On the 12 days of Christmas,
WhichCollege gave to me…
12 tips to help me study.
Study Tips for Christmas: Well, it’s been a challenging first academic term in college. We’ve spent most of our time at home, in front of our computer screens, adjusting to new ways of learning and finding different ways to socialise.
As we prepare for our Christmas holidays, we can take some time out to be with our families and enjoy a well deserved break.
Not a complete break though! It’s important that you look ahead to the couple of weeks off and not let it slip by without maintaining your learning efforts and solidifying all the hard work you’ve put in over the last few months.
The temperature is dropping outside so it’s important that you don’t let your mind get cold. Keep it revved up and warm by sticking to your studies over the Christmas period.
You’ll thank yourself tomorrow for the work you do today.
Study Tips for Christmas
So below we take a quick look at 12 ways to boost your study over Christmas:
1. Work Little and Often
Don’t feel the pressure to do marathon study sessions in an attempt to fill your brain. The result is you’ll feel exhausted plus it’s too much information to take in. Also it’ll put you off studying as it becomes a long dreary slog! It’s far better for you to focus on getting a little bit done each day or a couple of times a day.
2. Plan
There are many things that can divert your time away from your studies over the Christmas period. So open your calendar and mark what appointments you have arranged over the holidays. This way you can then work around them and start to mark your study times to ensure that nothing gets in the way of your daily study routine.
3. Prioritise
Prioritise what you want to learn. Don’t just dive head first into notes. Ask yourself what is it I want to come out of this study session knowing. Identify the end point. Set the target. That way you are far more likely to come out the other side with a sense of achievement than if you simply read through randomly selected notes for no specific reason.
4. Be Organised
If you know what it is you want to study then you can make sure you have it all to hand. There’s no point wasting your time looking for this and trying to find that. Have your lecture notes organised and your references to hand. Ensure that your secondary reading list is prepared in advance. There’s no point having an hour’s study session constantly interrupted by trying to find notes and journal links and the like!
5. Don’t Get distracted
It’s easy to get distracted over the holidays and suddenly you’ve missed a session. Yes there may be lots going on but it’s time to put the blinkers on and focus on your work. Someone once told me that whenever she had to study she always ended up with a clean house. Don’t get distracted. Stick to the plan. You can do the washing up later and now is not the time to clean skirting boards.
6. Today Is Gonna Be The Day
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him”, according to Charles Dickens. We love to plan something in our heads and then put it off. Well this time… Don’t! Get on with it immediately. When is your first term ending? Is it the 18th? Well then start your study plan for the following week – Monday 21st December (Yes, you can take the weekend off!) You’ll be amazed at how short the time really is between semesters and if you don’t get started immediately the days will quickly disappear into a black Christmas hole.
7. Social Media Detox
Put away that phone. Want to hear a fact? Over half of us spent up to nine hours a day on our phones during the first lockdown, according to new research by Huawei. What! No way. No matter how long you yourself spend on the phone, you need to put it away for the time you dedicate to study over the holidays. What’s Victoria Adeyinka up to on Tik Tok? Not while you’re studying. Find out later.
8. Eat Well & Exercise
Yes. You are going to overindulge. It’s Christmas as Slade keep reminding us. But it shouldn’t be everyday despite all the wishes. Be sure to eat healthily around your Christmas Day binge! Get that healthy brain food into you. And don’t forget to get out and about. Make a point of going on those daily walks and filling your lungs with fresh air or getting back to the gym and getting your pump on. Whatever it is – get moving!
9. Reach Out
Organise a study group over the break. Checking in with classmates is a great way to stay motivated and stick to those study sessions. Maybe pick a particular topic and plan a discussion session to prep for.
10. Look Forward
It doesn’t all have to be about revision. Take some time over the holidays to look ahead to what’s on the syllabus for the next semester. Familiarise yourself with a couple of the modules. It’s always an advantage when you begin a new course topic to have a little prior knowledge of what lies ahead so that it’s not all completely new to you. It can also help you develop your knowledge and understanding at a quicker and deeper level.
11. Look Back
Christmas is a great time to get your hands on past exam papers and get a sense of where you should be at the end of the year. Not only are they a great tool for revision and suggesting areas for improvement, they are also great indicators of the type of learning outcomes courses expect from students.
12. Don’t Worry. Be Happy.
Yes it’s important to study. But it’s equally if not more important to not stress about it. Take time out and think about why you are doing what you are doing. Congratulate yourself on coming through a challenging and difficult period unlike any other first-term student has ever faced. Feel good about yourself and feel good about the future.
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Study Tips for Christmas
Study Tips for Christmas
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