Study Smarter, not Harder

Each semester, I have at least one student conference that goes something like this: Student A enters my office, upset about his first essay grade.  We discuss what went wrong, and I give Student A tips for avoiding these issues in the next essay.  Noticing that this student still seems upset, I ask, “Do you think you can make these changes in the next essay?”
Invariably, the student answers, “Yes.  I guess I just don’t understand how I got such a low grade when I put so much time into this essay.”
The idea that the amount of time one puts into studying and school work directly relates to the grades that person will earn is not uncommon among students.  Unfortunately, it’s also not true.
Investing lots of time into studying will not necessarily earn you high grades! 
Why not? 
You have to study and work on the right things – not everything – in order to earn the best grades in college.
So how can you ensure that you use the study time you have wisely and avoid overworking yourself?  Here’s a few suggestions:

1. Time management: as a student, you should have designated times for completing your homework and studying.  Use this time wisely – avoid distractions like Facebook and text messaging when doing your work.  Staying focused will keep you from having to pull all-nighters and losing hours of valuable sleep.
2. Selective reading: In some classes, you will find that you have more reading than you can manage.  How do you deal with these classes?  Read selectively – which means that you focus on the most important sections of the reading.  You should get a sense of what your professors view as important from in-class discussions and the syllabus.  Also, you can look for reputable study guides in your school’s library or on the web (just be careful to choose good websites authored by knowledgeable writers).  These will help you to understand the material in a fraction of the time.
3. Know what you’ll be graded on: students often make the mistake of trying to do everything perfectly.  Realistically, this is impossible – and unnecessary.  You only need to do really well on the items that make up the largest portion of your course grade.  Check your course syllabus to find out what the most important pieces of your grade are.  Then, schedule some time with your professor to discuss how to succeed on these assignments.
4. Talk to your professors: the value of keeping an open dialogue with your professors cannot be overstated.  True, some faculty prefer not to see their students outside of the classroom, but most are more than willing to sit down with students and discuss the classes they teach.  Take advantage of your professor’s office hours to track your progress in the course and determine what you need to do to succeed.
5. Refer to graded work: if your professor lets you keep your graded tests/quizzes/essays, be sure to refer to these when preparing for the next big assignment.  They should give you a sense of the areas that you struggled on and where you can make improvements.  If you are not allowed to keep graded work, make mental notes of what you were marked down on when given the opportunity to view these assignments in class or during your professor’s office hours. 
6. Study groups: working in groups can maximize the amount of material you can cover in a short amount of time.  But study groups are only successful when they actually study.  Too often, they become social hour and nothing gets accomplished.  If you can find a group of dedicated classmates that you work well with, try divvying up study material and get together to teach each other the course material in preparation for your big test.  Just save the socializing for after the studying!

In general, you shouldn’t have to kill yourself to make it through college – even if you have a tough work schedule or lots of personal responsibilities on top of your school work.  Try to study smarter – not harder – you might be surprised at the results.