5 New Year’s Study Tips for Students

Kickstart Your Study Goals for 2014

Santa Claus has come and gone for another year! Hopefully you’ve had a nice and relaxing Christmas break and are ready to jump back in to studying for 2014. The start of a new school/college term is a great opportunity to plan a strategy to make sure your study goals last all year.

Get on the road to exam success from the start with these 5 study tips:

Study Tip #1

Create A Study Plan: The most important thing you can do to improve your study this year is to create a study plan. Having a study plan is the single most important aspect of a good study routine as it boosts your study motivation on a regular basis. Nothing else you do will have such positive results on your studying ability as the act of creating a study plan.  Having a good study plan in place magnifies the benefits of all the work you do thereafter.

Need motivation to study? Prepare, plan and manage your study with our free Study Planner tool.

Study Tip #2

Be Realistic: Having a good study plan in place is all well and good but if it isn’t realistic then there is little point. If your study plan only allocates 4 hours for sleep and two minutes and twenty-three seconds to get to class, then you should reassess how you are approaching things. The study goals you set need to be realistic in terms of how much you can study plus what you can achieve.

You should plan to improve your exam results but you must realise that increasing your results by even one grade is a massive achievement. So if you got a C last year, aim for a B this year. It’s a complex juggling act between what you want to achieve, what you can achieve, the time you have and the amount of work you are willing to put in.

Study Tip #3

Mark Key Dates: Class tests, assignment due dates, presentations, exams, holidays – these are all important dates you should keep track off. You should plan your study and set your goals in relation to these dates. If you have an end of term exam in June then you should work backwards from that date and mark what you need to have covered and by what date.

Once you have your presentations, assignments and essays mapped out on your study planner, this will make it easier for you to foresee any busy periods that are on the horizon which you can plan your study time around.

Study Tip #4

Understand What Motivates You: Understanding what motivates you to study may be the deciding factor for maintaining your energy and sticking to your study plans. The New Year can instill people with that intense fire to change aspects of their lives but after a few weeks this can peter away and you can fall back into old routines. If you take the time to understand what motivates you then you can use this throughout the year.

What motivates you will be different for everyone. For some lucky people the desire to achieve good results is enough but others may be motivated by the fact they want to go to a particular University or study a particular course and need to achieve certain results in order to do so. Others may be motivated by more abstract ideas such as ‘studying what interests them’ or mastering a particular skill. Whatever it is that motivates you doesn’t  really matter, what is important is understanding what does and harnessing this whenever you feel your energy wane.

Study Tip #5

Don’t Burnout: Even if you adopt the study tips above, it’s still possible to burnout. That is why it is important to always make time for your family and friends. It’s also vital that you make time for yourself, time to just relax and to partake in your hobbies.

For your study plan to be realistic it must facilitate your ability to live a full life. Getting the balance right is important. Having a plan in place will also allow you to enjoy your free time more. You’ll no longer suddenly panic and break out in a cold sweat because you will know what you have covered and what you still have to cover (and importantly when you will be covering it!).

The most important tip we can give you is to have the right attitude. If you remain positive and believe that you can conquer your fears you can do it!

Take these study tips with you into the New Year and prepare for your exams in the right way. Take them on board and this time next year you’ll be celebrating your exam success!