Stay quiet & focused

Find a quiet place to work and study online. Success in academic work requires sharp focus and deep concentration, so it’s important to ensure that you have reliable Internet access in a quiet place without noise or other interruptions.

Be consistent

When you are studying online without the benefit of direct supervision by teachers or direct contact with fellow students, consistency is critically important. Be consistent when scheduling your study times, and keep your online work organized in a consistent manner.

Online education professionals recommend keeping a separate computer file folder for each project and class assignment, for easy follow up. Also, practice the academic habits of studying, reading and writing on a regular schedule so that your assignments and lessons become a routine activity.

Research is the key

Learn to research effectively, and be very careful about the quality of your research sources. Sharpen your online searching methods so that you learn to quickly discern and discard unreliable information; focus on high-quality content.

Leverage the power of the Internet

When you study online, it makes sense to leverage the power of the Internet to communicate, socialize and network. The ability to browse across multiple platforms and through multiple sources of information allows online students to gather, assess and act on information in ways unavailable to students who study in bricks-and-mortar schools.

You should make full use of college and university web sites, even if they’re not always your own institution’s web pages. Business and commercial websites are generally more reluctant to allow unrestricted access to their information, which may be proprietary. In comparison, educational institutions are often very open to publishing large amounts of interesting and useful information online.

Also, you can set up course home pages to study, interact and share with other students. Keep in mind that it’s helpful to observe good Internet etiquette and protocol when you study online, since your teachers and fellow students may not have the chance to meet you in person, yet effective interaction with them is critical for your success.

Prepare for the course

You should carefully read the syllabus for your course in order to see the “road map” of the work to be completed. The course’s reading list of suggested books and publications will offer valuable insight into the ideas and themes deemed valuable by your teacher. You can also use the Internet to enrich your education by finding and reading other content related to your course’s subject, even if it’s not on your teacher’s own reading list.

Get your money’s worth

Although it’s true that “the best things in life are free,” still it’s true that education costs money. In order to fully benefit from studying online, you should make sure to get your money’s worth. Take advantage of opportunities to participate with your online classmates in forums and through other forms of messaging; listen to their thoughts and feedback about the course, and learn from them.

Ask questions

Think of your teachers as experts who can answer your questions about the course subject and help you crystallize a large amount of raw information into a form you can both understand and benefit from. Above all, if you take the initiative to explore and learn beyond the conventional boundaries, you’ll be glad that you decided to study online.

Good study habits are critical for the success of these adult students, yet in some cases many years have passed since these students were last enrolled in any sort of education program. Therefore, mature students should consider implementing an effective study routine in order to ensure that they successfully complete their courses. Fortunately, good study habits can be both fun and rewarding for all students.

Basic Study Habits for Adult Learning

First, it will be helpful to consider some of the fundamentals of good studying. The following basic study habits are beneficial to all students, regardless of their age or type of schooling.

Place to study

The first and most important habit to develop is to find and use the same quiet, undisturbed place in which to study each day. The study space should be an area in which the student, especially an older student, can spread out papers, books, and any materials necessary to work on school assignments. It is best if the study space is located in a low-traffic area with few visitors, so the student can concentrate.

Consistent study schedule

Consistency in the study schedule is important in order to complete the school assignments on-time and correctly. If a student, especially an adult student with demands from work and family, drifts off-schedule and falls behind on the assignments, it can be very difficult to catch up later. The best practice is always to devote a particular time slot (or slots) for reading, studying, and completing assignments.

Research and do the homework

Good preparation and research helps students learn rapidly, and it also gives them the confidence to present their lessons and assignments as factual and correct. Nowadays, the Internet has brought widespread access to information for both young and old alike; however, the Internet has also spawned an online world of “spam,” “bots” and “link farms” leading to worthless gibberish instead of valuable information.

The mature student should develop the habit of first organizing each assignment, then researching carefully to verify information before incorporating it into his or her assignment, and thereby being graded accordingly.

Older students are usually more methodical as well as being more cautious and conservative in assuming the truthfulness of what they’ve read online, and so will have an advantage over younger students.

Questions are the answer

Adult students sometimes consider themselves at a disadvantage when compared for younger students regarding speed, flexibility, and capacity for studying and learning. Yet, mature students have the maturity, wisdom and discipline to succeed in school by developing and maintaining good study habits.

The best learning habit of all is to ask relevant questions anytime the study topic seems unclear. Because of their maturity, older students are most likely to already have the best study habit of all – asking questions without being shy. Questions save the student’s time while best leveraging the knowledge and experience of the teacher. In summary, adult students may already have some good study habits, and can quickly develop other good habits likely to lead to success.

Study Alone or Group Study

One of the first questions faced by most students is whether to study alone or with a group. Some students insist on studying alone, apart from other students, because it can help with concentration and focus while avoiding the drifting that often occurs when a group gathers to discuss a topic.

The main advantage of studying alone is the superior focus: Education experts say that each minute of good, focused time produces more valuable learning than five minutes of time broken by outside distractions. So, studying solo means more effective use of the student’s time.

At the same time, the disadvantage of studying alone is that the student lacks the interaction and intellectual stimulation of other students. Education is a process of learning about previously-unknown ideas and challenging long-held assumptions. Studying with a group can provide vital input and different perspectives from others that help to enrich each individual student’s journey.

The “shrinking outline” method

One popular method for effective studying is the “shrinking outline.” This method is often recommended by educators because it challenges the student to remember not only facts, but also their interrelation and structure as well.

This method is based on the fact that information is often presented during class lectures and in written sources in an outline format; the outline groups topics and subtopics according to their interrelation and importance.

To use this method, the student first outlines his or her class notes in the traditional outline format, then after reviewing the material over several days the student systematically condenses the outline, each time rewriting it with fewer subtopic divisions and less material.

After reviewing and rewriting the outline several times, it should be condensed down to only the handful of major points. To complete the exercise, the student then works to reverse the process by fleshing out the outline from memory, until the outline matches the original taken from class notes or writings. This “shrinking outline” method is considered quite effective for learning complex topics; the only downside is the amount of time spent in writing and rewriting a given outline repeatedly.

Cramming

Cramming, the practice of studying a subject intensively immediately before a test or examination, is an age-old study method quite popular with students at all levels. When used as an adjunct to normal study during the school term, cramming can help to reinforce facts, figures and other specific information to be memorized.

The main drawback is that, all too often “instant learning is instant forgetting.” If a student has not been exposed to a particular topic before the cramming session, or if he or she has not studied a topic consistently during the weeks leading up to the test, the crammed information may not be retained in the student’s long-term memory. The student may pass the test, yet quickly forget the information.

Overall, it is best to strike a balance by using a combination of study methods to assure the best results. Students should try several methods, and work hard to practice those which work best for them.

1. The Descriptive Essay

Also known as descriptive writing, the descriptive essay is the most commonly-used essay format in schools. Taken simply, a descriptive essay is all about, well, describing – the who, what, when, where, and why of a particular topic and the relevant ideas connected to it. A descriptive essay is about telling something as it is, structuring it in such a way that would make sense to someone who’s reading it. Though descriptive, metaphors and analogies do figure in these types of essays, just that they are more devices of clarity than of literary merit.

Quick Essay Writing Tip: To write a good descriptive essay, be sure to write for simplicity rather than embellishment. It’s not the number of words you write but the clarity of the words that you’re using. As a rule of thumb, don’t use words you’re unfamiliar with. Speak from the heart, and you’ll be okay.

2. Persuasive or Argumentative Essay

Just as it’s description, a persuasive essay usually means that you’re siding with a particular opinion, and is writing to establish the evidences for or against it. As the principle of arguments usually allow, the essay is constructed so that each assumption is proved valid, and each point structure to lead to one’s conclusion.

Quick Essay Writing Tip: Arguing a point is hard when it’s something that you’re not familiar with, so be sure to do your research. When constructing your main thesis, be sure to pick out the strongest evidences that lead to it – 2 or 3 main points usually does the trick. After finishing your essay, be sure to review it with the objective of asking yourself and clarifying each sentence you wrote. You could also ask “Why” after each sentence so that you have a better vantage point for rewriting it.

3. Compare and Contrast Essay

When one is called upon to write a compare and contrast essay, it usually requires one to talk about two distinct points and expound upon the similarities and differences of each.

Quick Essay Writing Tip: Compare and contrast essays are usually the easiest to write, but sometimes one could go too far. Just pick the top 2 or 3 similarities and the same number of differences to point out. Remember: lesser is better.

4. Narrative Essay

A narrative essay usually tells a story and reflects the personal perspective of the author. It attempts to present ideas and topics via story-telling, mindful to expound on the main points of the article through the story itself.

Quick Essay Writing Tip: When writing a narrative essay, be sure draw your personal reflections on the subject. Find connections in which you can relate to.

5. Evaluation Essay

Evaluation essays are usually academic reviews of a particular idea or topic. Though you may right with an informal position, it’s usually done as an exposition of style rather than requirement.

Quick Essay Writing Tip: Evaluation essays are similar to persuasive essays in a sense that both presents a particular conclusion to the reader. Make sure that you present the criteria you used for your evaluation, and remember to check the evidences you gave.

1. Discover patterns and associations in what you’re studying

As seen in the movies, conspiracy theorists usually rely on a visual framework to work out the patterns and associations that they could see between different sources. Scenes with newspaper clippings plastered on the walls and red thread connecting one to another are particularly mainstream, depicting visual associations. Of course, doing this in this manner would be crazy for a college student, but the principle stays the same. Work out patterns, sequences, and associations between your notes, lecture notes, and reading material and use these as a basis for remembering the content. Simply said, every idea or piece of information should be connected to another, and the process of discovery makes it a smarter way to study.

2. Study – then write a song about it

Or write a mock essay, do a video – just about anything that will make you create something out of all the content that you’ve studied. The process of creation helps you not only to study smarter, it holds your attention in  a way that engages you many times more than just reading your textbook.

3. Share the concepts you’ve been studying about

Though classroom discussions are good venues for students to air out their concerns, there are other ways in which ideas could be exchanged. In the ancient times, the “in” thing to do was to go to a marketplace and talk to the resident philosopher or elder, but now we have the Internet to go to. Join online communities and forums which deal with the subjects you’re studying and co-create ideas with the other members. It’s not only a smart study tip but also an interesting way to get to know more people.

4. Study – then teach it to another person

Another smart study tip is to teach the content that you’re studying. Find someone who doesn’t know anything about the topic and then teach the subject as concisely as possible. Doing this exercise helps you organize your thoughts and put something into your own words, a process by which you become more familiar with the content ten-fold. With the same objective in mind, you could also write down a mock lecture of the subject for a young child. For example, you could figure out a way to explain the economic recession to a 5-year old.

5. Use analogies

Jean Piaget (a popular psychologist and philosopher) explained that we relate ideas either by assimilating concepts that we don’t know into things already know or by accommodating what we know to something that is new. For example, for a child who is only beginning to understand the concept “dog”, he may have started to assimilate every four-legged animal as a “dog” (even it it’s a cat or a goat) before finally accommodating each kind of animal (or in this case, that a cat, a goat, and a dog are three different animals). Though we may see it as wrong at the start, we have to realize that it’s our brain’s way of remembering concepts. Thinking of something as “just like” another creates a point for one to check and analyze in the future, making it a smart study tip that could save you more time.

This doesn’t say that it’s correct though. Sleep deprivation is not something to sneeze at. Just by losing a few hours of sleep, the body’s resistance plummets, and  a dozen other inconveniences would crop up that may even be detrimental to one’s student life. Do this, and you may scar your body so much and inevitably change your sleep habits for the worse. No study tip or memory technique would be able to help you once you’re too drowsy to study.

Good thing there’s a way to get around this. When one’s sleep debt is too much, we’ve 5 ways to get you back to your normal sleeping routine:

1. Pay your sleep debt off a little at a time

After the flurry of sleepless nights, schedule a couple of days to help pay off your sleep debt. According to research 1 hour of sleep debt needs to be paid of with the same amount of sleep. This means for every hour of sleep you’re deprived off, you need an extra hour to balance the debt. Since you can’t just have extra hours of sleep each day for practical reasons, you could just schedule an extra hour of sleep each day, per hour of sleep debt that you incurred. For example, for 7 hours worth of sleep debt, schedule 7 straight days with 1 extra hour of sleep each.

2. Do something relaxing before you sleep

This means that after incurring a large sleep debt, be sure to schedule relaxing activities before you sleep. Drink warm milk, lounge in a bathtub, read a good book or do all these things together. Light some aromatherapy candles, or just watch a relaxing show. Whichever the case, the activity should prepare you for a deep slumber – you know you need it.

3. If you can’t seem to sleep, do something boring for 20 minutes

According to a Stanford University article, doing something boring prepares us to sleep even if we don’t feel like it. It’s understandable that the sleepless nights that you’ve undergone had fudged up your system a bit, so combat this by doing something boring. That’s why counting livestock is a favorite, but you could derive your own thing to bore you off.

4. Don’t use the alarm for the next couple of days.

A necessity of college life, alarm clocks dictate most of students’ daily routines. Take off your alarm clock from the shelf, just for the next couple of days while you’re paying off your sleep debt. Your body needs to reset its own internal clock and in the process wake up according to its own rhythm.

5.  “Slumber up” your room

Remember to re-arrange your room and bed in the most comfortable configuration possible. Draw up the blinds, or if that’s not possible, get an eye-mask to help you sleep better. Relaxing scents are also good, so stock up on these items the day you’ll start getting back your sleep hours.

Of course, it also means that you may have too many options to choose from. To help you out, we compiled the top 3 productivity tips that students could use to upgrade their student life.

Student productivity tip #1: Network technologies are a lot of help

Although books still have their place in the educational landscape, learning just doesn’t depend on them anymore. We have podcasts, video streaming, Really Simple Syndication (RSS), and other types of networked technologies that rely more on the dissemination and sharing of knowledge. Even a professor’s lecture notes can now be found online, ready for any student to read.

Quick productivity tip: Get a copy of iTunes or Juice (a cross-platform podcast receiver),  search for interesting podcasts on the web, then synch them to your favorite mp3 or video player. Be sure to listen to these podcasts while your on your commute, or whenever you’re doing something mundane that wouldn’t require much of your attention.  This way, you get to be updated about the latest trends in your field. At the very least, you learn something interesting for the day.

Quick productivity tip: Sign-up for RSS aggregators such as Bloglines and Google Reader. What these sites do is via RSS feeds, you get updated on your favorite sites, whether they’re blogs, news sites, or general resource links. Make it a habit to read what’s on your aggregator every morning and you’ll surely be always in the know.

Student productivity tip #2: Make smart notes

When I was in college, I usually brought only a piece of paper to my classes, with the notion that I’ll be copying them to my notebook later in the evening. Sad to say, it didn’t really work out; I always lost those notes or even get confused as to why I wrote what I did in the first place. I quickly learned that it’s a lot more productive to do your notes on something that you’ll be permanently consulting with – a notebook or some kind of portfolio would be a big help. it’s also easier to write interesting lecture notes this way because you already know that it’s more than scratch.

Quick productivity tip: When writing your notes, do it in such a way that you’ll be recording what you feel or think at the time of writing. Come later, you should be able to instantly recall what you were thinking at that time, making the notes you wrote a lot more valuable than just a laundry-list of what’s on the board.

Student productivity tip #3: Prioritize, prioritize

You might have heard a lot of this from all quarters, but it’s something that we really can’t live without: since time is scarce, we always need to prioritize. Some would even say that student life is one big exercise in time management – and many won’t even disagree.

Quick productivity tip: A list of things to do is helpful, but what’s more helpful is to trim down that to-do list to what’s really important. The Pareto Principle, for example, states that there’s only a minority of activities that have the maximum benefit, and one just needs to find out which is most beneficial. To implement this, plan your week early on, and just fill in the 3 most important things that you need to finish on each day.

Of course, getting a copy wouldn’t be enough. You have to read the textbook, study its contents, and retain the information so that you could apply it to your studies; otherwise, it will just be a quaint paper weight on your table. Do you have a problem tackling this massive task? Here are 5 ways to help you work with your textbook and remember what you read.

Textbook tip #1: Get dirty – write on your textbook

Though textbooks are essentially print material meant to be read, doing so alone wouldn’t help you to master its contents. Do away with the thought that a textbook should be kept pristine – a clean textbook is an unused textbook. Write on its pages, doodle around its edges, and highlight away. Mark the passages that interest you and circle the important terms and jargon. Add your own illustrations. Use your textbook just like you’ll be using your notebook as a way to summarize your ideas and articulate your thinking.

Textbook tip #2: Do the textbook exercises first

Chapter exercises were designed to test a student’s knowledge about the material that is read, but did you know that it could also be used the other way around? Rather than doing the exercises at the end of the chapter, you could try to answer the chapter exercises before you even begin reading the actual contents. Doing so will help you become more familiar with the topics. The questions also act as a focusing device that helps you note the most important information in the chapter. Pencil in your answers daily and you’ll suddenly find yourself able to weather the occasional pop quiz.

Textbook tip #3: Browse the chapter summaries

With the same principle as doing the chapter exercises first, reading the chapter summaries also offer the same benefits to the student. These summaries usually emphasize the most important points of the chapter and draw your attention to terms and important themes that you should be familar with. By doing this, you will find yourself not only being able to prepare for an exam, but also having a strong understanding of the course topic.

Textbook tip #4: Connect lecture notes to the textbook

Since we already know that teachers use the class textbook in their lectures, it would be quite beneficial to tie the lecture notes and textbook content together. After taking notes from a lecture session, go back to your textbook and mark the areas of the text that were discussed during the lecture. Pencil in explainations, thoughts, and ideas. When something is mentioned in the lecture but not in the textbook, be sure to make note of it because it must be important. If a professor chooses to talk about it, it most likely will be on the next test. Going through this process of connecting the lecture with the textbook contents will help you memorize all the necessary information with less effort.

 Textbook tip #5: Write a lecture

After you’ve studied the textbook and played around with it a bit, the best way to truley master the knowledge you gained is to bring it to the next level. Writing a mock lecture or composing a short book for a five year-old would really challenge your understanding of the subject matter. If you are short on time, you could do the writing in your head and this mental workout will not only help you recall the information, but it will also ‘cement’ your understanding  for a gratifying grade.

Take-Home Exam Tip #1: Scan and preview the questions first

One of the most common mistakes students do with take-home exams is just to answer the questions head-on. Now, would be something acceptable for easy exams, but since take-home exam questions are almost always more difficult than the run-of-the-mill exam, it pays well to invest in some preparation. The first thing that you should do is to preview the questions and instructions of the test. After a quick scan, gauge which of the material should be done first. If it’s to be done in sequence, try to analyze how the questions go together and how the answers from one could strengthen your [submissions] for another. Also take note if there are bonus items within the take-home exam; a lot may ride on you doing these bonus questions.

Take-Home Exam Tip #2: Choose your tools carefully

Since it’s an open-book exam, most of the items won’t be simple multiple-choice or true/false questions so the usual quiz tips won’t apply here. Take-home exams mostly are concerned with practical applications of something that was discussed in class, so be prepared to do some heavier brain work. After previewing the questions, collate the lecture notes, exam papers, and quizzes that you’ve done in the past. These might prove useful when you finally take a shot at the questions. Also remember to have a thesaurus and a dictionary handy so that you could better articulate your answers. It’s also suggested that before you answer the questions, have a ready list of bookmarked sites that could help you out; chances are, this will make things easier for you.

Take-Home Exam Tip #3: Outlines are a lot of help

Exams taken at home are mostly checked not only on the basis of content, but on how the same content is organized. The best answers wouldn’t hold water if the professor cannot understand what you wrote. Use outlines to create a good framework for your answers and you’ll be able to pass your exams with a breeze.

Take-Home Exam Tip #4: Cite your research

You’ll be mustering a lot of resources for your answers so it’s best that you be mindful to list down the sources that you used. Not being able to correctly cite sources might put you in danger of plagiarism, and that will cost you not only your exam but maybe your college enrollment.

Take-Home Exam Tip #5: Keep in touch with your professors

Since most take-home exams are not usually done with group work in mind, it’s a good idea to keep in contact with your professors during the duration of the exam. Just a quick email will suffice, and SMS is also accepted. At the very least, doing so will make a good impression on your teachers, something that may count once your exams are checked.

How does one prepare for something that one couldn’t even prepare for? To help you out, here are 4 simple quiz tips that could help you get good grades even if you didn’t study.

1.  Get good grades with multiple choice questions

For a multiple-choice question with 4 options, there’s a 25% probability that one could get the correct answer just by guesswork alone. This figure decreases as the number of choices increase, but on the average, multiple-choice questions are done with 4 items in mind. The strategy then is to figure out how to increase the probability of getting the correct answer, given that you are only vaguely familiar of the content.

• Quiz tip: Look for two choices that are similar, and choose one of these. In test construction, the correct answer almost always is mixed with something that was meant to confuse the test-taker.

• Quiz tip: Choices that are too different from the others often do not include the correct answer.

2. Get good grades with True/False questions

Since true/false questions are objective items that rely on a 50/50 chance it’s a bit trickier to get the correct answer.  To remedy this, one just needs to figure out if the statement is false first, which is a lot easier than figuring out if it’s true.

• Quiz tip: Since true/false statements are almost always logical arguments found on different premises, if any of these premises are false or any part of the question rings false, then the statement is false.

• Quiz tip: Statements with absolute logical qualifiers like always, never, not, or cannot almost always are false statements.

• Quiz tip: Statements with relative logical qualifiers such as may, may not, or sometimes probably signal a true statement.

3. Get good grades with Fill-in-the-Blank questions

The trick with fill-in-the-blank questions is to recognize the context of the question first to derive the correct answer.

• Quiz tip: If the answer you’re choosing is not grammatically correct, then most probably it’s not the correct one.

• Quiz tip: Look for clues from other questions within the same test. Most probably, the fill-in-the-blank questions are derived from this or at least have similar answers.

4. Get good grades with Essay questions

Essay questions might be the easiest of all quizzes, but there’s always a tendency to over-compensate for lack of knowledge – one tends to write more if one knows nothing about it. To get good grades with essay questions one needs to pick the best point to write about and stick with it.

• Quiz tip: Before you answer an essay question, first list down all the possible answers that may fit the question. Pick the best three out of these and work your essay around these points.

• Quiz tip: Resist the urge to pad your answers. Though some may think that these could help lead to the answer eventually, a long essay might tick off your teacher.

These are just some quiz tips that one could use when confronted with an exam that one didn’t prepare for. Do you know of other ways to get good grades for quizzed you didn’t study for? Post them in the comments.