Trying to juggle multiple classes, along with your personal life, can get quite hectic. It’s important to not overdo yourself and get too stressed out or overwhelmed to the point that you just feel like breaking down and giving up. A few of my tips for organizing a good study plan include: buying a planner, devoting certain days for certain classes, making flash cards/outlines of your notes and brain breaks.
- Buying a Planner
A good way to get your studying in order is to first buy a planner. Investing in a planner will help you more than you would imagine. You may think that you can remember every assignment or test you have coming up, but when you are taking multiple classes, on top of your everyday life activities, it is very easy to forget. This way your can refer to your planner and mark off your tasks as you go.
- A Schedule
Devoting certain days for certain classes will help you to be able to study your classes individually. If you are taking five plus classes a day, it would just be impossible to cram all of this information in in one day. This way, if you schedule two days to the same two or three classes, and then the other two days of the week to your other classes, it will help you have a system and retain the knowledge more efficiently.
- Flashcards/Outlining
Flashcards are an excellent studying tool. These help you quiz yourself and actually learn the knowledge better than if you were to just look at terms and the definition. Also making an outline of the notes you took in class will help. This way you can narrow down the important facts that you need to know and focus more on those.
- Brain Breaks
Taking a “brain break” is very important to me while studying. If you study for hours and hours on end, your brain just turns to mush after a while. I usually take a brain break for NO longer than 30 minutes. This gives you a minute to refresh your mind and have a minute to relax. Remembering to relax is key to surviving college.
I hope that you will take these tips into consideration and strive throughout your college years. Giving up, or not studying, are not options if you want to succeed. Whenever you are feeling the need to procrastinate, just remember the rewarding life you will have after finishing college and starting your career and life. These are some of the most important times of your life and should be taken seriously and with effort!
