College is on its way or already here and with it comes: sleep deprivation.

Sure, it makes sense that the more you sleep the better your grades might be, but has anyone actually looked at this from a research perspective? You bet!

Back in 2001 a group of researchers looked at the GPAs of college students who were: short sleepers (less than six hours); average sleepers (six to eight hours); and long sleepers (eight-plus hours) and … the long sleepers had the highest GPAs.

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To be honest, even if you’re a good study-er, you’ve probably not really taken time to think about what it is that makes your study skills so much better than your friends’.  It’s just one of those things where some students seem to naturally grasp what’s needed to study effectively, without even thinking about what they’re doing differently.  However, when an outsider looks at the person with excellent study skills and compares him or her to others, there are certain common elements.  Here is a look at the traits that can change you from being a good study-er to being a great one. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s 6 p.m. and you’re behind in your studies.  Tests and papers are coming up, so that means it’s not to hit the books and study, study, study.  But then you hit a few roadblocks.  You look around the house and can’t find a pen.  Then you need some scratch paper, and can’t find it.  Fifteen minutes later you find some and sit down to begin.  Now where’s that calculator?  Is it in the other room?  Did your roommate or brother take it?  After you find it, you notice that the batteries are dead.  Now it’s time to find extra batteries. And on and on it goes. Read the rest of this entry »

Regardless of whether you’re getting ready to start college, graduate school, or an external degree program, your success depends in large part on what you do during the first two weeks. These first days will set the stage for the rest of the semester and perhaps the year.  So make sure you take care of the following 7 priorities: Read the rest of this entry »

The study “strategy” for most students is the same:  Wait until the night before an assignment is due or before a test to hit the books and study.  Unfortunately, for most of us, that strategy eventually catches up and hits our grades—hard.

Good news:  There’s a better way!  Here’s a systematic approach that in 30 days can turn you into a master student.  We’ll start with week 1. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re struggling in one of your classes, or even many of them, that’s no reflection on your intelligence level.  It doesn’t even mean that you’re not working hard and trying to study for your classes. It might just mean that you’re learning style is different from how the instructor teaches. Read the rest of this entry »

No matter how easy or hard the class, no matter the topic of the course, you can’t get away from them: Lists are everywhere.  Whether you’re required to memorize the Elements, the systems in the human body, or the capitals of the fifty United States, any time you take tests, you can expect to have to memorize long lists.

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The last thing that you probably need when you’re at college is another place to “hang out.”  Most students have plenty of those.  What you need, instead, is a good place to study.  Let’s look at how you can take the small area you have in your dorm and turn it into an effective study zone. Read the rest of this entry »

The SQ3R study method is a technique that goes back decades, and possibly more than a century.  Still, there always seem to be those who have never heard of this classic way of studying your textbooks.  So for that group of people, let’s talk about it. Read the rest of this entry »

Reading a textbook is not like reading a novel.  A whole different kind of reading has to be  employed to really understand the material.  To study your books effectively and be ready for your class exams, try the following suggestions.

Ÿ  Don’t just read it; re-read it. You’ll find that the material often gets easier to understand the second time around.  Many people complain that they get confused by textbooks when they read it the first time.  Don’t stress out if you don’t think you’ve grasped it all that first time.  Just take a short rest and then go back to read it again.  And if you still don’t get it, read it a third time. Read the rest of this entry »