1.3: Study Smarter Not Harder

College and university can be challenging when it comes to allocating time for studying and completing assignments.

Study Tips

Below is a list of 10 study tips that will help get you through those long study sessions.^[1]

• The Pomodoro Technique. Set a timer for 25 minutes and dive into your work. When the timer rings, you’ve earned a five-minute break. Repeat four times, then take a longer break. This study method is proven to boost focus and help prevent study fatigue.
• Block distracting apps. Set your phone to Do Not Disturb to silence notifications.
• Learn by chunking. Break down complex information into bite-sized pieces, or “chunks”. Focus on one section at a time. This makes information more manageable and less intimidating, allowing your brain to form patterns and connections, enhancing recall and understanding.
• Study after exercising. Physical activity increases blood flow, delivering more oxygen and nutrients to your brain. This can enhance cognitive functions like memory, problem-solving, and attention.
• Listen to recorded lectures at 2x speed. After attending your lectures, make it a habit to re-listen to them at double speed if there are recordings available. This technique helps reinforce what you’ve already heard and allows you to cover more material in less time.
• Reward yourself. Incorporating a reward system into your study routine can significantly enhance your motivation and productivity.
• Study with all of the lights on. A well-lit study environment can significantly impact your ability to concentrate and stay alert. Natural light, in particular, is associated with improved energy levels and mood.
• Study in groups. If you’re studying the same information as the people around you, it can actually help deepen your understanding of the material. You’ll be able to share your different perspectives, quiz each other on the material, and fill in gaps in each other’s knowledge.
• Teach to learn. They say the best way to deeply learn anything is to teach it to someone else. Many colleges and universities have tutoring positions for students who have achieved high grades in their courses.  Check with your institution’s library or student services department. You can teach a colleague about course concepts while you make some extra money at the same time.
• Use mnemonics. Mnemonics are memory aids that help you recall complex information through simple associations, like acronyms, rhymes, or visual imagery. They transform hard-to-remember data into a format that’s easier to remember.

SQ4R Reading System

A technique you might apply to reduce reading time is the SQ4R reading system. The SQ4R reading system is designed to help you study your textbook and apply reading and notetaking skills. The letters in SQ4R stand for five steps: survey, question, read, reflect, recite, and review. These steps will help you gain more from what you read and be better prepared for quizzes and exams. In other words, you will maximize the return on your time investment for reading!^[2]

Learning Style

It is important for you to identify your learning style.  Which way do you learn best?  Do you learn best by doing, by observing, by listening, by watching, or through a combination of these things?  Learning styles refers to the different methods of learning or understanding new information, the way a person takes in, understands, expresses and remembers information. There are four predominant learning styles: Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, and Kinaesthetic. Often, colleges and universities have assessments you can take that will help you identify your learning style as well as your strengths and abilities. The majority of people have one dominant learning style, although most people benefit from several different learning styles. When learning is presented in a way that is consistent with someone’s dominant learning style, they tend to learn more quickly and with less frustration.

When you are enrolled in a course and you find you are struggling to learn the concepts, you may need to make a plan to help yourself. For example, if the professor is teaching in lecture format and you need more examples and videos, then after class, you might search online for videos or examples that will help you understand what the professor’s lecture was about.  You might also ask questions and request additional exercises or a meeting with the professor, or maybe, you would do better by obtaining a tutor. You need to be proactive in your education and feel free to discuss issues that you may have with the professor, your academic advisor and your peers.  You may be able to form a learning-buddy relationship with a peer, which may help you both understand the lessons better.

Student Support

Identify what support the institution provides for students and utilize what you need to be successful.  Ask yourself these questions:

• Does the school provide tutors at no charge?
• Does the school provide help with math beyond the classroom?
• Does the school offer extra English tutoring?
• Does the school have an Accessibility Office that can provide students with accommodations?
• Does the school loan laptops or other learning devices to students?
• Does the school allow access to library resources when off campus?
• Does the library provide lessons to students on researching, citing, and using the library resources?
• Does the student association have clubs that might help students study?
• Does the school provide study spaces?
• Does the student association provide information on housing, used books, clothing, food, etc.?
• Does the school provide open educational learning resources?
• Does the school offer student scholarships?
• Does the library have learning strategists who can help with time management, stress management, and study tips?

You will need to find answers to your many questions. Use the college or university website and read about student experience, student support, and student services that the institution provides. When you are in need of support, ask for it.  Your academic advisor, international advisor, professor, program coordinator, and service areas at the college or university can help.  Everyone working at the college or university is there to support your learning journey and provide you with the tools and resources you need to be successful.

Grades

One of the most important things you need to understand in each course is the course outline (also referred to as the course syllabus).  You need to review this in the first week of class and ask your professor questions if you do not understand how you will be graded.  The course outline should provide you with a breakdown of what you can expect to be taught in the course, what the course learning outcomes (sometimes called objectives) are, and how you will be assessed on your learning.  Often, assessment due dates are provided in advance, and you should record these in a calendar and always, always, work ahead of due dates.  When you leave off completing assignments until the night before they are due, you are not preparing for success. So many things may go wrong, such as a technology failure, or you may find you do not understand some of the instructions, or you may find the assignment is much more time-consuming than you had thought.  You should always plan ahead and be prepared for things that may go wrong. Plan to have your assignments completed a day or two ahead of the due date; that way, if your technology does fail, you will be able to use another device, or if you don’t understand some instructions, then you have time to clarify these with the professor.

It is important to keep your grades as high as you can. You do this by planning your time well, keeping a calendar and working ahead of due dates, asking questions when you need help, and completing the learning tasks you are assigned. When students do the readings assigned, watch the videos assigned, and attend and participate in class, they often do very well in achieving high grades. Your GPA score (Grade Point Average) is a cumulation of the grades across the courses throughout your program. To graduate, your institution will have a minimum GPA score you must achieve, and should you wish to further your education in the future, your GPA score may factor into whether or not you will be accepted for enrollment at specific colleges or universities.  If you decide in the future to study another program at a different institution, you may want to apply for transfer credit, and most colleges and universities have minimum grade requirements for accepting transfer credits (this is often a C grade, but check with the institution). Many schools calculate GPAs differently, but you can usually find this information on the institution’s website.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is a commitment to acting with honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility in academic work and studies. A few questions to ask yourself when completing school assignments include the following.

• Can I ask a friend to share their work with me?
• Can I hire someone to do the work for me?
• Can I get a generative AI such as ChatGPT to do the work for me?
• Can I use an assignment mill such as Course Hero to find the assignment answer posted by someone else?

The answer to each of these questions is generally NO!

Generative AI

With that said, there may be occasions when your professor allows you to use generative AI to help you research or get started with a writing assignment. When you do use ChatGPT or other AI tools, you will need to cite them as a source of information in the same way you would cite a website, video, book, or other source of information you may use.  Remember that you may only use the resources permitted by the professor to aid you in completing assignments. Otherwise, your work may be identified as plagiarized or in breach of the academic integrity policy.  Be sure you familiarize yourself with the institution’s policies, and specifically the academic integrity policy.

Avoid Plagiarism

Plagiarism is when you use someone else’s work and submit it as your own. This includes ideas, images, content, or any other type of creative work. To avoid plagiarism and academic integrity violations, you must properly cite all sources. Plagiarism is considered unethical, and Conestoga College has strict policies against it. Always follow the citation rules provided by your professors.

Formatting Standards

Formatting standards for documentation are common in higher education as well as in the workplace. Most companies have documentation standards that apply to all correspondence that leaves the company, such as business letters, reports, flyers, brochures, marketing media, website media, and social media. Businesses work hard to portray a certain image to the public, and they want that image to be consistent across all their communication channels. A citation style dictates the information necessary for a citation and how the information is ordered, as well as punctuation and other formatting. Popular citation styles such as APA and MLA provide guidelines to authors on how to format documents for professionalism, for crediting other people’s words and ideas via citations and references to avoid plagiarism, and for describing other people using inclusive, bias-free language.

APA Formatting Style

Most college and university libraries provide style guides for APA, MLA and other document formats. The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) Citation Chart provides examples of various citations for both in-text and reference list citations. Additional details are available at the OWL Purdue website.  Review Purdue OWL APA Formatting Guidelines, the Conestoga College library guides, and the library guides from CSUDH, which are also very comprehensive.

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Media Attributions

“Man, writing, laptop image” by Stocksnap, used under the Pixabay license.

“Teacher Caught His Student Cheating During an Exam” by RDNE Stock project, used under the Pexels license.