study skills

The Study Schedule: Your Plan to Defeat Procrastination

We have arrived at that point in the semester when students are looking stressed, and are scrambling to catch up with their workload. Many find themselves losing the battle with procrastination, and end up cramming right before an important exam. Their performance is off, and they can’t catch their breath.

Create a Study Schedule

Creating and sticking to a study schedule is easy to do and will help you win your battle against procrastination. Your schedule will help you stay on top of your work, rather than having to drop everything to study for an exam. It will help reduce your stress and improve your long-term retention of information.

Creating a study schedule is easier when you can actually see time. Use this Weekly Schedule to create your schedule, starting with what I call the non-negotiables. These are things you can’t control: your class/lab/clinic and work schedules. Your non-negotiables tend to stay fairly constant from week to week, making them easy to schedule around.

Second, add the things you can control. Start with your sleep. What time do you want to go to bed? Bed time is an individual decision, but what is most important is that you get enough sleep. Try to make sure you are getting between 6 – 8 hours per night. You can’t learn if you are exhausted, so scheduling your sleep is very important. Next, schedule family time. Again, this is different for every individual, but it is important that both you and your family know when it’s family time. They can better understand your need for study time if they know they have time with you. Another important thing to schedule is time for physical activity. It doesn’t really matter what you do – take a walk, go to a yoga class, play basketball with friends – just make sure you are doing something. Your memory and your stress level will thank you.

Finally, schedule blocks of time to study. The number of hours needed will vary by College and by program, but all will require concentrated study time. Try to schedule study blocks every day. You may want to take a day off – like Friday, when you are exhausted at the end of the week – but otherwise, plan to study every day. This will spread your studying out over time, and give you the opportunity to process new information within 24 hours of its presentation. You will be able to stay on top of the work and still have time for reviewing and connecting the new information with what you learned previously. Planned daily study time is the best weapon you have to fight procrastination.

Make the Most of your Study Schedule

You can get more out of your study schedule if you plan what you will study during those hours. First, work on the new material from the day. Take your notes and turn the new information into a series of practice questions you can use to review. Work through the practice questions then add them to your other materials for review. Second, make time daily to review the practice questions, charts, diagrams, and other materials you’ve created, so you are constantly reviewing and re-testing yourself. Be sure you use the study time you’ve blocked. Don’t skip a study session! That opens the door and ushers procrastination right into the room!

Creating and sticking to a study schedule is the first step in defeating procrastination and improving your academic performance. If you want some help creating your own study schedule or need tips on how to study more effectively, the Learning Specialists in the Student Success Center would be happy to work with you. Just complete and submit the Academic Coaching Request form, and we will contact you to set up a meeting.

Record Audio Study Notes

Everyone knows someone can see a movie or listen to an album once and then recite the dialogue or lyrics from memory. Auditory or Aural learners prefer to learn information by listening, rather than reading. One helpful way to study is to consolidate and summarize information, then record the summaries and listen to them. This is easy to do if you have an audio recording app on your phone.

Most cell phones come with an voice recorder already installed, and for most students, it will have enough features to meet their needs. For example, iPhones come with Voice Memo, which allow recording without time limits. But there are many other apps, free and paid, available for both iOS and Android devices. Below are four of the most popular.

Dictaphone lets you dictate notes and memos, as well as record lectures, seminars, and meetings. There is no limit to recording length, and you can upload recordings to Dropbox, SoundCloud, Google, Evernote, Skydrive, and Box. The recorder will pause automatically for incoming calls, and allows you to sort recordings by name, date, or size. iOS and Android. Free

Audio Memos is an easy to use audio recorder full of powerful features. There is no limit on recording length or number of recordings, and it allows for background recordings while you multitask. Sync your recordings with iCloud to access anywhere. It will pause automatically for incoming calls, and email your recordings to others. In-app purchases allow you to extend the features. Upload to Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, or Evernote, add pictures to your recordings, and edit them. Use it in lectures, meetings, and study sessions. iOS and Android. $

Voice Recorder HD is a full featured voice recorder app with unlimited recording time and background and Bluetooth recording. Email your recordings or upload to Dropbox. It will sync with iCloud and is sharable through AirDrop between two iOS devices. The app is easy to use and is good for students who need to manage multiple recordings. iOS and Android. $

Just Press Record is a simple, professional audio recorder with unlimited recording time, speech to text transcription, easy sharing, and more. Recordings are organized by date, are searchable, and sync instantly via iCloud to all your devices. It will record in the background while to use other apps, allowing you to multitask. iOS only. $$

If listening to information helps you better remember it, consider using an audio recorder app on your cell phone or tablet to make recordings you can listen to during your study sessions.

3-Step Study Groups

Have you ever seen those products that advertise a “quick, new way” to get something done? Maybe it’s a new cooking tool or lawn care item. It seems life-changing in the ad, but when you get it home, it’s a lot of random parts and some vague diagrams. Good luck putting it together! Study groups can be the same way. It’s easy for someone on the outside to say, “Just make a study group,” when (in reality) study groups can be a little messy when you’re trying to figure out how to put everything together.

There are some good reasons to form a study group. First, explaining a concept to other students tells you how well you understand the material. If you can share it in your own words, you understand it pretty well. Second, when you study in a group, you benefit from the viewpoints of the other members, making sure you aren’t missing any vital information. Finally, reviewing with others gives you the opportunity to test one another without using your notes.

Fortunately, creating study groups doesn’t have to be complicated. Just follow these three steps.

Step 1: Talk to your Classmates

Look for the students who seem dependable, whether it’s through posting thoughtful answers to online discussion questions or paying attention in class. Ask them if they’d like to study together sometime. There, it’s done! You’ve completed Step 1.

Step 2: Prepare for the Study Group

This is the step that many people overlook, but it can help the group work well. As soon as you decide to study together, also take some time to decide the following:

When and where your group will meet,
What each person will come prepared to talk about,
How much time you will spend total.

Setting expectations upfront takes the guesswork out of forming a study group, and clear expectations are a great way to avoid frustrations later.

Step 3: Meet with the Group

Follow through with the plan that you made in Step 2. If someone decides not to show up, work with the people who do show up. Cover the topics that you discussed in your plan, and use any extra time to cover new topics or review something complicated.

These three steps move forming study groups from being complicated and messy to being clear and helpful for everyone.

You can also make an appointment using the Academic Coaching Request to meet with a Learning Specialist who will be happy to talk to you about study skills and forming study groups.

Reflect: How are you doing?

At this point, most students are about halfway to mid-term exams, making it a good time to look at how the semester is going. How is your academic performance? Have you set yourself up for success? What about your study skills and test scores? If you aren’t where you hoped to be, it’s probably a good idea to reflect on how well what you are doing is working for you.

Realistic Goals

Goals provide structure to your academic life. They help you focus on what’s important and ignore other distractions. Are you on track to meet your semester goals? If you are, then you probably don’t need to change anything. If not, then you will probably want to consider some changes.

Are your goals achievable? If not, you’ll need to revise them. If, on reflection, your goals are realistic, ask yourself if you you have planned adequately to achieve them. You may need to change some of your habits, like how you manage your time, or try sharpening your study skills. Often, our goals require us to change how we work to achieve them.

Maybe you haven’t consciously set goals for yourself. If that’s the case, I strongly encourage you to make the time to do so. Goal setting should be part of your academic preparation. Without specific and realistic goals, you will find yourself making random decisions you may regret. You can find more information about goals setting on our post, Setting Academic Goals.

Organization and Time Management

I know I’ve said this repeatedly, but the fact is that success at UAMS is dependent on organization and time management. It’s hard to keep up with multiple courses, projects, exams, and family, friends and, often, a job. Are you actively managing your time? Do you know where you are in every assignment? You may need to change the way you manage your time. Learn more by reading Time Management and Organize and Manage Your Time on this blog. You can also find resources to help you under the Time Management tab on our Learning Support page.

Study Skills

Successful students have good study skills. Even if you’ve never had to study much before, you will need strong study habits to meet the rigorous academic requirements at UAMS. Reflect on what you have been doing. Do you feel you are well prepared for your exams? Maybe it’s time to improve how you study and build your skills. You can read more in our posts Sharpen Your Study Skills and Step Up Your Study Skills. You can find more resources under the Study Skills tab on the Learning Support page.

Test-Taking

Test-taking skills begin before the test. In fact, the time to begin preparing for a test is the first day of class. Good test-takers use strategies before, during, and after a test. Reflect on your test performance. If it’s not what you hoped, consider the following.

Before the Test: One of the leading causes of low test scores and anxiety is poor preparation. Students often wait until the last minute to study, and then cram all night trying to catch up. They arrive at the test exhausted and overwhelmed. If they try to replace rest with caffeine they might begin to feel sick, which will make it even harder to perform well. Take a look at how you prepare, including your studying, note-taking, and time management. Making necessary changes will help you improve your academic performance.

During the Test: Even the best prepared students can make errors during the test. They may lose track of time, spend too long on one question, or second guess themselves and change answers that were correct. You may need to look at how you are taking your test, and correct some of your habits.

After the Test: What you do after the test is very important to your success. Good test-takers examine their test results to find the source of their errors. Were you missing the information? Maybe you left questions blank. Analyzing your errors can help you take steps to avoid making them on your next test.

There are more helpful resources under the Testing tab on the Learning Support page.

Make the time to reflect. How is your academic performance? Now is the time to change the things that aren’t working for you. Use our resources to help you improve your time management, study skills, and test taking skills. If you want more personalized help, complete and submit the Academic Coaching Request to make an appointment with a Learning Specialist to find the strategies that will work best for you.

Step Up Your Study Skills

Good study skills are a requirement for student success. Even if you’ve never had to study much before, you will need strong study habits to meet the rigorous requirements at UAMS. Don’t wait until you are falling behind to step up your study skills. Take control and start now.

Step Up Your Preparation

Stepping up begins before a class session. Students with the best study skills prepare for their class meetings. Review your class syllabus and schedule so that you know what the instructor plans to cover during the class session. Before each class, skim materials like your textbook to get an overview of the content. Read the learning objectives, headings and subheadings, and pay attention to charts and graphs. You will be ready for the explanations, details, and facts from your instructor if you have a general idea of how the content is connected. Your notes from the class sessions will be more meaningful if you take the time to prepare.

Step Up your Participation

Stepping up your participation means you are completely engaged in your learning. Start with active listening. Don’t sit passively and let information drift over you. Take notes and ask questions. Use short phrases and abbreviations but be careful that what you write is meaningful, because you will need to understand it later when you review. If you ask a question, make sure you can restate the answer in your notes so that you fully understand it. If you took the time to preview the material for the class session, you will already understand the general outline and organization of the material which should make note-taking more efficient.

Step Up Your Review Process

Step up by including multiple opportunities for reviewing your notes and materials. Plan to review your notes within 24 hours of your class session. This will allow you to check that you understood the material presented, and that your notes are clear and complete. Mark anything in your notes that you don’t understand and then go back and find the information you missed.

Schedule study sessions on the days your classes don’t meet, and if possible, schedule some review time with other students in your classes. Review your notes, re-read portions of your textbooks, summarize information in your own words, and test yourself by creating practice questions. Explain the material to another student to check how well you understand what you learned.

Step Up Your Support

The Student Success Center’s website has resources to help you improve your study skills, including information on how you learn and retain information, reading strategies, study strategies, and test taking skills. For more information, visit the Learning Support page. If you want more personalized help, use the Academic Coaching Request to make an appointment with a Learning Specialist to find the strategies that will work best for you.

You need good study skills to be successful at UAMS. Stepping up your preparation, participation, and review process will help make the hours you spend studying more productive and increase your academic achievement.

Board Prep with BoardVitals

UAMS students preparing for USMLE, NCLEX, and NDBE exams have access to BoardVitals, a high-quality, effective, and powerful board prep tool available through the UAMS Library. Effective June 30th, the Library is adding new test banks, including PANCE, NAPLEX, Dental Hygiene, Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, and Nursing exams, including Psychiatric-Mental Health NP, Critical Care Nursing, and FNP.

As a result, more UAMS students will have access to board review questions from leading medical publishers, research institutions, and clinicians. Users can identify their strengths and weaknesses and create customized practice tests. You get explanations with each answer and links to references and additional sources.

Learn more about Board Vitals on the UAMS Library website, or contact the Library reference department at 501-686-6734, or at https://uams.libwizard.com/f/question.

Conquer Compressed Courses

Taking a course during the summer is a good way to catch up on prerequisite classes or to move closer to completing your program. There are a number of advantages to summer courses. For example, they often have fewer students, meaning you have more opportunity to connect with your instructor and peers.

Compressed Courses

Summer courses are compressed. They don’t last as long as a full semester, so they may meet more often during the week or have longer class sessions. They tend to be more intense, in order to cover all the material they present in a full semester. This means that students have a heavier class workload over a shorter period of time. Maximizing your success in compressed courses requires a particular set of strategies. Here are four tips to help you successfully complete your compressed course work this summer.

Focus on the goal. Why are you taking a summer course? Is it is prerequisite that you need to complete for your degree? Are you trying to raise your GPA? Are you trying to finish your program early? Focusing on your goal will help you stay motivated and improve your success.
Manage your time carefully. Compressed courses offer unique time management challenges. Because the course length is shorter, you need to dedicate more time daily for class work and personal study. Create a realistic study schedule and stick to it. Consider minimizing other time commitments during the course. Compressed courses are shorter, so your intense study schedule won’t last forever.
Try to stay ahead of the deadlines. Compressed courses don’t allow time for procrastination. Try to complete assignments and projects early, so you don’t get caught when life gets crazy. Remember, the course will be over soon, so stay on task.
Connect with your peers in the course. Your classmates are in this with you! Form a study group and review the material together. You will learn from one another and get support in your study sessions. Online students can meet in groups too, using free tools like Stoodle or Google Hangouts.

There are a lot of advantages to taking compressed courses during the summer. Focusing your goals, managing your time, staying ahead of deadlines, and connecting with your peers will help you maximize your success in your compressed courses this summer.

Online Flashcards with Flippity.net

Every student knows that there are some things in every class that you simply have to memorize and keep at the front of your mind. Although flashcards are an old fashioned idea, they are still one of the best methods for memorizing information, and technology has given them a new look and feel. One easy tool for creating flashcards is Flippity.net.

Flippity Flashcards?

Flippity.net is a free Google Sheets conversion tool for creating online flashcards from Google spreadsheets. You can create your own set, or collaborate with others to develop and share a study or review flashcard deck. Like all the apps in your Google Drive, collaboration and sharing is easy. The flashcards must be made on a laptop or desktop computer, but one published they can be access on your mobile device through your Google Drive account.

Flippity is easy to use. First, you will need to make sure you are logged into your Google account. Then, just go to Flippity.net and follow the step-by-step instructions. You can include images and video in your flashcards, but you will need to have a URL for each picture or video you wish to upload. You cannot include images that are saved on your computer, only those that are stored online. The video below demonstrates how easy it is to use Flippity to create flashcards.

Watch this video on YouTube

Flippity is a great tool that can be used for all types of content/classes. I especially like that the flashcard decks can be created collaboratively, so that groups of students can work together and maximize their study time. Just remember to complete the flashcard spreadsheet before you publish it in order to make sure everything is correct. If you are looking for a quick, easy, and free online flashcard creator to help improve your study sessions, give Flippity.net a try.

Sharpen Your Study Skills

Good study skills are a requirement for student success. Even if you’ve never had to study much before, you will need strong study habits to meet the rigorous academic requirements at UAMS. Don’t wait until you are falling behind to develop your study skills. Take control and start now.

Take Time to Prepare

Study skills begin before a class session. Students with the best study skills plan for their class meetings. Review your class syllabus and schedule so that you know what content the instructor plans to cover during the class session. Before each class, skim materials like your textbook to get an organizational snapshot of the content. Read the learning objectives, headings and subheadings, and pay attention to charts and graphs. You will be much more open to receiving explanations, details, and facts from your instructor if you have a general understanding of how the topics are connected. Your notes from the class sessions will be more meaningful if you take the time to prepare.

Be Active and Participate in Class

Good study skills are rooted in how actively you listen and participate in your classes. To maximize your ability to retain and understand information, you need to be completely engaged in your learning. This begins with being an active listener. Don’t sit passively and let information drift over you. Instead, take notes and ask questions. Don’t try to write every word. Use short phrases and abbreviations but be careful that what you write is meaningful, because you will need to understand it later when you review your notes and materials. If you ask a question, make sure you can restate it in your notes so that you fully understand it. If you took the time to preview the material for the class session, you will already understand the general outline and organization of the material your instructor is covering which should make note-taking more efficient.

Plan for Reviewing

Good study skills include multiple opportunities for reviewing your notes and materials. Plan to review your notes the same day as your class session, or at least within 24 hours. Reviewing your notes shortly after the class session will allow you to check that you understood the material presented, and that your notes are clear and complete. Mark anything in your notes that you don’t understand. Then you can go back to your resources and find the information you need.

In addition to the same-day review, you will want to schedule study sessions on the days your classes don’t meet, like on the weekends. Use that time to review your notes and materials, re-read portions of your textbooks, summarize information in your own works, make connections between newer and older information, and test yourself through self-questioning and practice questions. Try to schedule some review time with other students in your classes. Explaining the material to another student is an excellent check of how well you understand what you learned. Listening to a peer’s explanation can give you a new perspective on the content as well.

Helpful Resources

You need good study skills to be academically successful at UAMS. Taking time to prepare, being active and participating in class, and planning for reviewing your notes and materials will help make the hours you spend studying more productive and increase your academic achievement.

References

Texas A & M Health Science Center, http://medicine.tamhsc.edu/academic-support/active-learning-techniques/managing-class-content.html

University of Waterloo, http://uwaterloo.ca/counselling-services/curve-forgetting

6 Tips for Student Success

The start of a new academic year is filled with a sense of new beginnings, possibilities, and optimism. It’s a fresh start. It’s about what you can achieve as you strive toward academic excellence. It’s a chance to take control of your intellectual development and drive your professional success.

Now is the time to set yourself up for academic success. Here are six tips to help you start out on the right path.

1. Set Your Academic Goals

If goal setting isn’t part of your academic preparation, it should be. Goals provide structure in your academic life. Setting and prioritizing goals helps you to focus on what is most important and ignore other distractions. Without specific and realistic goals, you’ll find yourself making random decisions you may regret.

Set goals that are time-specific and measurable, so you will know when you have accomplished what you set out to do. Make sure you re-evaluate your goals on a regular basis. If things aren’t working, ask yourself what you need to change. Do you have to change your behavior? Would your goal be more achievable if you broke it down into smaller chunks? Is your goal realistic? Determining the answer to these questions will get you closer to achieving your goals.

2.Check the Technology Requirements

Several of the colleges and programs at UAMS require students to have a laptop. Therefore it is wise to understand what the technical requirements are before you start. Make sure your computer will work with Blackboard and any other online tools your instructor uses. You don’t want to waste time solving compatibility problems after your courses have started. Check the 2015 Laptop Buying Guide for more information.

3. Master the Online Tools

Access your courses in Blackboard as soon as they are available. Instructors set up their Blackboard sites differently, so it is a good idea to navigate around the site to learn how things are organized and where information is stored. Many instructors use online tools in their courses, so take the time to learn what they are and become familiar with how they work. That way, you aren’t trying to learn new tools when deadlines become pressing.

4. Employ Time Management Tools

Success at UAMS is dependent on time management. You have multiple courses, projects, exams, study groups, and deadlines, and keeping up with them can seem like a part-time job. To help you manage it all, get a calendar and combine it with a To Do list. I prefer to use an online calendar and to-do app that will sync across all my devices, but if you prefer a hard-copy calendar and to-do list, that’s fine too.

As soon as you can, download the schedules for all your courses and put all your assignments, projects, tests, and deadlines for all your courses on your calendar. This will show you when you are going to be the busiest. Break down your big projects into manageable chunks and work on them a little at a time so you aren’t overwhelmed when the deadline is upon you. Keep tasks on a To Do list and check them off when complete. Having a good system for your calendar and tasks will keep you organized and make your academic life much easier.

5. Sharpen Your Study Skills

Good study skills are a requirement for student success at UAMS. Even if you’ve never had to study much before, you will need strong study habits to meet the rigorous academic requirements at UAMS. Don’t wait until you are falling behind to develop you study skills. Take control and start now!

Preview what you have to do and prioritize your workload. Don’t try to cram for tests. Instead, spread your studying out over time. Organize the information and test yourself. Find someone from class to review with before a test. Try to select someone who doesn’t understand the material as well as you. Answering their questions will strengthen your own understanding.

6. Know Where to Find Help

At some point during your time at UAMS, you may need help. Become familiar with all the services that UAMS and the Student Success Center have to offer. You might find yourself falling behind in your courses or struggling to pass a class. Don’t wait to seek help. Go get the support you need right away.

Over the next six weeks we will be exploring these tips in more detail. Check back for more information and tools you can use to achieve more in your academic pursuits. And please, stop by the Student Success Center on the 3rd floor of the UAMS Library to discover more ways we are here to help you achieve academic excellence.