Studying In College

When you’re in college, you’re going to be studying. A lot. You may have seen a movie or TV show where the college students are just sitting in class watching the professor write on the board. They may or may not have notebooks in front of them but one thing is for sure. They’re sitting their glassy-eyed, slumped in their chairs and maybe even talking with friends. That is not the reality of college courses. How it’s actually going to look is you’re going to be hunched over your desk, barely looking at the board unless the teacher is writing on it and you’re going to be writing or typing notes furiously. Don’t think that the note taking is going to be just in class. When you’re back in your dorm room or in between classes, you’re going to be doing even more studying and note taking. Yes, your hands are going to hurt. After a while you will get used to it though. And at some point in your college years, you’re going to start recognizing what is important to write down and what isn’t. You’ll learn ways of taking notes that allow you to write less without losing any content. You won’t know when it will happen – it just will. One day you’re still furiously taking notes, the next you’re writing abbreviations or page numbers in your college textbook.

Use the time in between classes for studying. The time in between classes (if you have time in between) is valuable. You’re already in the main part of campus where the class buildings, computer labs, and library are. You can even grab a bite in the college café to eat while studying (you’ll also learn multi-tasking in college). Use the resources you have around you while you’re out on campus. It will allow you more time to hang out with friends later or simply relax and play games, watch TV or read for fun.

Don’t highlight everything. This may sound like a silly tip for studying, but it’s important! When you’re reading through your college textbook for homework, you may find passages that are important and you decide to highlight the passages. And of course passages in college textbooks are incredibly long, not nice and short like in novels. As you read, try to pick out what is extremely important. When you first start college, you may think that the whole thing is important and you highlight furiously. Trust me – don’t highlight furiously! Here’s a little story – when I was first in college, I would highlight a lot of information in books. Then I would go to study or write an essay later and know what happened? Many pages in a row highlighted. Top to bottom, mind you. That meant I had to re-read those pages to pick out what the important information was. Multiple that times 4 or more classes and that means a lot of wasted time. Study smart and pick out what is important at the beginning.

Invest in Sticky Note Flags or Post It Notes. A lot of them. Considering you’re avoiding highlighting whole pages, you’re going to want little flags to point out important information or pages. Same thing with highlighting – only point out what you absolutely need. Otherwise instead of a book that’s highlighted top to bottom of every page, you’re going to have a book that has a sticky flag on every page. And yes, I’ve done this studying mistake as well. Try writing an essay and really wanting to include a certain passage that you know you’ve marked with a sticky flag and having to jump to each point where there’s a sticky flag to reread it and see if it’s the one you’re looking for. More time wasted and more frustration. Use time studying wisely. It may mean an extra minute or two when you are in the process of reading, but it’s worth it in the end when you don’t have to reread multiple pages and hunt through a book. Regular Post-It notes also come in handy. You can write on these and place them on the page you’re writing notes about. It will save you writing super small in the margins. Think your margins are large enough to write in or think that you write really tiny already and your handwriting is the best handwriting in the world? When you go to study later, you still won’t be able to read it. Invest in Post-It Notes. Trust me.