn’t matter if you don’t understand the information in it. Your only goal is to understand the information so it will stick with you for assignments, tests and life. Don’t be afraid to get messy when scrawling out ideas on paper and connecting them in your head. 

7 Reasons You Won’t Start Studying Until It’s Too Late

1. You’re anticipating hard work

Procrastination is generally viewed as this guilt-ridden character defect shared almost universally by all students. The problem is, this is exactly what we should expect to happen from an evolutionary perspective.

Humans are known to be cognitive misers: we conserve mental resources whenever possible, especially when facing tasks not viewed as “essential to our survival.”

In other words, we put off studying until the last minute because (1) we know the work is hard and will require a lot of mental energy, and (2) until there’s the threat of actually failing the exam (and therefore potentially being humiliated publicly) we’re not in enough emotional pain to motivate us to start studying.

Additionally, when your brain anticipates multiple outcomes that are all viewed as “painful” (the pain of studying vs. the pain of failing out of college) you become immobilized, unable to choose the lesser of two evils, and push off the work even further.

Schedule in time for yourself first and then fill in the gaps with study time.

As Niel Fiore discusses in bestselling classic, The Now Habit, part of the reason you procrastinate is because you see no end in site.

Think of the difference between a 100 yard dash and a marathon. In the first case you’re able to give maximum effort because you can see the finish line and know it will be over soon. The marathon runner is not so lucky. They know there’s a long road ahead filled with pain and exhaustion, and subconsciously conserve their effort to ensure they can make it through all 26.2 miles.

This is all to say, if you know you get to go hang out in your buddy’s dorm room and goof off for an hour after you study, you’re much more likely to want to invest that energy.

As a side benefit, you end up taking advantage of Parkinson’s Law. Because your work expands to fill the time allotted, by scheduling less time for studying, you actually become more productive and focused.

2. You’re sleep deprived

Who in college isn’t pounding the caffeine?

Students who force themselves through weeks upon weeks of 4-6 hour sleep nights, are significantly deteriorating two aspects of their mental performance critical to studying for exams: motivation and vigilance.

Studies show that poor sleep negatively impacts motivation. But really, no one needs a study to tell them how much worse your outlook on life is when you’re low on sleep.

And vigilance, the ability to maintain concentrated attention over prolonged periods of time, is also significantly reduced during a period of either acute (staying up all night studying), or chronic (cutting sleep short for multiple days) sleep deprivation.

Set yourself an end-of-the-day alarm.

Yes, studying more consistently for shorter chunks will allow you to spread it over a longer period of time; therefore, preventing the need to deprive yourself of sleep just to get your coursework done. But really, it’s a psychological issue.

There are a million things we’d rather stay up and do, than go right to bed after a full day of classes, only to have to get up and do the same thing over again. This is a chicken/egg problem: if I don’t get sleep I procrastinate studying, but if I go to bed I’ll just have to get up and study. Again, lose-lose. We need to break the cycle.

Set yourself an alarm. But not in the morning. Set your alarm for 45 minutes before when you should get to sleep and allow yourself to sleep for a full 8 hours. If you adhere to that you’ll be surprised how many hours of free time seem to materialize.

Study time + free time + sleep = happy and successful students.

3. You have a false sense of security

You may think you’re being a diligent student, sitting there in the lecture, listening intently, copying down page after page of notes from the professor. You might even be following along and raise your hand here and there. But there’s a big difference between feeling like you understand something, and actually being able to reproduce it on a test.

This is what we call passive learning, and it’s the best way to ensure that you’ll spend a lot of time and effort trying to learn new material, without actually being able to retain any of it.

Quiz yourself.

Don’t be fooled by your professor’s overly logical explanations. This dude already knows the material, so it’s easy for him to explain it in a way that others find understandable. The real challenge is whether or not you can do the same.

If you’re wondering if you actually understand something, quiz yourself. Or better yet, explain it to someone (or yourself, but be warned: people tend to stare).

As Einstein liked to say, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

By routinely quizzing yourself, you’ll get a dose of reality of whether you actually know the material or not, instead of what most students do: assume they know it until the night before the test, when they proceed to freak out because they can’t do any of the practice problems.

4. Not all study time is created equal

Fact: seven hours of studying over 7 days is much more effective (more learning per time spent) for understanding new material than 7 hours of studying in one chunk. This is especially true for technical courses with new jargon you have to internalize.

Chunk your study time.

The brain uses a ton of energy (20% of our resting metabolic rate), and there’s only so much you can expend per day. To maximize your retention of new material, you want to take advantage of both active learning and recovery.

Because the brain consolidates new neural pathways during sleep, particularly during REM sleep, the more sleep cycles you intersperse between your study hours, the more likely it is that you will retain the material and be able to whip it out on test day.

This also allows you to take advantage of spaced repetition. Instead of having to constantly review your material to keep it in the forefront of your memory, you can follow a cycle of ever-increasing time intervals between review sessions (the “forgetting curve”), decreasing the overall amount of time needed to re-learn material you might have forgotten from the beginning of the semester when the final rolls around.

5. The planning fallacy

Humans systematically overestimate what can be accomplished in the short-term, and underestimate what can be accomplished in the long-term.

Ironically (and sadly), we only have this problem evaluating our own tasks – providing a pretty accurate picture of how long things will take when evaluating someone else’s situation objectively.

“Dude I’ve got this Calc final covered. Just need a couple days before to go over my notes. But you’re screwed for your Orgo class – better head to the library now or you’re never gonna pass.”

Use the 50% rule.

Estimate as conservatively as you can, how much time it’s going to take to study for your exam, assuming you start early and work consistently.

Done?

Okay. Now add 50% to that estimate.

This will give you a more accurate picture of how much time you really need to allocate to starting studying.

6. You think you have more study time than you do

Pull up your Sunday schedule. What do you see?

Oh looks like I’ve got a big chunk of free time from 4pm to 10pm. Perfect, I’ll just squeeze in 5 or 6 hours of studying and then call it a night.

Try again. It’s more like 2-3 hours.

This is another type of planning mistake: overestimating how much productive time we can extract from any given period.

Things we tend to forget: we need to eat; we need to sleep; there will be interruptions (yea right like you’re actually going to shut off your phone).

But another thing we fail to account for: the body goes through 90-120 minute activity cycles (called the Ultradian Rhythm). So even though you may be sitting there, highlighting your textbook for 3 hours straight, you really only have the ability to absorb material for 1.5 to 2 hours before you need a period of rest.

Cut your estimated hours in half.

If you think you have 8 hours on Sunday after the game to study, forget it. You actually have 4 or less when you take out time for eating, breaks, and normal daily activities.

7. You can’t get motivated or focused

A lot of us tend to sit around and wait…

Waiting for the wave of motivation to strike us to finally get started on the homework assignment due in 24 hours, or studying for the midterm.

Here’s the problem: motivation comes and goes, but the demands of school and learning and everyday life don’t. And if you’re relying on your motivation to keep you focused, everything you’re doing is going to be in a perpetual state of lateness and last-minute-ness, because there’s never enough motivation to go around.

Focus on the process, with the end in mind.

Why are you in school? Why do you want a degree? Get clear on exactly what your motivations are.

But thinking about the future is not enough. That vision of the future that drives your emotional intensity needs to be linked to your daily activities. (e.g. “Each day I study for Calculus brings me one step closer to being a doctor and making a difference in people’s lives.”)

What is the one set of activities each day that will virtually guarantee success in your coursework?

And what can you do to organize your day, set up incentives, quit things that don’t matter, etc. to virtually guarantee you will do that one set of activities day in and day out, despite motivation?

source from: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/7-reasons-you-wont-start-studying-until-its-too-late-and-what-about.html

10 Tips to Study Smart

 Here are some ideas to get started:

1. Metaphor – Metaphors can allow you to quickly organize information by comparing a complex idea to a simple one. When you find relationships between information, come up with analogies to increase your understanding. Compare neurons with waves on a string. Make metaphors comparing parts of a brain with sections of your computer.
2. Use All Your Senses - Abstract ideas are difficult to memorize because they are far removed from our senses. Shift them closer by coming up with vivid pictures, feelings and images that relate information together. When I learned how to do a determinant of a matrix, I remembered the pattern by visualizing my hands moving through the numbers, one adding and one subtracting.
3. Teach It - Find someone who doesn’t understand the topic and teach it to them. This exercise forces you to organize. Spending five minutes explaining a concept can save you an hour of combined studying for the same effect.
4. Leave No Islands – When you read through a textbook, every piece of information should connect with something else you have learned. Fast learners do this automatically, but if you leave islands of information, you won’t be able to reach them during a test.
5. Test Your Mobility - A good way to know you haven’t linked enough is that you can’t move between concepts. Open up a word document and start explaining the subject you are working with. If you can’t jump between sections, referencing one idea to help explain another, you won’t be able to think through the connections during a test.
6. Find Patterns – Look for patterns in information. Information becomes easier to organize if you can identify broader patterns that are similar across different topics. The way a neuron fires has similarities to “if” statements in programming languages.
7. Build a Large Foundation - Reading lots and having a general understanding of many topics gives you a lot more flexibility in finding patterns and metaphors in new topics. The more you already know, the easier it is to learn.
8. Don’t Force - I don’t spend much time studying before exams. Forcing information during the last few days is incredibly inefficient. Instead try to slowly interlink ideas as they come to you so studying becomes a quick recap rather than a first attempt at learning.
9. Build Models – Models are simple concepts that aren’t true by themselves, but are useful for describing abstract ideas. Crystallizing one particular mental image or experience can create a model you can reference when trying to understand. When I was trying to tackle the concept of subspaces, I visualized a blue background with a red plane going through it. This isn’t an entirely accurate representation of what a subspace is, but it created a workable image for future ideas.
10. Learning is in Your Head – Having beautiful notes and a perfectly highlighted textbook doesn’t matter if you don’t understand the information in it. Your only goal is to understand the information so it will stick with you for assignments, tests and life. Don’t be afraid to get messy when scrawling out ideas on paper and connecting them in your head. Use notes and books as a medium for learning rather than an end result.

Source from: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/10-tips-to-study-smart-and-save-time.html