I recently recorded a live webinar revealing six of my most powerful (and immediately useful) study skills.  Just click the image below to watch it.  Premium Members Only! Use this link to watch the webinar. You’ll have to log in to see it.

Revised and Updated

Study Skills To Help You Study Smarter, Not Harder!

You're Studying Too Much!

I’ve found that most of the students who have taken my study skills seminar, GRE prep course, or SAT prep course aren’t studying too little; they’re studying too much in the wrong way!

That’s why I’m making this study skills mini-course freely available to any student who wants to waste less time and energy while getting better grades!

In this mini-course (emailed right to your inbox), you will learn…

• The easy recipe for doing mini-study sessions that will put an end to all-nighters forever!
• The simple secret to making your study sessions easier, shorter, and more effective than ever!
• Why you’re probably taking too many notes and how it’s actually forcing you to study more.
• Why not reading your assigned readings is sometimes the best thing you can do with them.
• How I used a 3,000 year old memory trick to make the highest exam grade in the class (with only thirty minutes studying)!
• Why sleeping late and talking to your friends can actually help you get better grades. See the research for yourself!

Bottom Line: Don’t waste another minute studying the old-fashioned way. Sign up now!
I’ll email you the first lesson of my 5 part mini-course for free.

Part One — See the other parts at the bottom of this post.

Choose the answer below that best completes the sentence:

Aaaargh! I’ve been through this ____________ 50 frakkin times, and I still can’t remember it all!

A. Asinine text book chapter

B. Drool-inducing stack of flash cards

C. Styooopid vocab list

D. Bummunching set of notes

E. All of the above

(more…)

How far in advance should I start studying for a test?

You should be studying for the test at the beginning of the semester.  Every time you read a text or take notes in class, be thinking, “how will this look on the test?”.  Here’s what an optimal study schedule will look like. Study those notes…

• After each class, study the notes for that class within fifteen minutes of walking out the door, maybe while walking (more…)

What is a good way to study that will be fast and efficient?

Take notes in class and on your readings using some of the note taking techniques I’ve talked about before.  Study from those notes using this method, championed by Cal Newport…

• Take a page of notes and cover up everything but the key ideas written in the margins.
• Look at the first key idea and, out loud, give a lecture on that particular point to an imaginary class (or to your study group).  Take pains to explain thoroughly and give examples.  Imagine that the students are question-happy fifth graders. That means explain in (more…)

One distraction after another can really tank your study time and short-circuit your concentration.  Here’s a slick trick to grow some mondo focus chops.

Your brain is like a big puppy.  Puppies know that when you get out the leash the walk around the block is soon to follow.

“A walk! Joy!”

Your brain thrives on similar cues to pattern its behavior. Examples…

• Just thinking of (more…)

I loathed and detested study groups when I was a sniveling college noob. Study groups tossed together by professors like a scholar salad were usually total wastes! There was always somebody(s) who was irritating and/or distracting, and the group frittered away more time trying to keep them on task than we did actually studying. My rule of thumb was…

15 minutes studying by my lonesome = 1 hr studying with study group

so

study groups = waste o’ time

But they don’t have time be jurassic-scale time leeches. (more…)

Rank these professions in order of average IQ, highest to lowest (just give it your best guess).

• Neurosurgeon
• Nuclear physicist
• Professor of Law
• New York cab driver

Yeah, yeah. I know what you’re thinking. There are probably some real idiots in those first three professions, and there are probably some certifiable egg-heads driving cabs. But that ain’t the way to bet.

Now rank them again, this time in order of which will know the best route from Central Park to LaGuardia at 5pm on a Friday afternoon.

This time, I’m betting on the cabbie.

Even your relative dullards in the world of cab-driving have (more…)

Virginia Tech has put together a simple form to help you quickly evaluate your prime study locations. Take sixty seconds to see how they stack up. You might find it’s time for a grade-saving change.

Study Environment Analysis Interactive Form

Ironing a nice fold into a shirt or some pants requires heat, pressure, and repetition. First you get the iron hot, then, applying steady pressure, you go over that crease again and again until the fold is pressed into the fabric.

Could you get the fold ironed in without the heat and pressure? Sure, but it would take forever.

Getting memories ironed into our brains is a similar process. Going over the memory again and again will eventually work, but we can make the process much faster and more effective by using the mental equivalent of heat and pressure–what psychologists refer to as elaboration.

Some ways you can use elaboration…

• Ask yourself questions about what you are learning. Where have I heard this before? What does it remind me of? Is this true? How will this be tested?
• Turn verbal information into visual information by drawing a picture, chart or diagram.
• Turn visual information into verbal information by describing what you see.
• Relate the information to something you already know. That Mussolini character reminds me a lot of my hockey coach. (All of these are integrated directly into my note taking system as discussed on the free study skills video and in my ebook).
• Act it out. For example, put on a play about cellular mitosis using tube socks in the starring roles. (I suggest you shut and lock your door before doing this since it tends to cause roommates to give you funny looks and hide their socks.)
• Set it to music. My daughter’s kindergarten teacher used this to great effect, teaching her students a song to help them recall the spelling of every color they learned (the downside is that my daughter now hums under her breath when asked to spell “yellow.”) I’ve had friends who used this method to memorize extremely complex processes, though, so don’t discount it.

Here’s how I use this to really learn complex texts I’m reading…Please log in or sign up to read the rest of this content. Find out more.