Top 5 Studying Tips and Tricks

I’ve been homeschooled most of my life. And I love it. It’s taught me a lot about having a solid work ethic when it comes to school.

I am now a senior in high school, but I’m taking dual credit classes at my community college. I was really nervous about it at first, but surprisingly the jump from homeschool to college wasn’t so bad. Plus, I got a system down.

Here are my top 5 tips on studying.

1. Cell Control

Let’s just – as a generation – face the truth. Phones are distracting. Unless you have super-ultra-crazy self-control powers, one little “ding” or “bleep” (or in my case, “medieval horn noise”) and all of a sudden you’re out of your studying zone and into the consuming world of technology. There’s always a new app to look at, a new social media platform to check. So will we ever get things done?

The best way to stop yourself from using your phone is by using your phone. Hear me out on this.

There’s this app called “Forest”. Really modern and simple, which I love. You “plant a tree”, and it sets a 25 minute timer. During that time span, you can’t leave the app or your tree will die. You can also set it to more than 25 minutes by planting multiple trees, and soon you’ll have a “forest”. It’s a great way to stop myself from doing anything on my phone for a while so I can concentrate on whatever it is I’m doing. There are also a lot of other apps similar to this one, but this is my favorite.

2. Mynoise.net

I know a lot of us love to study with music in the background. It’s just more fun that way. But sadly, science says it’s not the best way to study. It’s distracting. You can’t retain as much information while listening to music.

But with no music, my mind tends to wander off. So what do I do? There’s this website called mynoise.net, and it is a life-saver. It contains a whole bunch of different background sounds that are great substitutes for regular music.

The noises are stimulating but not too distracting. There’s so many fun ones to choose from. You can hear the sound of rain, the ocean, a waterfall, even things like a cat purring or a cafe restaurant. You can even adjust each sound to your preference. It’s just awesome. Click on the picture above for the link!

3. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

Repetition is probably the best way to study. Writing out something over and over again is a good way to remember things. Also, recording yourself reading your notes aloud and listening to them over and over does wonders. I just use my voice memos app.

4. Make Your Notes Good

You probably know, I’m an artist. I like things that look nice. I like to try and make my notes look decent. In a way, it kind of motivates me to look at my notes. Is that weird? Oh well.

Anyway, I like to write my notes like I’m writing a textbook. I write as if I have a friend who is taking a test and all he has to study with is my notebook. I also go crazy with sticky notes and color code my highlighting 😉

Things you can do in your notes that help:

• highlight
• underline
• doodle and illustrate
• make mind maps
• make lists!

5. Plan and Strategize

I. Love. My. Student. Planner. I think it’s just so important to stay organized. To stay on top of deadlines and everything.

I am really forgetful, so writing down all my deadlines and things I need to read is super important. That way every time I have time to study, I know exactly what I need to do for each subject.

Oh, and here’s a picture of my backpack. I like to think it’s secretly cow-printed.

That’s all for now, folks! Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment or share… you know….