The Commerce Times

Studying made easy

Final exams are around the corner and with the feelings of stress lingering in the air, students are looking for the best methods of studying and succeeding in their courses.

Some may be more traditional in their approach, others may find pictures and listening to old lectures helpful, while others still may need a variety of different approaches. In any case, having strong study habits can help students succeed in accomplishing their academic goals and help reduce stress levels.

Stress can be reduced if students find appropriate ways to handle the overwhelming amount of material to study. Reed Hilton-Eddy, a learning strategist at Ryerson University’s Learning Success Centre, has been helping students for 2 1/2 years with study methods. One of the problems, she said, is that “students aren’t honest with themselves about what it is they need to be successful.”

With a multitude of places to study at Ryerson, including the library, different areas of the student centre, and study rooms that need to be booked in advance, it can be difficult for students to really find a niche where they feel the atmosphere is ideal for their learning habits. “Atmosphere is a personal preference,” Hilton-Eddy said. “Student ignore personal preference and they tend to pick what their friends are doing or what’s convenient rather than what’s best for them.”

Some students may need white noise from a café, or the pin-drop silence that’s offered on the sixth, ninth, and tenth floors of the library. It’s a matter of identifying what’s best for each individual student and either making a concerted effort to study there, or to use friends or parents to get you into the habit of studying there.

Another important factor in reducing stress that Hilton-Eddy emphasized was that studying is a matter of time management. Students need to be realistic about how much time they have to study and what needs to get done.

“Students make the mistake of trying to study a chapter that would normally take two hours to learn, and trying to do it in 30 minutes,” she said. She raises the question whether it would be wise to simply read the introduction and conclusion and try practice questions, or to go straight to lecture notes and match parts of the chapter that relate. “It’s not about abandoning ship,” she said. “It’s about being manageable with your time.”

She encourages students to be active about their studying, not to simply flip through chapters. If students need cue cards or to create a chart while studying, they should do so as they read.

“Reading is passive. It’s about concentration level, and absorption level. Academic reading is dense, and you need to be interactive with it.”

Some students are trying to cope with stress using structured plans. Many of the faces you see at the library are regulars who follow the same study habits weekly. Jeevithan Elmo Jeyadevan, a first-year criminology student, prefers the quiet study floors of the library because they are isolated from people who may know him and would distract him from getting through his work. Molly Warwick, a first-year arts and contemporary studies student, found that the white noise on the fourth floor of the library, or residence, was the best place to study. She also found that the distractions during the day were a reason for her to choose a better time to study. “I study really late at night, because during the day I get easily distracted,” she said.

Most students in the library felt that in any case, the best way to take notes were to resort to old school methods of putting their trusty old pen to paper. “I prefer to write, I make more connections and I tend to remember it more when I go to exams and am required to write it again,” said a second year student in public administration and governance. Hilton-Eddy reiterates that, “There’s been a large amount of research to indicate that the mind remembers information when you’ve done pen to paper.”

Although it’s definitely “go-time”, as some students affectionately call it, there are easy and productive way to– reduce stress levels, and ultimately strive for a high grades.