5 Highly Effective Study Habits for Students
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Every parent wants to see their children succeed academically in school, however the road to straight-A’s isn’t always an easy one. Many of us fall victim to the notion that some people are just born smart. But research shows otherwise.
Katie O’Brien and Hunter Maats co-authors of The Straight-A Conspiracy explain that “Straight-A students are not born--they're made”. They go on to say that “Every student in America is capable of getting the grades he or she wants without all the stress. Managing your emotions, putting away the distractions, and creating a straightforward study plan that makes learning faster and more fun are far easier than most students and parents believe them to be.”
We believe that success in the classroom is essentially attainable for all. But it doesn’t come without the effort and consistency of strong study habits. We’ve rounded up 5 highly effective study habits that can be used by students of all ages. Why only 5? Because we’re all about studying smarter, not harder.
Before we get into our list of study habits, I think it’s important to point out that while getting good grades has its benefits, it’s the lifelong skills like discipline, perseverance, and determination that will give children advantages in life that go beyond school. As much as we enjoy straight-A’s, our hope is to prepare our students in school for their future in the real world.
Ok, let’s dive into these 5 highly effective study habits.
1. Study in increments
The key to mastering good study habits is to manage your time well. Procrastination and cramming are detrimental to student success because it robs the mind of being able to store information learned in their long term memory and it negatively affects health.
Procrastinators that pull an all-nighter before an exam are harming their bodies over time from the stress, anxiety, and lack of sleep.
Research shows that “While [cramming] might be successful in the short-term, when the exam is over, forgetting what you crammed will be very rapid. Better conditions of learning — such as spacing your studying for an exam instead of cramming — actually appear to create difficulties for the learner, slowing the rate of apparent learning, but in reality they often optimize long-term retention and transfer.”
A better structure would be to break down your study workload into sections. Create goals or mini milestones and work with your child to put these down on a schedule. Help them space out their study schedule into small time frames either daily, every other day, or experiment as you go, just make sure it’s regular.
For example, you have a child that understands and performs decently in Geometry. Help them create a study schedule of 15 minutes of Geometry practice every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday leading up to their chapter exam.
Also, let’s not forget to encourage your child to take frequent study breaks! A 10-15 minutes brain break can benefit their productivity and help them stay focused throughout their study session.
Creating smaller milestones can offset the stress and burden of a big workload and make it feel more manageable for your child to study in smaller increments. This not only boosts their confidence but helps them reach their goal and not throw in the towel.
Allowing periodic review of new information will help your child log information into their long-term memory so they are not forgetting key facts or details on their exams.
2. Clarify your questions
Academic success requires complete and thorough preparation, which means your child needs to know their stuff. If something doesn’t make sense, ask the teacher for clarification.
Many students, unfortunately, don’t utilize their teachers enough. Sometimes they are intimidated by looking dumb or they’re too shy to approach their teacher with questions.
Teachers are meant to help students succeed in class and they are almost always available to answer questions after class or by email.
Sometimes the most successful students in class are the ones that are asking all the questions and staying afterwards to better understand the material.
If you ever notice your child is not quite understanding something or struggling in a particular subject, have them approach their teacher for help. Asking clarification questions not only helps students with their studies, but it shows teachers that this child cares about this class and is putting in the effort to learn.
3. Create a distraction-free zone
This study habit is one of the most obvious tips, however, it’s also one that kids and teens struggle with the most. Technology has become one of the largest distractions when it comes to study time, however it is almost inseparable to get school work done without it nowadays. A Princeton Review study reported, “Smartphones are used for schoolwork more than parents realize – 97% of students use an electronic device (laptop, computer, tablet, smartphone) outside of class to help them study and do school work, and 79% of students use an electronic device in class to help them study and do school work.”
So while it can get distracting if your child is receiving TikTok notifications on their phone or the iPad holds all their favorite gaming apps, there are ways to mitigate media distractions from technology.
Parents can utilize the Freedom app to block websites and apps on the phone, tablet or computer for specific days/times to allow your child a distraction-free period on their devices. You can also set time blocks for study time and media time so your kids can feel like they are getting their personal down time with technology that’s not homework related.
Distractions are not only related to technology. Students need an optimal study space that has physical boundaries from other distractions like TV or noisy siblings. Ideally, a well lit room with a desk and a comfortable chair is a great place to start. Also, making sure your child’s mind and body are in the right space for studying. Ask questions like… Do they need an after school snack before doing homework? Are they tired from staring at the computer for too long? Did they get enough sleep the night before? These are all valid concerns that need to be addressed and will help create for a more focused study time.
4. Practice, practice, practice
This study habit goes hand in hand with studying in increments. As your child starts grouping their study times and spreading it out over a span of days or weeks, they will get more opportunities to practice new information. The more repetition they have with new learned information will help them store it into memory.
Simply reviewing one time before an exam is not the best way to prepare. Encourage your child to interact with you as a study partner. You can even make it fun and get creative with the way you quiz them. You can practice with them by making a game with silly consequences, like getting tickled under your foot or not having to do the dishes after dinner.
You can also help them practice with a verbal quiz or have your child teach you the information.
Having a partner to practice with and regurgitate learned information is a great strategy to make sure they have a good understanding of the material.
5. Utilize textbook reading strategies
Older children or students in Jr. High and High School can benefit greatly from learning how to effectively read and study a textbook. Textbook reading can sometimes be dry and unappealing and therefore students can become disengaged and lose interest.
Education Corner provides an in-depth guide to best practices to use before, during and after reading from a textbook that helps students maximize comprehension and retain information.
Before you begin reading, it’s important to preview or scan the information and then form some questions about the text. They give this example: “if the heading is "Root causes of the American civil war," then your question may be "What were the root causes that lead to the American civil war?"
As you read the text, you need to reflect and highlight. Reflecting includes asking yourself what you are learning from the headers, bolded words and answered questions that you are picking up in the text. Highlighting important concepts and key words helps organize your study material and helps provide a visual aid for learning.
Lastly, after you’ve finished reading, you need to recount and review the information for retention.
We hope you find these 5 study habits useful for your child’s studies. For more study content check out the posts below.
