What are some useful tips to promote better studying habits?

Looney Troons

Looney Troons

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To preface, I would like to earn a particular certification. I could likely take the test and pass due to related work experience, but the examination in question is quite difficult, expensive, and companies are not inclined to reimburse failure. To be blunt, the thought of the exam makes me anxious.

Given that this certification directly correlates to my job, I find it less than desirable to want to study when relieved of my duties. What are some useful tips to promote better studying habits?
 
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Chewing gum as a mental cue for concentration/focus

I'm not kidding. Pop a stick of mint gum whenever it's time to get down to brass tacks.
 
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Looney Troons said:
To preface, I would like to earn a particular certification. I could likely take the test and pass due to related work experience, but the examination in question is quite difficult, expensive, and companies are not inclined to reimburse failure. To be blunt, the thought of the exam makes me anxious.

Given that this certification directly correlates to my job, I find it less than desirable to want to study when relieved of my duties. What are some useful tips to promote better studying habits?
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Exercise before studies boosts Brain-derived neurotrophic factor
 
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Condense what you need to learn, trim all the fat, there's always plenty of it.
Since you're already familiar with the topic, you don't need everything, you can use the bare minimum and your brain will be able to expand on that.
Write down the condensed version, make sure you do it on paper.
Writing things down with your hand on a piece of paper makes you remember them a lot more than if you were to type them.
Write it down several times just in case, make sure you write it down in the same exact way, even down to the way it's arranged on the page, it makes your brain remember it even more.

I managed to get academic scholarship in university thanks to studying like this.
 
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Wasteland Ranger said:
Chewing gum as a mental cue for concentration/focus

I'm not kidding. Pop a stick of mint gum whenever it's time to get down to brass tacks.
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I've heard that this also works for listening to a certain genre of music whenever it's studying time.
 
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Stop masturbating.
As long as your a dude, at least, it seemed to work on that episode of Seinfeld.
 
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I will be all done with my eddymahcashun in December 2022.

I am doing a program that is basically new and review from my community college curriculum. People ranted and raved that the program that I am doing is hard, but to be honest it is quite boring. I may be learning some new things, but most information is review from community college. I am ready to take my state board exam the day before graduation.

First, listen to your professor. If they say to study the review questions in the textbook, study those. Your professor is there to help you. If they say do not memorize these, please do not.

What helped me was to study often in short, frequent spurts. I may study for a while, then internet for awhile. I love to study in the evening before bed or at work when I have nothing better to do.

Just skim the textbook. The lectures are where most of the information is from. The textbook is a great resource when doing homework.

It helps me to study if I am listening to music or listening to Dave Ramsey rant so that I am not tempted to use my phone.

If you have learning objectives, please follow those carefully.

Study past quizzes and exams for the final.

Read the syllabus and rubrics. Keep referring to those again during the class. What is expected out of you during this class/program. In my program, they are citation nazis. The citations must be perfect or else I get points knocked off.

Remember your deadlines. Chip away at assignments and homework a little each day.

When it comes to school, I only took a day off a week not to study or do homework.

Remember all of this is worth it in the end. You will get a very nice raise for that piece of paper. You want that good job, not a minimum wage job where they treat you like a sped kid.
 
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Things when I did my degree years ago.

-Skim the chapter before reading multiple times in this order:
1) whole chapter to see how long it is
2) look to see if there are any questions in the chapter (or questions given for the class), if none then ask yourself some questions.
3) anything in bold or charts/graphs
4) read the 1st and last sentence of every paragraph
5) read it properly
Basically it is a way to repeat scan several times and the questions help you focus on what the author or course provider thinks is important enough to answer. It seems longer to do but in the long run is better. Allows you to figure out what part is important and what is not.

-Use visual shit. Mind map, flash cards, whatever to help you repeat and remember stuff. Doesn't work for everything but it helps. Condensed notes work much better than garbage with fluff that you won't read anyways. Avoid copying shit word for word, because otherwise why bother, just read from the book.

-Study/work "pomodoro style". You can download an app or use an online timer. Basically you fully focus on work/studying for 25 mins, then break for 5 mins, get up, stretch, do something else. Repeat this for 4 reps, then take a longer break of 30 to 40 mins. Then repeat. Obviously if you are in the zone adjust timing a bit, but the goal is to make sure you don't burn out and it makes studying regimental. You know that in 2 hours you will at the minimum get 1 hour 40 mins of full focus work/study, which is far better than doing hard work for an hour, losing concentration for most of it, then bullshitting around for 2 hours because you "worked hard".

-Do the fucking assignments early and spaced. I always preferred doing something like "write 500 words every day" than try and do it last minute and pulling an all nighter. You do 1 pomodoro set and you will have probably done more than 500 words and done well. Next thing you know it's done in 4 days or so.

-Exam, read the fucking all questions before jumping in. Don't panic if you see something that's looks like shit. Mark it down and come back it later. Your brain will try and figure it out subconsciously while you are doing others. Also, never cram the night before, you will blank (speaking from experience), by that stage you either know it or not.

-Take one day off a week where you skim notes/quickly review the week at most. Go out, watch videos, have sex, whatever you do, don't do any serious work for that day.
 
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Chocola said:
what do you mean by that? is it dangerous to take GABA for a long time?
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Gamma-amniobutyric acid (GABA) is a natural neurotransmitter, and you can get it on amazon. I've taken a few times, but not for long durations. It probably would be dangerous like any other supplement if you took too high a dosage. Better option than SSRI's.
 
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Looney Troons said:
To preface, I would like to earn a particular certification. I could likely take the test and pass due to related work experience, but the examination in question is quite difficult, expensive, and companies are not inclined to reimburse failure. To be blunt, the thought of the exam makes me anxious.

Given that this certification directly correlates to my job, I find it less than desirable to want to study when relieved of my duties. What are some useful tips to promote better studying habits?
Click to expand...
If you don't mind powerleveling a little, what is the subject? I'm asking because Anki is a great tool for learning certain things. But I can't see it being particularly useful in a subject like English or something where you probably wont need to memorize specific facts.

Now it's autistic as fuck, but I also use youtubers who do study streams. Twitch has some too. It's just a livestream lasting X hours, with breaks. It keeps me focused because my mentality is if they are sitting down for X hours, then I can also sit down and study alongside them for that long. It just helps me with procrastination.
 
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