Effective Study Skills: Get the Most From Your Class Time

Read Time (Total): 11 minutes

Anything can be learned, practiced, and mastered. Anything. Period.

Here, you will learn the skills you need to master your schoolwork, but the true benefit towers over mere schoolwork. These tools and strategies are ones that will help you get the most out of almost any situation that allows for learning….so almost any situation. Do something the right way the first time and you won’t have to waste time with stupid corrections that leave your results mangled and incomplete.

There’s no mystical wall between you and good grades/effective learning; just like anything else, study skills need to be learned and practiced and the best part is, it doesn’t take long.

Note: This GPA trend is from one of the top private college prep schools in Oregon which doesn't mean anything in itself but the students are most definitely pushed very hard by great teachers and challenging material.

[Click graph for bigger version]

This is my middle-high school GPA trend. As you can see, my per term GPA jumped from a 3.2 to a 3.7 after Winter Break of my Junior year, increased to a 3.9 by my last high school term, and up to 4.0 my next term in college. I didn’t all of the sudden get smarter. I sat down during that break and came up with a study system with an emphasis on testing methods and using what works. Here’s what happened and how to do it yourself.

Before we dive in, here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

In this context, “smart” and “intelligent” aren’t useful concepts, they’re usually excuses for not acting on your goals. I can’t count the times I’ve heard some form of, “That person is so smart. The things that come naturally to him/her I have to work on so hard and I’m still not as good.” I’ll devote a whole post to this later but the point is this: barring extraordinary circumstances, no one is born a better or worse learner than the next person. The “naturals” are usually raised in a culture of effective and efficient learning and so it comes “naturally” to them. If you weren’t raised in that culture, it’s something you can learn and master.

This post will focus on two things: note taking and listening. These two things are in my experience, hands down, the most important study skills to have and the biggest indicators of success in learning. If you learn how to take notes effectively and efficiently and you know how to listen productively, you will make astonishing, measurable improvements. I can’t stress this enough. Not only did my per term GPA increase by half a point over academic-night, but I started loving school again and though I work harder, it doesn’t seem like work because I enjoy it. There’s way more to this than can fit in a single post but here’s a good start and the rest will follow.

The beef: [hard content begins here]

Note Taking: How to be Efficient

The Content

What Not To Do:

-Focus on details: This is one of the worst things you can do. Effective learning requires a story. When you read Harry Potter you don’t first study all the characters’ names, the different spells, the locations of each scene, etc…. Instead, you follow the plot-line and you effortlessly learn the details because they all connect. Learning course material is no different.

-Write down stuff you already know: This is a mistake most people make, often times just in order to feel productive–feeling productive doesn’t mean you’re being productive. If the speaker says something you already have a good grasp on, don’t write it down just because everyone else is. If you know it, it’s just a waste of time and energy.

-Take down dates, locations, or other information you won’t be immediately tested on: If the test isn’t specifically about these small details, don’t bother. If you need to, these details are the kinds of things you can look up on Google or Wikipedia. If you miss major concept points because you’re taking down details, that’s A LOT harder to just google and will probably end up consuming hours of your valuable time.

What To Do:

-Copy only important material: Take down anything the speaker writes on the board unless you already know it. Graphs and diagrams are incredibly important.

-Use Keywords/Phrases: Write these in the margins to cue you when you’re reviewing your notes.

-Write Quickly and Abbreviate: Save time.

-Be brief in Shorthand: When you transcribe it later that day, you’ll remember what you meant. The longer you wait to transcribe, the more you’ll forget…and fast.

-Tracking Assistance: Use bullet points, outline formatting, and other symbols to create a hierarchy of importance in your notes. This cuts down on hours of study time later on.

-Number Pages: Before each term write page numbers in the upper right corner on only the front of each sheet (so you have either all odd or all even numbering). This will help you reference your notes’ pages when studying for tests.

-Listen While You Write: Listen and focus on comprehending what the speaker is saying as you’re writing what they already said. It takes a little practice but not as much as you’d think.

The Method

There are three stages to note taking, the second of which has a number of different approaches.

1. Review (8 minutes)

Read through notes from the previous class period prior to the next class time (4 minutes). Read through notes from the readings relevant to the next class time (4 minutes).  They payoff of reviewing previous material before class is just unbelievable. Review main connections and relationships, don’t focus on individual facts. It’ll cut down on time and these concepts are what will help you most when moving on to new material.

2. Notes (Duration of Class Period)

They key to taking good notes is have a good, standard system. There are two broad approaches to note taking: the sentence method and the shorthand method.

-The Sentence Method: Summarize the speaker’s main points in your own words. Write out complete sentences as if you were explaining the concept to yourself in the future and couldn’t remember the speaker’s exact phrasing. Takes up more class time than shorthand but can have a significant effect on comprehension and retention. Teaching is one of the best ways to learn and this method mimics teaching as closely as possible given the setting.

The Sentence Method (Click for Large Version)

-The Shorthand Method: Take notes in short hand using symbols and abbreviations. Use as few words as possible while still getting the main points down. As you can tell by the example below, shorthand is almost impossible to decipher unless it’s fresh in your mind.

In the following example, I had written questions for the informational interview but we ended up having an organic discussion. Instead of stopping the speaker so I could organize my notes, I used a series of improvised location cues to keep track of what he was talking about without having to reorganize the whole page on the fly.

The Shorthand Version (Click for Large Version - Longhand Transcription Below)

3. After Class (25 minutes per class)

Transcribe shorthand notes to full sentences as soon as possible after class and always the day that you take them. This method allows you to spend more of your energy in class on listening, which I’ll talk about in a second, and increases comprehension and retention. Some of the best learners I know swear by this method.

If you use the sentence method, you’ll end up needing to use some short hand and leaving space to fill in details later. If you do this, use this time to write key words in the margins and fill in the empty space you left in your notes.

You’ll almost inevitably use a mix of these two systems so the important thing is to experiment and figure out what works best for you. I personally like to take shorthand notes and transcribe them into full sentences but I’ll spend a little time writing a small paragraph if there’s a complex point I’m not 100% sure I have down. I use symbols in the margins as I go to be able to find certain things fast. For example, a circled star means “important,” a circled Q means “quote,” a circled P means “important person,” etc…

Click for Large Version (Transcription of Shorthand)

[The Cornell Method can facilitate a pretty good mix of the two approaches]

Listening in Class: How to Use Class-Time

Good listening skills are without a doubt the biggest difference between the people who study a ton for tests and just do OK and the people who do minimal studying and ace their exams. Now, you can keep believing the myth that there are just some lucky people who just don’t have to study and magically ace exams but if you’re actually serious about improving your learning abilities you’ll throw this myth out the window immediately.

Sure, there are people who only have to study a fraction of the time that others do and get better grades but it’s not magic: it’s knowing how to use your time and energy in the most productive and efficient way possible.

I’m an example of how you can do this. Check out my GPA trend again. From Sophomore Fall through Junior fall I worked my ass off studying and studying and studying, and look what I got from it. I went from a 2.9 to a 3.2. An improvement but a superficial one. Three-tenths of a point is about all you can eek out of a GPA by just working really, really hard and if you think about it, the B- to B range on the GPA scale shows very little improvement next to a B to A improvement. As everybody knows, there’s a lot bigger quality-of-work gap between a 3.2 and a 3.7 than between a 2.9 to a 3.2.

While the previous note-taking strategies are ones I developed gradually through trial and error and which contribute to a slow but steady increase in performance, the following listening strategies are what catapulted me from a 3.2 to a 3.7 quite literally overnight.

[Note: the GPA is nothing more than a quantitative measure of performance so don't obsess over it. Focus on actually learning and if you use these methods correctly, the GPA will follow.]

Class Time

People usually think of class time as a time when you listen to a speaker, take down information to be studied later, and learn some while you’re there. The first step to conquering learning is to change the way you think about class time.

Class time should be time used primarily to learn and understand what the speaker is saying, and secondarily to take notes to act as a reminder of what you already learned in class. I’d say about 80% of your learning should be from class time. This means that taking notes should not be your primary activity in class. It should be a mental workout and if done properly, for every hour you spend using the following strategies in class you will shave off about 30-45 minutes studying for the big exams.

In other words, practice this stuff and you’ll easily more than cut your studying time in half.

Bad Listening Habits and How to Fix Them

-Listening for facts: As I said before, this is a pretty bad thing to do in your notes but it’s the absolute worst thing you can do when listening–and I know this is somewhat counter-intuitive. Focus on broad ideas and connections and you’ll naturally remember the facts because of how they connect. Think of it this way: each term-long course is a story, each class period is a chapter, and everything is connected by a plot line. Concentrate on finding the plot line, and if there doesn’t seem to be one, make one up. I can’t stress the importance of this enough: the more you connect the information you hear/see, the more you’ll understand and remember.

-Criticizing the Speaker: If the speaker is an asshole, if they’re awkward, etc…make mental note of it and let it go. Get past all that and listen for the content. If the speaker is incompetent but is the only choice you have, blaming your lack of understanding on a bad teacher isn’t going to help and it just makes it look like you can’t do things on your own. A teacher’s job is to facilitate learning, not to make you learn. If the teacher can’t facilitate your learning, facilitate it yourself and find a way to learn the material. No excuses, there’s always a way.

-Calling the Subject Boring/Stupid: If you’re in a class you don’t like but have to be in, you’re stuck there so you might as well make the best of it because it impacts your future, even if only on your transcript, whether you like it or not. The key to remembering what you learn is to make it practical or applicable so find a way.

- Lazy thinking: Einstein said, “Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” Same goes for listening. Expect class time to be a difficult workout and mentally prepare yourself.

-Wasting Class Time: Thought is many times faster than speech. Do these things as the speaker lectures:

Anticipate their Next Point: You will start a dialogue in your head and see more connections than otherwise.

Connect Seemingly Unrelated Ideas: it often brings up good questions you can ask.

-Being a Bad Questioner: There are two kinds of bad questioners:

1. Overzealous: He/she doesn’t connect content and questions are mostly low to mid-level clarifying questions or opinionated-objection related. Be humble in class, there’s a reason you’re a student.

2. Silent Student: Doesn’t say a word in class. May or may not have questions but it doesn’t matter because the student is inactive.

How to Ask Good Questions

-Pay Attention and be Prepared for Class: If you don’t, you can’t ask good questions. Period.

-Ask About Broad Connections: Again with the connections thing. It should permeate your life. Only ask about details if not knowing them would hinder your learning for the day (only about 10% of details fit here).

-Don’t Bring Outside Material into Questions: Do this in your head/notes. If you want the speaker’s opinion, find them after the class, shoot them an email, or go to their office. Class time is to learn the material at hand.

-Phrasing: If you think the speaker is wrong or the material is invalid, form a question that places the blame on your own “misunderstanding” of the material. Always speak as if you assume the speaker to be correct and carefully challenge the appropriate material.

A few words of encouragement: This can all sound like a lot of thinking and can seem overwhelming but remember, at first it’s probably more thinking about strategy than you’re used to but it’s a lot less effort than you think it will be.

The secret, if there is one, is to spend anywhere from 1-3 h ours designing your learning strategy and then make little tweaks as you go. If you use these strategies you can cut your study time more than in half. I now only study for 3 hours max the night before an exam, I’ve had a 3.9 for the last three terms (I could have been putting in more effort), and I’m learning more than ever before.

This year is The Year of the Four-Point.

[The next post along these lines will be how to use your notes and class material to study for exams by minimizing time spent and maximizing short and long-term retention. Want me to let you know when I post? Click "Follow My Blog via Email" at the top right-hand side of this page.]

Good luck and feel free to drop me a line.