Five Tips on How to Study and Get Consistent Grades

Last week, I talk to you about studying and who should teach students how to study. This week I’m here to give you five tips on how to study and get consistent grades. These tips have helped my students – both in the classroom and in tutoring sessions.

Tip #1: Take Care of Yourself

We can’t perform our best unless we feel our best. So the question is… How do we feel our best? As much as I am not the healthiest person, we hear from doctors eating a balanced diet and sleeping enough, and moving your body all contributes to a healthy person.

I think we would be kidding ourselves if we said that teenagers get enough rest. Most of my students brag about how late they go to bed. Whether they are Snap Chatting with friends or playing video games, they are up late and not getting enough sleep. Sleep is so important for brain development that some doctors even recommend taking a nap after school to recharge and allow the brain to process what it learned earlier in the day. But how do we help kiddos get enough rest? Well, if I knew the answer to that question, I’m pretty sure I’d win some sort of award… Unfortunately, we have to settle on the other two items from Tip #1.

Moving your body is really important as well. We’ll talk later about the Pomodoro technique. During the five-minute break kiddos and adults alike should pick a song and dance as if nobody’s watching. Moving allows for blood flow and physical brain breaks so when you come back to your work you are ready to go!

Finally, your diet has so much to do with your productivity! I’ve had kiddos come to school without eating breakfast feeling lethargic and unable to focus during class. I’ve had kiddos eat a whole pepperoni pizza and a day and then come to a tutoring session unfocused and ready for a nap. I’m not about to preach the perfect diet as I sit here eating a cold pizza at almost 2 AM, but I would suggest finding what works for you and sticking with it!

Tip#2: Take Breaks Every So Often When Studying

I recently started listening to The Mindset Mentor’s podcast on Spotify and Rob Dial Jr (the host) talks about the Pomodoro technique. This is where you break apart your hour into two 230 minute sections and then each 30-minute section is then broken up into one 25 minute and one 5 minute section. The idea is that you focus on the task at hand only for 25 minutes. NO DISTRACTIONS. Basically, keep your phone in the other room, put a sign on your door saying do not disturb, no snacks from mom, etc. The only thing important in your life is the task at hand.

Then during the five-minute brain break, you need to move your body. Go to the bathroom, have an apple, take a walk, dance, etc. But make sure that you set a timer so that you don’t take too long of a break.

Tip #3: Create a Routine

I’ve worked with some very high-achieving kiddos and some not-so-high achieving. While there are many differences between the kiddos one thing that I noticed was that the high achievers had a daily and weekly schedule that they followed. Yes, their days were packed with AP classes were practicing sports almost all afternoon, but they were able to make time for their homework and completed it in a timely fashion.

I recently had a conversation with a parent who realized that her son didn’t feel like he had enough time to complete homework and study for a test and work out on a regular basis. He told his mom that he just didn’t understand how his best friend had time to practice a sport for four hours daily and still have straight A’s. His mother realized that the last time you have to complete your homework, the more intentional you’ll be with your time while working on that homework.

Tip #4: Focus on Core Concepts

Imagine if you had to study six lessons from a chapter for your next science test. There are vocabulary words that need memorizing, experiments that need to be reviewed, and a whole bunch of other stuff with the teacher says will be on “THE TEST”. Most kiddos feel overwhelmed and try to stay up late studying (see tip #1) without taking any breaks (see tip #2) and try to cram as much information as possible, without realizing that you only need to memorize the really important things.

Instead of attempting to memorize all of the vocabulary words, try to see if you can use them when reviewing an experiment. Instead of practicing 10 math problems from every section, try completing more from the later lessons since it’s likely that the material from lesson one will appear in lesson five.

Tip #5: Ask for Help

I’m a big believer in asking for help! I know that I’m good at some things, but not all things. And the things that I’m not good at I ask for help or a delegate. Maybe your kiddo already has a great diet, sleep pattern and plays a sport daily. Maybe you’ve all been practicing the Pomodoro technique for years now. And maybe you don’t only study off of a study guide where your teacher outlined all of the key concepts. But your kiddo is still struggling to get good grades.

Then maybe it’s time to ask for help from a teacher, other parents, or a tutor.

Maybe it’s time that you reach out to me about my “How do I study” class? We meet monthly to work on one effective strategy for the month. The classmates year-round on the third Sunday of the month for a one-hour workshop. We learned habit, role-play the habit, make a plan on how to implement a habit, and how to check in weekly. At the end of the 12 months, kiddos graduate from the program and receive a certificate of completion on how to study.