I'm having trouble staying motivated to study. I have never really done GREAT at school, always average. Ever since College started, I've been trying to instill studying habits in me but its hard. I really want success in College but its hard to pay attention to reading boring stuff and crap. I don't know how to study. What is the best way to study? Please help.
See your health clinic to get a cheap diagnosis for ADHD. Visit a study skills seminar through your student union/career center. Don't study at home, close to your bed or pantry. Instead, study at the library in a cubicle. Wear headphones and listen to white noise if your environment isn't quiet enough.
Big thing for me was not putting off studying until exam time. Instead, keep everything fresh by putting aside 45 minutes to an hour for each subject daily, recopying your notes, making note cards, re-reading material from the book that you're unclear on, making up mnemonics, etc. That way, you're not put in a position where you're cramming six to eight hours a day before midterms and finals. You're devoting more time, but ultimately expending less energy (and committing the material to your long term memory).
I don't know about what everyone else is saying, but if you have a goal in mind studying shouldn't be a problem. Everyone procrastinates but when it's man up time you have to handle business. What's more important to you, surfing the net or achieving whatever your goal is?
I don't know where you're going to college, but when I went to a major Houston university, they had a class for precisely your problem. It had a "study habits" component, and a speed reading component. I took the class for the speed reading part of it, but the other stuff was good advice and helpful. And it was an elective credit. Check to see if your school offers a similar course. I bet they do. I'll add that while I already could read very fast (400+ words per minute with decent comprehension... one of the first things they did was test this), by the time the semester was over, I was at 550+ wpm, with 98% comprehension. That alone made the course worthwhile, at least for me. Good luck. Lots of people have your problem. You can beat it and reach your potential. Just keep working at it. - I'll add that what dmc89 mentioned was good advice. One of my best friends went through UT in 3 years, living with us for a semester for reasons I don't need to get into, and he always studied at the library. I asked him about it and he said the atmosphere and lack of distractions made it essential. He was by nature a party animal. Still is, just a middle aged one. The guy went on to get an MBA at Harvard, and before he went to UT, he was a machinist at Hughes Tool for 7 years. That's an American success story if I ever heard one. Heck, my S.O. and I helped him write his Harvard application. True story.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/06/10/education/stimulants-student-voices.html “ I was thinking faster, harder, there was no fog – and nothing could distract me. ”
I have the same problem. If a class is not interesting enough I cannot sit there and study for it. It's torture. I do fairly well in science classes because I find them interesting but every other class that involves heavy reading and studying, I bomb. I don't think I have ADHD because I am hispanic and we all know that's a white people disorder. J/k :grin:
Ill give u the same advice I gave my cousin. It's actually pretty simple. Go to class. Hang out with the smart kids who study together. Study with them. Review your class notes. Read in the book anything in your notes that u don't understand. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Take final. Repeat.
I had the same problem when I went back to college to finish my degree. My solution: Spoiler Ear Plugs. Combine this with a room with no tv or other people, and I was able to focus on even the most boring subjects. Sometimes I would put a hoodie on, too, and pull the hood up to block my peripheral vision. But the vast majority of the credit goes to the ear plugs, and I'm about to graduate summa c*m laude.
It just depends on how bad you want it. How bad you want to succeed. If you realize that failing an exam might lead you to being broke for the rest of your life- you might have more motivation to hit the books and spend your time more efficiently.
Take your laptop and some headphones with you and play some Audible audiobooks or itunes/netflix TV shows in the background. And do away with any other activities of any kind until you're where you'd like to be grades-wise. You really need to be able to look forward to studying the way you would typically get excited about weekends, summer vacations or any other routine recreational activity. Math and science stuff should just be pure problems, so I think it's just a matter of time and volume there. The other stuff you could probably make outlines and/or flashcards of and then try to memorize concepts. Try eating dinner and taking some OTC sleep medication with Diphenhydramine HCl in it as early as possible after your last class of the day and forcing yourself to sleep; then wake up at 9pm or 10pm and studying through the night. Great thing about big public unis is that there's some well-lit 24-hour facility somewhere, if not find the local Denny's.
You go to UH do you not? Camp out in the fourth floor or fifth floor of the main library and if you don't like it there, go to the architecture library. And... commute with friends who finish classes late. Trap yourself on campus so you actually get something done.
Pretty much. People need an reason for what they do. If you're studying to study, then there's no reason. Determine what you want to do with your life. Then you'll work for it.
Work Hard, suck it up...Go to a quiet place like a library to study, or somewhere where you see others doing the same, it will make you feel more comfortable, say if you are in college, didn't read whole thing...but it is like running to me I guess, I am ok at it, but hate doing it, but when I suck it up and do run, I end up running farther, and faster than I thought I could...This I found is my analogy to my life with studying as well, and thus getting a B.A. in Economics, at one time Economics was a "foreign language", so to speak, but...I kept at it, it took sucking it up. Going to the College Library and seeing people in my exact same position...Studying is easy...Work makes you pull your hair out!
