Back in September, when I first started at Simon Fraser University, I knew that I wanted to do well in school and had a growing passion to succeed. However, coming from Secondary School, with relatively average study habits and more-so an attitude of just getting by through attending class and remembering what I could for a test, I struggled with the transition (apparently I’m not alone…) Now, after learning more about how to increase my odds at being successful, I’ve found that knowing what to prioritize, taking a break and managing your time are fundamental to developing better study habits and subsequently, better grades. In turn, this truly makes one’s University experience more enjoyable and of course, rewarding. You can compare these ideas to a great blog post here by Daniel Wong.

Every month, week and day, I feel as if there is something I need to complete in one of my classes. Whether it’s a small business quiz or a research paper due a month from now, there is always something to be working on. My advice to someone who feels as if they struggle with this or is going to be entering University, is to prioritize what is most important. Inc. has a good article on this, which you can read here. Sure, it may sound simple, but a lot of time I hear my friends say how they started studying for a midterm a night before, or how they wrote a paper in a day to meet a deadline. I am not criticizing these people because I’m guilty of the same mistakes, but rather, I’m envious of their ability to accomplish so much in so little time, as for me, it just isn’t effective. So when I say prioritize what is most important, I weigh assignments by due date, their weight in overall grade of class, and ease of assignment. Although the idea of prioritizing may seem simple or obvious, prioritizing combined with managing your time has proven to be very important for managing stress and academics. Further, I’ve noticed that making time for school actually provides time for things outside of academics, as I know how much and how frequently I can allocate time to certain things or events.

Taking a break is the easiest part of studying, yet so many people neglect the idea of relaxing or putting down the books once they’ve started. I have definitely had my moments of feeling like I’ve over procrastinated and am in too deep to take a break, however, it is still valuable to stop and relax. Much like building muscle at the gym, you need to rest for strength, and in looking for gains, you have to pamper yourself sometimes. This doesn’t mean to study for an hour then go out and hang with friends until later that night, but rather to have balance between studying and talking to a friend or watching a short TV show. Moderation is key, but to make this schedule work, periods of studying should be focused, void of distractions and lengthy enough to make them worthwhile.  

Finally, in order to be successful, one should work on managing their time. Time management is probably the first piece of advice any student would give to another. That feeling of procrastination does not come into effect if you can manage and make the most of your time. For me, I find the best way to manage my time is to visually see it. I use a whiteboard calendar from Staples to see my assignments. I find this helps because if I know that I have a midterm in two weeks, I am going to give myself the most days possible to study by efficiently and effectively completing the assignments within the time before a midterm. Here are 17 Time Management Strategies worth checking out. Once again, this may seem very simple, but there is no worse feeling than walking out of an exam and thinking that you could have studied better. It’s a horrible regret. Want some research on how horrible regret is? Read this (2016) article in Frontiers Psychology. You’ll regret it.

These are just some study habits and tips that I feel have modestly worked for me, but that said, I am certainly learning to improve in all aspects of what I suggest. I want to avoid preaching the correct way to study because by no means am I a perfect student, but what works for me could do the same for someone else. I’m not that guy who scores the highest on an exam, or who thinks they know it all, but maybe you can relate to someone like me, and if needing a reminder or simple suggestion to help achieve better grades, try what’s worked for me. With all that being said, I need to wrap this post up for the week because I need to begin studying for my Economics final because I did horrible on the midterm.