How to Develop Study Skills

Education is the combination of three things- knowledge, skills and attitude. Without positive attitude and skills, knowledge remains a potential energy. Skillful people are valued and respected everywhere. Skills are very important for everyone. Skills play a crucial role in someone’s life. In the same way, for doing effective study, develop study skills are required.

 As a student, study skills are pivotal for your whole learning and development process.

What are study skills?

Study skills are those skills that make your study easier, faster and advanced.

An open secret about skills is that any skill can be mastered by dedication and passion of learning. Same is also true in the case of study skills.

Major study skills

You, as a learner, can develop study skills by following tricks and strategies:

Plan your work

Effective plan makes effective progress. If you want to develop study skills then plan your study. Effective progress in study is only possible when you work properly with proper planning. Top students plan their study and maintain their work because they know that if they are failing to plan, they are planning to fail.

Read more than once

Skills are developed with practice. If you want to develop your comprehension skills, read more than once what you want to study. When you read something more than once, it also refines and sharpens your reading skills. When your skills of reading are enhanced then study level is automatically increased.

Memorize the important information

When you read some text, then try to memorize important information, key points and facts and figures. Memorization is a study skill which is followed by the students throughout his/her academic career. As a student, if you want to develop study skills then memorize things in the best possible way.

Note taking & organization

When you are trying to develop study skills then develop the habit of note-taking and organization. Organizing things with effective method helps you to ease your study system. Note taking is a tricky work. For note taking, it is necessary for you to pay full attention.

There are many methods of taking notes but Cornell note taking method is the most effective one which encompasses so many important things like summary, revision, cues etc. in itself.

Time management

How you manage your time during study matters a lot. Best study skills are developed only by following effective time management techniques. Give appropriate time to each subject according to its nature and weightage in the exams. When you give specific time to each subject, it increases your chances of success in your overall study.

There are so many methods of time management but my favorite time management formula is 4D which means do, delay, delegate and delete.

“Do” means focus on those things which are the most important and result oriented relating to your main goals of study. “Delay” means the things which can be postponed. “Delegate” represents your capacity to get your work done from others; it is a leadership quality which allows you not to focus on unproductive things. “Delete” gives you the idea to delete all the irrelevant activities which drain you both time and energy.

Adapt Learning Style to Teaching Method

Different students learn and absorb things from different styles. A learning style is a way from which you learn new things.

The four most important learning styles are; 

Visual learners

It is a learning style in which students can learn new things or understand lectures by using graphs, maps and pictures. They can learn and communicate through this style of learning.

Auditory learners

This learning style is a communicating learning style. In this learning style, students learn things by listening, by discussing in groups or by memorizing and debating in class. These learners prefer audiobooks on print books.

Kinaesthetic leaners

In this learning style, students’ learning process is based on their whole body involvement. These types of leaners use their gestures to communicate ideas. They use their hands to touch and handle something or understand it.

Reading and Writing learners (Develop Study Skills)

These learners are very common. Most of the students learn through reading and writing process. This learning style is easiest learning style.

All four learning style are best at their own place. But you should be careful about your teacher’s teaching method. Different teachers teach with different styles. First of all, you should recognize your teacher’s teaching method. After recognition, think which learning style is suitable with your teacher’s teaching method.

You cannot learn all things from same learning style. Adopt those learning styles which are inter-related with your teacher’s method.