Successful college students know they must schedule time to study and treat that time as sacred. You must make sacrifices to carve out time to study, and I'm afraid you should expect some suffering. You will have times when you really want to do something else, but have to study instead.
When making your schedule, please keep in mind the following:
____1. Give yourself a realistic amount of time in the morning to get dressed, eat breakfast, and prepare for the day.
I suggest an hour. Schedule some time for lunch and dinner, too. Eating regular nutritious meals will help fuel your brain and body for the rigors of college.
____2. Schedule at least seven hours for sleep.
Less than that, and your brain will have a hard time learning and retaining information. You don't want just study time, you want effective study time. If you're exhausted, your brain won't be able to learn, store, and retain information.
____3. Schedule time for regular exercise--preferably at least 30 minutes daily.
Exercise reduces stress, gets extra oxygen to the brain, and helps prevent depression. If you have a long walk or bike ride to class, that counts.
____4. Schedule at least ten hours a week for recreation or relaxation time.
If you can't carve out that much time, you are probably overloaded. You don't want to burn out, and you're in this for the long haul.
____5. Schedule study time when you are at your best for your more difficult classes.
For most people, their most productive study time will be in the morning or early afternoon. Very late at night is not the greatest time for studying. I tried to get in at least an hour of studying before my first class at 8 am when I was in physical therapy school. We were in class from 8 am to 5 pm, and I was beat at the end of that long day. I knew I needed that hour of good quality morning study time to supplement what I could do in the evening.
____6. Take seriously the recommendation to study two to three hours for every hour you spend in the classroom.
This is so important! You won't know how well you can do unless you're putting in those hours. Cramming at the last minute just doesn't work very well.
____7. Take advantage of "pockets of time".
For example, if you have an hour in between classes, schedule in some study time then if you can. If you have a doctor's appointment, take along material to study for the inevitable time in the waiting room.
Here is a link for more tips on scheduling your study time. I like this site because it has a great weekly chart you can fill out.
http://sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/time.mgt.schedules.html
In the next section, I'll discuss how the brain learns and remembers information. That knowledge will help you get the most out of all those hours of study time!
