Study Strategy Resources That Work

Study strategies are beneficial for anybody. Life is a learning journey, whether you are in formal education or not. It is important that you develop a study strategy that works for you, which means you need to be aware of the things that you are comfortable with. This might take some soul searching, as well as trying and failing at different strategies. A number of general tips can be applied in order to help you develop a strategy that works.

You Attitude to Learning

Almost everybody is able to tell you of a specific experience that destroyed some of the confidence they had in their own ability to learn. This is particularly true in adults, who will have received negative comments when they were younger on the way they learn. The effects of this can be tremendous, with some people believing the are stupid and incapable. Nowhere is this clearer than in the thousands of people who have dyslexia, which wasn’t recognized when they are younger. Instead, teachers would tell them they were “slow” or even outright “stupid”. Because of the fact that their confidence was destroyed, they now still have difficulties in performing as well as they could.

In order to develop your own learning strategy, you need to identify whether you were given any negative messages that perhaps still affect you to this day. At the same time, think about positive messages you were given and whether these can still help you now. This can help you to identify the type of attitude that you need to succeed. Some people are challenged by being told they aren’t good enough, others find that soul destroying.

• Positive Attitudes and Perceptions About Learning
• The Role of Beliefs and Attitudes in Learning Statistics

Optimal Learning Conditions

The next thing you need to do is find out how your brain works. This doesn’t mean you need to become a neuroscientist, but rather that you learn a few of the basic things that can help you use your own mind to your advantage. There are a number of optimal learning conditions that we know work for everybody, as they also improve our overall health. This is about being rested, hydrated, non-stressed and happy. These are factors that are important in all walks of life, including learning. We also know that repetition is good in helping the brain remember certain things.

Another thing to think about are the physical learning conditions that surround you. Learning is best achieved in a room without distractions. So no matter how often your teens tell you that they learn best with MTV blaring in the background (or no matter how often you used to say that yourself), a quiet room is actually far better. Your area also needs to be of a comfortable temperature, and you need to be able to sit in an ergonomically way, so that you don’t end up getting aches and pains. Similarly, you must make sure that you have the right lighting levels.

• The Study Skills Handbook by Stella Cottrell
• Your Brain and Nervous System
• Improving Conditions for Learning
• Improving Learning
• 10 Tips to Create a Productive Work or Study Environment

Other Useful Tips

There are a number of things you have to remember when you want to create a study strategy that works for you. For instance, although repeating information is good, spending hours and hours studying may not be productive either. It is about studying effectively, rather than simply longer. You must start by identifying what you actually need to do, for instance by really studying the title of your assignment. Ask as many questions as possible until you really know what is expected of you.

You should also make sure you set achievable goals. You are not a superhuman and by setting goals that you cannot achieve, you are setting yourself up for failure. This, in turn, is likely to have very negative effects on your overall studying methods. You also have to find a way to make the material you are studying relevant to you. It isn’t so much about remembering the information, but rather about actually understanding it.

You also need to think about SMART-F targets. This means strategic (so you can achieve your objectives), measurable (so that you know when your goals are being reached), achievable (not setting yourself up for failure), realistic (you have to be aware of your own capabilities) and time-bound (which means you set yourself a deadline). The F has only recently been added and stands for flexible. If circumstances change, your strategy has to be able to change with it.

Furthermore, you should take some time to figure out what your learning style is, and what this means for you. A number of different and techniques have been developed for this, but the Felder model is the most widely accepted. It explains that people each have specific styles of learning. These can be sensory or intuitive, visual or verbal, active or reflective and sequential and global. There are various online questionnaires available that will help you to identify your own learning style. It is very important to use these types of tools, because you will make your own learning journey far easier when you know what works for you.

• How to Improve Your Memory
• Personal Goal Setting
• Index of Learning Styles
• VARK Learning Style Questionnaire

Creating a study strategy that works, as you can see, requires quite a lot of time and thinking. Luckily, however, once you have developed the right strategy for you, you can apply it again and again, regardless of what it is you’re learning about. There are many factors to think about, and you also have to have a reasonably flexible approach. You may change, which means your strategy needs to be able to change with you. Remember that change is almost always for the better, no matter how resistant we are to it as humans. That is one of the main lessons you will learn when you create the perfect study strategy.