Written by Jenny
It’s the last week of formal classes for the year! Congratulations on making it this far with us! Your commitment and hard work in your studies should be commended.
With only one last push before the home run for the year, we want to make sure that you have the support and tools you need to prepare for your exams because we believe in you.
First, everyone learns differently. For me, I need to use different learning styles for different times – visual, auditory, physical and social learner.
There are times in the day where reading is the best way for me to focus. Other times in the day, videos are the best way for me to learn and focus. When I am bored of studying, I find doing problem-solving questions help me to draw my attention back to studying and when I’m stuck, I would go hunting for ways to solve it – I happen to learn stuff as a side benefit.
When I need good visual explanations for some basic concepts, I use Crash Course. Some playlists that you can check out:
Here are some more tips to get you studying harder smarter:
Study tips from a serial procrastinator…
Study apps and websites – cos you know you need them
3. Distraction-blockers like StayFocusd and Self-Control
We all know that you spend 3 hours on Facebook/Youtube/Tumblr and only 15 minutes on that assignment before we call it quits for the night. Cut down on the distractions and focus on what needs to be done using blockers such as Self-Control (for Mac users) and StayFocusd (for Google Chrome users). We like to use this during SWOTVAC period when you really need to focus on cramming for those exams…. but why not initiate proper self control during the semester and develop some good productive habits?
4. Work in chunks to maximise concentration: use Focus Booster or Pomodoro
We all work best in short focused bursts. There’s studies out there saying that we’re pretty bad multitaskers and our attention spans are now disconcertingly less than a fish’s, due to the smartphone era. Which means we need to find our own way of focusing on that pesky assignment. Break down the assignment into doable sections and then use the Pomodoro technique (25 mins study; 5 min break) to zoom through that work.
