How to study for college? 7 psychological tips

When it comes to learning a subject, simply memorizing by reading notes is not the solution.

Studying for university, especially for those who do not have much experience in a faculty, can be quite a challenge. It is clear that some careers are more difficult than others, but one thing is clear: preparing for university exams and keeping up to date with university syllabi can be a challenge. and keeping up to date with the syllabus given in university subjects requires more preparation college subjects requires more preparation than you would expect in a regular school or high school.

So... how do we study for college? How can we adopt those study habits that will allow us to adapt well to the pace of work and learning expected of us in a college? Let's take a look.

How to study for college and learn week by week.

When adapting to the typical type of study at a university, keep the following guidelines and key ideas in mind.

1. Autonomy is what matters

The first thing you need to know is that in the university world the person directly involved in the learning process is clearly the individual student.. If in high schools the inexperience of the students had to be compensated by a very proactive attitude on the part of the teachers, this logic no longer exists in the university. Students must do what is necessary to keep up with the contents taught in class, without expecting help from anyone (especially since in most faculties there are far more students than professors).

So, get rid of the idea that behind you there is a lifeguard network of people willing to prevent you from having to repeat subjects or pay again to take exams. It doesn't work that way anymore.

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2. Face-to-face classes are an important resource

Many people think that classes are simply that place you have to attend so that they don't get a grade deduction for attendance. However, there is something that makes these spaces very valuable: they serve to raise questions..

There is a habit of seeing questions in class as an oddity, something that only slows down the pace of the syllabus. However, they are the essence of what it means to teach. The question session serves to fill in the gaps of knowledge between what is explained and what is learned by analyzing what the teachers say. It is normal for such knowledge gaps to appear, so something must be done to prevent them from continuing to exist.

Raising a question out loud is something that can save minutes or even hours of searching through notes, checking bibliographies, consulting other students, etc.

3. Create a calendar

You should avoid by all means make your study time depend on the dates when you have exams to review your notes a few days before.

To do this, create calendars from the first week of the semester, locate the days of the exams, and create a first draft of your study sessions for each subject. Keeping in mind that in order to optimize your study time you should study time for all subjects at least once a week, divide those sessions so that you will be able to study at least once a week.you should divide those sessions so that you have a balanced schedule.

4. Create outlines

Do not just read what it says in books, photocopies and notes that you have taken as you listened to what was said in class. Write your own versions of these contents. This may seem like an unnecessary "extra" task, since it theoretically implies duplicating something that already exists in other visual media, but in reality it is not. The reason is very simple: doing so requires you to express in your own words a piece of content and make it form a coherent "whole".

For example, doing this activity with the content to be learned will allow you to detect in time those "gaps" of knowledge and those apparent contradictions that otherwise would only come to your knowledge at the time of taking the exam or shortly before. In addition, it will make studying much easier, because you will having all the content in one place and as part of a structured text in a way that makes sense to you. in a way that makes sense to you makes things much easier.

On the other hand, the fact of rewriting the contents of the syllabus makes you memorize them much better than you would by simply reading, since it makes the information better fixed in your memory.

5. If you can, study in a group

Group study sessions are an ideal way to detect doubts in time that otherwise would not have occurred to you. Thanks to these sessions, those difficult questions that would have fallen off your radar if you had just studied on your own, without the help of others, are centralized. Just make sure you study with people who have a similar level of knowledge as you, or it could be a frustrating experience.or it could be a frustrating experience.

6. Go through imaginary exams

At the end of each study session, ask yourself questions from an imaginary exam. That way, questions will appear in a controlled environment, and if you don't know them, you can go to the sources. The challenging ones you will learn well simply because they will have put you through a moment of stress and uncertainty, so you will remember them in the future. you will remember them in the future.. Emotional memory is very powerful.

7. Create rest breaks

No study session of more than one hour is bearable. The idea, in order to perform well, is that you take short breaks of about ten minutes every three quarters of an hour or so. every three quarters of an hour, approximately. That way you will be resting in a proper way, preparing you to face the next study session having full faculties.