by Pat Fox Ph.D.

Created on: May 26, 2007   Last Updated: May 21, 2010

Effective study skills boil down to one key: understanding how you learn best. Every learner is unique, just like fingerprints are unique. As you progress through your education, you will learn more and more about yourself as a learner, and you can start that process right away by paying attention to yourself.

There are several categories of things to learn about yourself, you may discover others, but starting here will give you a big boost in unlocking your learning capacity.

Time:
Time is one of the essential factors in learning, and if you are to excel in the learning process you need to learn to work with time, and not against it. Begin by asking yourself these questions:

How quickly do you read? Is your reading speed strongly dependent on the subject matter, or is it fairly consistent from one subject to another? What time of day or night are you at your peak reading speed?

How long is your attention span? How long can you stick with one subject before your mind wanders to the point where you are wasting your time?

What time of day do you have the best environment for reading and studying? This question, more related to your environment than your personal thinking patterns, is important to understand in terms of your alignment with your environment. In other words, if you read best just after dinner, but your household is the noisiest just after dinner, then there's a conflict that needs to be resolved.

How many times during the day and week can you regularly expect to schedule a time for studying?

All of these factors have to be considered when trying to give yourself the most effective and efficient potential for learning. It is not uncommon, for example for people to spend twice as much time studying than they need to, just because they have an inappropriate environment, or make the wrong choices about when they try to study. It does precious little good to try to read for four hours at a time if your attention span is only half an hour. This misalignment does little more than create a sense of foreboding every time you try to study.

Learning Style:
What is your preferred learning style? There are many questionnaires available to help you determine your preferred modes of learning, and even different theories on the matter. Most agree that learners can be categorizes as visual, auditory, tactile and kinesthetic. When you are using methods that play to your strengths, you can make the most effective use of your time. That said, it would be a terrible mistake

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>