Studying requires concentration

It’s a tiring activity, and that’s why we sometimes “study” in a more relaxed way, less intense but also less efficient.

This gives us a clear conscience, making us think that we put many hours on studying for the test, but what we really did was a waste of time.

In the end, we have to do the effort, so all we got with that “light” studying was an unnecessary use of more hours than we should have.

Many times, we waste time because we get distracted.

Without noticing, we start thinking about other things, we avoid the subject we need to study, and we completely lose focus.

Every time we get distracted, we should write down the cause (got a phone call, my mother wanted to talk to me, I went to look for my calculator, I wanted to see the sports section in the newspaper, etc.).

It’s easier to solve the causes of the distractions if we know them.

Other times, we waste time simply because we don’t know how to study:

We review the lessons we already mastered, over and over, and we forget to review other lessons we know nothing about.

It’s better to take a test having medium knowledge on everything than mastering some lessons and not knowing anything about the others.

We study uninteresting information, with an unnecessary level of detail. This information doesn’t give us much knowledge, and it’s a waste of time and effort.

We read a chapter, and we read it over and over without putting the least of effort to go deep into it (completing notes, understanding, writing diagrams, memorizing, repeating, etc.).

We study without a guide. We open the book and start memorizing from the first line, without having previously read the lesson to know what it is about and what structure it has, without having worked on it.

It’s a tiring activity, and that’s why we sometimes “study” in a more relaxed way, less intense but also less efficient.

This gives us a clear conscience, making us think that we put many hours on studying for the test, but what we really did was a waste of time.

In the end, we have to do the effort, so all we got with that “light” studying was an unnecessary use of more hours than we should have.

Many times, we waste time because we get distracted.

Without noticing, we start thinking about other things, we avoid the subject we need to study, and we completely lose focus.

Every time we get distracted, we should write down the cause (got a phone call, my mother wanted to talk to me, I went to look for my calculator, I wanted to see the sports section in the newspaper, etc.).

It’s easier to solve the causes of the distractions if we know them.

Other times, we waste time simply because we don’t know how to study:

We review the lessons we already mastered, over and over, and we forget to review other lessons we know nothing about.

It’s better to take a test having medium knowledge on everything than mastering some lessons and not knowing anything about the others.

We study uninteresting information, with an unnecessary level of detail. This information doesn’t give us much knowledge, and it’s a waste of time and effort.

We read a chapter, and we read it over and over without putting the least of effort to go deep into it (completing notes, understanding, writing diagrams, memorizing, repeating, etc.).

We study without a guide. We open the book and start memorizing from the first line, without having previously read the lesson to know what it is about and what structure it has, without having worked on it.