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Unbeatable Study Tips By An Aerospace Engineer From Georgia Tech

Cal Newport, a computer science professor at Georgetown University and a published author, was once a freshman at Dartmouth College. Back in 2004 when he too was wondering about how to study for exams without losing it, he decided that he was done with the brute force study methods, painful all-nighters, and bland reading (and re-reading) materials meant to help students get through college.

He realized that all it led to was a lot of pain and slandering of time, not to mention the development of an antagonistic attitude toward academics. However, through repeated experiments and the implication of sounder habits to study effectively, he cracked the code of becoming a top-tier student without having to endure the pains of sacrificing his social life and sleep. This gave birth to some of the most effective study tips for students which will blow your mind.

Newport And His Ideologies

As mentioned in two of his bestseller books- ‘How to Win at College’ and ‘How to be a Straight-A Student’, he describes various effective study tips for students. Many of these are simple changes that he implemented in his daily life as a college student that enabled him to become an exceptional pupil. He became one of the few phenomenal achievers of his school, the cream layer, the top of the top.

And the secret to his success, as described in his book, is EFFICIENCY. Newport elaborates that techniques for how to prepare for examinations, employed by most students are highly inefficient, time-consuming, and mentally exhausting. However proper Newportian techniques as I like to call them were created to give a streamlined approach to the actual task of learning, thus saving time in study sessions and retaining the material for longer periods.

We all must agree that smart and efficient studying is the best way to approach any form of learning. Because this is what helps in converting the dreadful task into planned sessions with a clear goal of what needs to be achieved. It is also a great idea to make use of a variety of study assistance applications available today. These applications are perfect for a personal analysis of the user's study sessions and consist of subprograms that are created specifically with the aim of ensuring efficient use of the user’s study time.

Following Newport’s path, one of the main study tips for students is to ensure that the user does more work in less time by having intense and targeted study sessions. The most important thing to do while studying is the creation of a proper study environment. Because productive work can only be done with proper peace of mind, organized materials, and the absence of distractions, with the end goal in mind.

Monitor Study Sessions

Coming back to the study assistance application, many apps ask for data regarding the time and date of the session, subject, topic, etc. for every study session that the user starts. At the end of the session, the user can rate the efficiency of the session as for example – bad, satisfactory, good, or very good. Monitoring these technical aspects of one’s study sessions enables the students to understand exactly where their time has been invested. It is also a good idea to plan sessions in advance in the very same way and add them to your calendar and reminders. A systematic approach to studying is a great way to tackle the ‘how to study for exams’ problem that many students face.

Organization: A Habit or Way of Life!

How does one part take in high-intensity study bursts squat in the middle of an already hectic day, with work piling up and deadlines looming nearby? The answer is surprisingly simple- ORGANIZATION.

Planning ahead of time in an organized manner helps in relieving unnecessary stress, instills a sense of calm, and is a great starting point. Make use of a calendar/planner for this purpose, in fact, build one solely for all your academic needs. It will serve as a record of upcoming exams, tests, and paper submissions. In addition to giving reminders prior to an important event, the planner might also help in counting down to the very second the time you have to complete the task. The planner is a very efficient tool that keeps you in the loop of the fast-paced academic life.

Study Mode ON

For the next study tip for students, I’d like to talk about another feature in most of our cell phones/ calendars/ planners/ study apps, and that is the study mode. Basically, turning the study mode ON restricts the notifications from user-chosen apps during the period of the study session. We have all experienced how a single notification and the constant yearning for 5 more minutes leads to heaps of unfinished work and wasted time. By limiting notifications, you can restrict distractions to ensure no room for procrastination, leading to maximum productivity.

The 50/10 Approach

Another tip on how to prepare for exams, which also works as a general studying trick is the 50/10 approach. The core idea of the approach is to work or study for 50 minutes and take a break for 10 minutes. This is a science-backed technique that ensures maximum memory retention of the material covered during the session. Given the merit of this technique, many apps provide a special 50/10 option that reminds you to take a break every 50 minutes and then get back to work again in 10.

Segregate the Learning Material

One more way in which you can ensure efficiency when studying is by properly segregating all the learning material that you need to cover. Why? Well, I am sure all of you have a gazillion pdfs, word docs and lecture slides on your phone all stored in hopes that you will cover them in your study sessions, one by one. But more often than not, these just end up getting piled on and it's a pain to navigate through them when you need a particular material.

An easy way to overcome this hurdle is to segregate all the material in custom folders further differentiated by labels. It is better to have all your classwork in one place ready to use instead of having to go through your inbox and the college website again and again. This helps you prepare ahead of time for when you devote attention to that course or subject.

Real-life Scenario #1

Let’s see how these study tips for students are applicable in real-life scenarios. Say Ravi is a second-year Mechanical Engineering student. He follows the 50/10 study approach because through a lot of trial and error, and experimentation he has found out that this is what works best for him. He uses an app where he inputs the course (say Fluid mechanics) and topic (say Viscous Flow) he is working on. He also specifies the type of work that he is doing (homework, first read, intense learning, practice problems, etc.) thus giving a clear category to his session. Ready to do some practice problems, Ravi goes to the Fluid Mechanics folder and quickly locates his lecture slides and notes documents. All that is left to do is turn Study Mode ON and get to work, chop-chop.

At the end of the session, you can analyze the quality of the session through the app and rate the effectiveness of the time you’ve spent. If you aren’t using an app, this analysis can also be done manually. The idea is to track progress and ensure that you do quality work in the time you spend studying. Also, it is a good idea to also track the time he spent on different subjects so that you can prioritize certain subjects to ensure they are not left behind. This study tip for students is sure to make a typical college student’s life easier.

Real Life Scenario #2

Now let’s consider a first-year law-student Daisy. Say her professor announces a Legal Writing Midterm in a week's time. Daisy being a smart student immediately adds the exam to her calendar. Since she is also relatively free today, she plans a study session in advance to prepare for the same exam in the evening. Daisy prefers to study in long stretches and thus, customizes a 2-hour study session. She turns Study Mode ON, so that there are no more distractions, fetches her Legal notes from the folder, and starts her session.

Now say right in the middle of the session, Daisy receives a call from her mother who urgently needs some work done. Daisy ends her study session and notes that it wasn’t productive or rates it as bad on the app. The next day, when she prepares a study plan, the tracking chart or app shows that she had a bad session and hence plans another one to make up for the lost work.

Conclusion

The point of these study tips for students is not to turn you into an obsessed individual who chases after academic success like a raging bull. Instead, these are simple changes to bring about in your day-to-day student life, especially when wondering about how to study for exams. These will surely help you study more effectively so that you can get maximum productivity out of all the time that you invest in a task. The idea is to work smart and #BeUnstoppable.

This article was submitted as an entry to TechSpeak- You Innovate, We Narrate!

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Savri Gandhi - Georgia Institute of Technology

Batch 2021 - present

Savri Gandhi is a graduate Research Assistant at the Aerospace Systems Design Lab and Aerospace Engineering graduate student at Georgia Tech. She always had a keen interest in aerospace structures and flight dynamics and has compiled a degree in Mechanical engineering student from the K J Somaiya College of Engineering.