My Strategies to Succeed in College
Studying is a skill of its own that isn’t taught, and here are some tools that might help you study more effectively, efficiently, and give you more free time.
Here’s a strange paradox about college students: we spend hours studying every day, but many of us probably haven’t even taken an hour to think about how to actually study.
I worked with many college students at my summer job, and one pattern I kept hearing was that in college, you actually need to learn how to learn.
Nowhere in school is this taught. We use systems that we make up along the way, and once school starts, we’re so overwhelmed with work that we jump right into the grind, blind to the fact that there might be better ways to conduct our studies. I’ve observed that the same systems that worked in high school fail miserably in college.
What if I told you that there are ways that allow you to study less than you probably are now? To be more efficient and effective with your time? To never cram or pull an all-nighter?
While doing well in college classes requires some curiosity and intellectual power, most results come from implementing effective study strategies and systems. One realization I had in my first year of college is that I’m really good at school. Part of that is because I love to learn, but I also went to a rigorous high school that prepared me so well for college, to the point where General Chemistry 1 was a breeze for me.
But here’s the thing: I know many people who barely passed that class.
What is it that I do differently?
It all comes down to having a system in place to organize everything, studying effectively, and taking good notes. I’ve had five years to truly experiment with studying, and here are some of best study tools that I use.
🗂️ Organization: How to (Usually) Never Forget To Do Anything
1. Use the calendar app. During first week of classes, run through each syllabus and enter dates, times, and locations for your exams and major assignments. Most importantly, ensure that for each of these events, you set an alert 7-10 days before. Why? So you can be well prepared for the exam (see "Studying").
2. Use a weekly planner. I like to be able to see the week ahead, and every Sunday I’ll review my class schedules and write out the biggest due dates and assignments from each. I’ll even use red pen to ensure that my highest priorities stand out in my planner.
3. For small, easily-forgettable tasks like remembering to ask a question in class or taking out chicken, use the reminders app and remind yourself to do something at the appropriate time in the future.
4. Whenever a professor mentions a new assignment or task, immediately put this in your planner or reminders app. If you don’t, you probably will forget about it! Trying to remember it during class and all day is mentally fatiguing, stressful, and distracting.
5. Every night, write out the top 3-5 priorities you want to get done tomorrow. While there are probably many more things to get done, be content with completing these and move everything else back. If you correctly prioritize assignments, two things will happen:
You’ll get into a routine of doing the same assignments at the same times each week
You might even get ahead in your classes
📓 Taking Good Notes
1. Pay very close attention to what the professor emphasizes. Highlight or make notes about these things, because they will be on the test! This includes:
Topics they say that many students in the past have struggled with or made mistakes on
Things that they repeat or verbally emphasize
2. After 1-2 days, we forget about 75% of what we’ve learned, and most of that happens within the first hour after learning! Get your first learning rep in by reviewing your class notes the same day after a lecture. If there’s anything you’re unsure of, go to office hours or email your professor that same week. Staying on top of these small, important details will ensure that by the time the test comes, you’ve mastered the content and can apply it to new scenarios. Taking 5-10 minutes to do this after each lecture could save you hours of studying and confusion.
3. Download the lecture powerpoint on your computer. Skim it before class. Instead of writing everything down, just make notes and highlights on things that aren’t on the slides, nuances that the professor emphasizes, and the most important, easily-forgettable information (which might come from the slides).
📚 Studying
1. Study in small, intense sessions to maximize your efficiency and capitalize on being mentally fresh. Instead of doing all of your Achieve or problem set on the night that it’s due, start working on it 4-7 days out, in small work bouts. Achieve is notorious for being a pain in the ass, so this also gives you the time to email or ask your professor well before the assignment is due.
2. When studying, do not read and reread your notes—that is a complete waste of time. Do practice tests, summarize information in your own words, create novel scenarios that you haven’t seen on a practice test, and use more active learning strategies.
3. When are you most alert and focused? Get your work done then.
4. Make flashcards. Quizlet is fine, but Anki is downright extraordinary because you can memorize lots of information quickly and retain it over a longer period of time. For more information on Anki, check out my new notes here.
5. Unless working on problem sets or group projects, study and do most of your work alone. If necessary, study in small groups of no more than three people. “Studying” in larger groups can be really fun, but it's highly unproductive.
6. Start preparing for exams 7-10 days in advance. These numbers are somewhat arbitrary, but I’ve found that studying 30 minutes per night for 10 days is far superior to cramming 5 hours of studying (the equivalent amount) in the last couple of days before the exam.
Of course, this list is far from comprehensive. If you liked this, I bet you’ll like these notes about how we can optimize our workspace to maximize focus and productivity, through the lens of neuroscience.
To view this on my website, click here.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Kevin Jubbal and Med School Insiders for completely changing the way I study.
Cover Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash