Tips & Tricks for Studying at Home

Studying is not just reading and rereading material; it requires organized and intense effort and can be done in a variety of ways. Effective studying involves memory, good planning, time management skills, reading, and note taking. In order to succeed academically, students need to commit to dedicating their time and put forth the effort needed to master effective study skills and apply them to their academic studies. Students need to, not only pay attention in class, but practice and study their class materials at home. The following are few tips and tricks to help students study at home.

Time Management Tips

Managing and scheduling time wisely is a very important aspect of studying. Time management is the process of organizing different priorities and planning ahead. Using a planner and making a check list are only a few tricks that can help student’s manage their time.

Time Management: A great resource to understand the benefits of time management, tips for planning schedule, and simple time management exercise.

Tips to Schedule Studying Time: A guide to understand personal time survey, study hour formula, prioritize tasks, and daily schedules.

How to Manage Time and Set Priorities: Information on three rules of effective time management and setting priorities.

Making the Most of the Time: Tips to getting organized, working on large projects, taking note on research papers, and study tips.

Test Taking

Before preparing for an exam, it is very important for students to be physically and mentally prepared. It is better to analyze past tests to determine how to improve the test results. Before an exam, study sessions can be divided into units or manageable time segments; do not try to learn and remember all of the testable information all at once. A good night sleep is also very important before taking a test.

Test Taking and Test Anxiety: A complete resource to understand test preparation, test taking tips, and test anxiety.

Survival Strategies for Taking Tests: Strategies to follow before, during, and after the test.

Tips on Test Taking: Complete overview for preparing the tests and taking the tests.

Test Taking Tips: Excellent information on how to prepare for different kinds of tests.

Tips for Taking Notes

Note taking is very important for learning course materials and for writing effective essay exams and papers. Good notes taken in class always help to study effectively at home; focus on class material and don’t be afraid to ask questions – you don’t want to write down the incorrect information and end up studying the wrong material. Before beginning to take notes in the classroom, make sure you are prepared: notebooks, pencils, sticky notes, and highlighters should be kept on hand.

Take Notes in Class & Rewrite Them at Home: Complete overview of taking notes, taking complete notes, using abbreviations, and copying notes at home.

Note Taking Strategies: A complete resource for understanding importance of note taking and important points about note taking.

Effective Listening and Note Taking: Useful tips to listen effectively in class and taking notes.

Tips for Improved Reading

Reading ability is very important for academic achievement. Improving your reading comprehension skills will help to improve your overall ability to study the material. When reading through class material, take your time; if you need to reread some sections to understand the material, that is okay. Do not rush through your reading; instead, use a pencil and highlighter to signify important passages and emphasize keywords.

Learning Strategies – Reading Comprehension: Good information to understand reading comprehension, purpose of reading comprehension, advantages and specific strategies of reading comprehension is given with simple guide.

Suggestions for Improving Reading Speed: complete overview of speed-reading and tips to improve reading speed.

What Students should know about Reading?: Complete resource to understand major factors in reading and some aspects of developmental reading.

Tips for Writing a Research Paper

Research papers typically required in college and university level courses; to make sure you are prepared for the coursework involved in higher education, it is important to learn how to write a good research paper. Writing a good research paper starts gathering research and creating an outline, this is a detailed write up of how the final paper will be arranged. It can be tough to know where to begin, but once you start researching and gathering information you will get a better idea of what should go where in the paper so that it flows in an understandable and consistent manner.

How to Write a Research Paper: Complete overview of writing a general form of research paper is given with dos and don’ts.

Style Guide for Research Papers: Links to online collection of formatting the research paper and style guides.

Steps in Writing the Research Paper: A series of steps for writing an effective research paper.

Tips for Citing your Sources

Citing sources used in a research paper is very important to avoid plagiarism. Also called a bibliography, this tells the professor or reader where the research and information came from. There are a few different styles of citations; use a guide to help you through the different steps. Having samples of the different citation styles on hand is also very helpful.

Tips for Citing Properly: Overview of importance of citation and tips to cite properly.

Why Cite your Sources: A good resource to understand why citing the sources is very important.

Different Citation Style: Different citation styles are explained with clear example and links to other related sources.