Top 5 Tips for Improving Student Study Skills

Studying can be a major hurdle for students. Making the most of study time can be particularly challenging as kids head back to school and try to adjust to new classes and sometimes even new surroundings.

With this in mind, EducationWorld offers the following five strategies that target some of the more difficult aspects of studying. Developed by Eileen Tracy, an Oxford-educated expert in study skills, they offer students a new twist on traditional techniques. During the first days of school, try devoting some class time to honing these important skills.

Time Management – This is often one of the more difficult issues for students to tackle. Between time spent in class, after-school activities and family time, there is very little left for anything else. Tracy suggests sitting down and creating a schedule that works for the individual.

"While there is (thankfully) no such thing as a perfect time-manager, there are various ways, some of them very structured, others much looser, to organize different types of workloads. You can adapt them to suit your preferences so that you have a timetable that works for you. The point of time management is to give you time off, too. Properly done, timetabling offers a balanced way of working, releasing you from the anxieties that go with disorganization. Many students find that this improves their motivation."

You can work with your students to help them develop a timetable that provides ample study time as well as appropriate down time to avoid burnout.

Essay Planning – A common theme explored at EducationWorld is the trepidation many students feel when required to write something. They often feel as though the ability to produce a clear and concise thought on paper is beyond them, and Tracy believes that this is due to a lack of forethought. She suggests that thoroughly planning out the essay before sitting down to write it can be a big step toward improvement:

"Planning takes time and practice, which is why students often try to skip this crucial stage in their hurry to start writing (particularly in exams). ...This is counterproductive: a well-structured essay, rich in analysis, well-argued and relevant, scores many more marks than something that you try to work out as you go along. Examiners′ top complaint is that students don′t answer the question. That′s because most students don′t plan.

By learning to plan, you can develop your ability to read and interpret, to create logical links and to think laterally. You can stop agonizing over how to introduce and conclude your essay. All this will save you hours of redrafting. And in exams, you′ll score points by the power of thought rather than by purely relying on memory. Knowing that you can do this even under exam pressure is a great confidence-booster."

Even if students have received some instruction on planning before writing, teachers may want to either reaffirm those previous lessons, or add to them. The more students plan, the better their writing will become.