Personalizing Your Study Habits by Jordan

Personalizing Your Study Habits by Jordan - January 2014 Scholarship Essay

Studying has always been a difficult task for me to grasp. I’ve never actually been taught how to study, so I had to develop my own methods to ensure my success during school. I’ve always strayed away from the traditional style of studying. There was just something about sitting in a chair for hours staring at a book taking notes and making annotations that just kept me disinterested. It was challenging for me to stay focus and interested in the material I had to study while I felt bored. Ultimately, I had to think of a way to make studying “fun”.

Throughout my years of schooling, I’ve still utilized some traditional methods of studying, but to keep myself interested I started to switch it up from time to time. Personally, I am a very active person and decided to think of a way to combine my athletic life with my academic life. When assigned a book, instead of sitting alone in a quiet room to read, I download the audio version and listen to it when I go on runs. To distract myself from the exertion I put my body through as I exercised, I would focus on the book as a result. I found that if I utilize my study material as a distraction from my body’s fatigue, I tend to concentrate better and my memory on the subject improves. As a result, my test scores showed improvement; therefore I stick to my exercise-inspired way of studying. I found that when you make studying enjoyable, you tend to absorb more information than if you are disinterested. My best advice to anyone looking for a more effective way to study is to figure out a way to combine studying with an activity you enjoy doing.