11 Study tips for students - study smarter not longer

How many hours you should study for a day?

How many hours a student should study?

First of all, I don't find it's healthy to study with a predetermined limited time each day. Rather you should develop the utmost and minimum hours for study per day because you will have freedom with that schedule. It's not just a matter of how long you study, it's about how effectively you study. Two important things to be mentioned here 1. Be Consistent and 2. Be productive.

Be consistent  

If you want to build up the habit of consistency during studying then you should start with at least 2 hours per day. Day by day you can increase the time. Consistency helps students to not be pressurised before an exam. If you can make your mind to read every day for some hours like if one revision of your lectures will help you to a large extent to be confident before any regular exam. Tension, anxiety, nervousness are the reason for forgetting lessons soon. That's why when we read something with stress, we can memorise it faster but we also forget everything very soon.

Be productive 

Let's start the calculation for a week. Then what should be the count? 

If you decide to read 100 hours per week that means every day you have to read (100/7) = 14+ hours in the day. 

Let's make it small. If you read 10 hours per day then you will have 14 hours a day for your extra activities.

You can easily study 10 hours a day by maintaining an adequate sleep, diet, recreation and fun. Maybe more or less than it. 

But should you?

This answer will be subjective. Nobody can make any limit on your brain capacity. This is just a normal analysis through which you can understand by maintaining proper sleep and daily routine how many hours you can study for any kind of comprehensive exam or for learning any topic. You can study more o less than it. 

Every day every subject: You should study all subject every day nevertheless it's the exam. So you won't miss your track and maintain a constant learning pace throughout.

Study routine: Time-division for every course is important. Maybe for a particular week, you have exams so your time limit for that subject should be more than other subjects 

Understand your learning rhythm: Maybe you are a slow or fast learner. By realising your learning speed you can select a particular amount of time for any topic. Set a timer to understand your learning speed. Then take a further step

Discuss with others/ Explain to yourself: Sometimes it takes so many hours to understand any topic. Maybe you set a timer but it takes more than that. And then your study limit or schedule will be messed up. So for learning anything faster you should discuss or explain it to others. If you have No one to discuss then better to explain it to yourself. 

Effective study hours: Spending more hours at your study table doesn't mean you will learn much. Hours spent in learning does not directly correlate to outcomes. And if you spend much more than you should do every day, your brain lost the capability to learn more and you will start losing what you read. Don't do over, it will affect negatively.

Take a break: Taking enough break encourages you to maintain your concentration for a longer period. Most effective study sessions are 1-hour block. this space gives you sufficient time to dive deep into the topic and not to get exhausted.

Manage your Time:  proper planning and organisation are some basic requirements to be a good student. So if you want to study for more hours then the first thing you should do is proper time management.

Eliminate Distraction: Distraction (from technological staff etc. ) should be discarded as much as possible. Reading with full compassion for 2 hours is far better than reading for 10 hours being distracted every time.

Loud Reading: It helps your brain to possess information faster. It makes a connection between the written and verbal word and intensifies attention length. It enhances pronunciation and intonation skills. But it's only applicable when you are alone. Because in your classroom you can't do it. It will be a disturbance for others.

Silent Reading: Silent readers get distracted most of the time because of sleep and concentration problems but this can be your personal choice. On the other hand, silent reading saves time and energy because it's quick. You can read anywhere you want. 

Learn with the story: Learn with the story means to simplify the complex concept by making a story out of it. It is more effective and helps to recall information for a long time. And it's my personal favourite. If you have read something then ask your friends and partner, they will answer you if they can't then you should give the answers. By both of them, you will get a quick revision and you remember the whole topic because you answered someone.

The conclusion 

Before setting a goal, be habitual with a system like making routine, discussing with others. I hope you will do well. Best of luck.