
Good study habits are essential for college success. It’s expected, that by the time you reach college, you will know how to budget your time and study effectively. The best time to develop and perfect your study skills is through middle and high school. Establishing a routine will ensure all assignments and projects are complete and that you do well on exams.
Having an after school routine will guarantee that your homework gets done in a timely fashion. Often, students put off homework until right before bed, then find that they’re either too tired to complete everything assigned. When you get home from school, it’s ok to take 20-30 minutes to unwind from the school day, grab a quick snack, and get yourself organized to begin your homework. Here are 5 tips for developing good study habits:
- Use a planner, calendar, or app such as myHomework to record all of your assignments. For longer term assignments, break them down into smaller, more manageable parts, create your own due dates for each section leading up to the final project due date.
- Do your homework as soon as you get home from school or no longer than 30 minutes after you get home. This will give you more time in case a particular assignment takes you longer than you expected and keep momentum going.
- Make sure your basic needs are met to help you focus. Hungry? Grab a snack! Anxious? Try listening to some music or doing yoga/meditation. Tired? Take a short nap – 30 minutes max!
- Budget an allotted amount of time for each subject, adjust the time if needed. For example, if you budget 15 minutes for math but you find that it always takes you 45 minutes, perhaps determining why there is a discrepancy in time budgeted versus actual may be something to look at. Are you distracted? Did you underestimated your the time needed? Do you understand the work that you need to complete? Be sure to schedule breaks if you know you’ll be working for longer than usual.
- Minimize distractions. Study in a quiet place and put your phone away or turn it off if you are tempted to check when you here the alerts. If you must have your phone, block your notifications and only allow yourself to use only the apps that help you study!
Here is a list of useful organization and studying applications.
- myHomework
- Flashcards Deluxe
- SparkNotes
- StudyBlue
- Evernote
- Popplet
- Stay On Task (Android only)
- 30/30 (iOS only)