Study Strategies

The Augustana University Student Success Center asked and they answered — below are study tips from Augustana faculty members.

If you need more ideas of how to put these study strategies into action, make an appointment with your success specialist.

1. Write to remember. Don't rely on just reading over your notes to remember something. Close your notes and see how much you can write down from memory. Write it in your own words. Try not to just memorize information, but know and understand it. Writing from memory can help with this, and can help you understand what you don't know.
2. Draw pictures. Recreate figures from the notes or the book with a picture. This correlates with 1. ) the more active you are in your studying (writing, drawing, etc.), the better off you will be.
3. I'm serious about the writing. Don't just try to review in your head or talk it out with people. This isn't what you do on exams. On exams, you take something from your head and you write it down. Talking about it or just thinking about it isn't good enough — you can convince yourself that you know things that you actually don't. Write, write, write — and, do it from memory!

Studying starts in the classroom with your note-taking practices!

1. Think about your future self. Be sure to take notes in a way that you can understand the content covered and the purpose of that content in several weeks. Be as complete as possible, mark gaps to be filled in later and make clear how the content relates.
2. Pose a daily question to yourself about the content: after preparing for class—doing the reading, looking at the available slides or notes, or working on the appropriate activity—come up with a question about it. Big-picture questions, such as “what is the point of ___” can be useful, as can smaller questions, like “what contribution did ___ make and why.” Then, once you have your question, take it with you to class. Use class time as a chance to get the answer to the question. If the instructor asks if anyone has any questions, you do! You can also use the notes as a way to catalog answers to your questions.
3. Make summary statements in your notes: Putting your notes into your own words, especially when an instructor provides access to notes or slides, can help you study. One great way to paraphrase notes is to make summary statements. Either in class (during a lull in the activity) or while studying, pause at a point in your notes and ask “So far, the major topic is what?” Now, answer your question. You’re working on information recall and on connecting key ideas.
4. Mark the connections between ideas: using arrows, lines, underlines, colored pens, highlighters, circles, or other graphic methods, show how the ideas relate to one another. Show which ideas provide support to which other ideas. Show which ideas are contrary to each other or negate each other. Making clear how the ideas connect will help future you make sense of the pile of knowledge on the page or in your document.
5. Re-write your notes in a different manner. Sometimes, the format of notes can get in the way of studying the notes. Take the content of your notes and present it differently. Try idea mapping, making a timeline, developing a graph, putting information into a table—just change the look of the information. Changing how the information appears can allow you to more clearly express what matters. Numerous websites exist with templates for making mind maps; re-visualizing the content on your notes helps you focus not only on the content but also on the relationships among the content.

1. Get intentional rest every day, and don't feel guilty about it.  This is like sharpening your tools. If you keep working without resting, your tools get duller and it takes more effort to do less work. Get eight hours of sleep each night, drink water, eat good food, and set aside time for R&R that nothing else can crowd out.
2. Visit your professors in their office hours, and do so ASAP. Bring friends from your class if you can, because if you have questions, your friends probably do, too.
3. Look back over your notes and textbooks quickly every day. Seriously, take just a minute or two to glance at things like the table of contents and the headings of chapters. Aim to see not just the fine details but the big picture. If you don't see the big picture of the semester, ask your classmates and your professors to help you to see it. Again: don't wait until the end of the semester for this.
4. Take notes 2-3 hours after each class. This will give your mind time to filter out the information it received. go to class, take a break, and then write down in brief form (taking maybe 2 minutes per class) an answer to this question: What was the one big takeaway from today's class?
5. Get intentional rest every day, and don't feel guilty about it. Yes, I already said that. It bears repeating.

Every day, I, one of your professors, remember you in my prayers each morning before classes begin. Your professors care about you and want to see you thrive. Let us know how we can help you to thrive academically.