5 Tips and Tricks for Studying Hard

January 4, 2023 byMelanie Hess

4 min to read

A high school student taking an online class in a purple sweatshirt.

Developing good study habits is crucial to a student’s academic success, whether they’re preparing for their first elementary spelling test or a college entrance exam.

Online students face unique challenges when it comes to studying, such as the difficulty in forming face-to-face study groups and the distractions common to a busy household. Fortunately, these challenges can be easily addressed by taking advantage of innovative resources and helping your student master a few key studying tips.

Read on to help your online student learn how to study effectively.

1. Spread Out Studying Over Time Instead of Cramming

Although it may seem like last-minute studying works, it’s far less effective than you might think. Cramming increases stress, reduces sleep, and creates fleeting neural connections. Because of this, students only remember the content from cram sessions for a short time. They may be able to cram for a unit test and get a passing grade, but by the time the midterms and finals roll around, they will need to relearn everything.

As a Learning Coach, one of the wisest tips for how to study you can give your student is to invest a short period, say 10-15 minutes, in each of their courses 3-5 times every school week. One of the simplest and most effective study methods is for students to review their notes within 24 hours of taking them. Doing so allows students to retain up to 75 percent of what they learn for at least nine weeks, while students who don’t review within a day lose 50 percent of what they learn as soon as 24 hours later. This science-supported phenomenon is known as the Ebbinghaus Curve of Forgetting.

An online student smiling in a white sweater.

2. Limit Distractions

Regular routines like a designated study area in the home and a scheduled study time help better prepare a student’s mind and body for each study session, making their time more productive. Be sure to set study time rules for your child as well. For example, enforcing a household-wide quiet period while your child is studying will limit distractions and help them concentrate better. In some cases, you can implement other simple rules, such as requiring them to put away their phone or tablet while they work on reviewing the day’s material.

However, as an online student, much of their education revolves around technology, and it’s super easy for kids and teens to get distracted (and sneaky!) when they’re supposed to be using computers and smart devices for studying. Fortunately, technology is on your side! As a parent, you can prevent most of these digital disturbances by blocking distracting apps and websites on their devices with tools and browser extensions

3. Set a Goal for Each Study Session

To get the most out of their study time, students need to set a clear goal that establishes what they want to accomplish before beginning any study session. For example, a fifth-grade student’s study session objective could be to memorize the names and locations of the major parts of a plant for their upcoming science test or a high school student improving their score on an PSAT practice exam.

The breakdown method is particularly useful when teaching your student how to study for a test, especially if they struggle with test anxiety. Encourage your student to break down their test prep and large projects into more manageable chunks. Then, when your student begins a new unit or semester, look at their calendar together and work backward from the project deadlines and assessment dates. From there, you can help them fill in their calendar with daily study goals to help them meet these more manageable objectives.

An online student working on her classes with her learning partner.

4. Use Specific Studying Strategies

Use these time-tested study methods to help your student improve their study prowess or even prepare them for how to study in college:

Mnemonic devices/acronyms: Mnemonic devices are words or phrases that can help your student better remember a list of names or a mathematical formula.
Mind maps: Mind maps illustrate the relationship between different facts and ideas and are an effective method of taking notes and planning essays.
Flashcards: Flashcards are small, two-sided note cards that are used to test and improve memory through repeated information retrieval. They’re one of the best ways to study names, vocabulary, and concepts.
Teach it: When students teach others, they learn the material more effectively and remember it longer.
Create or use a pre-made song: Music can help students memorize content (i.e., 50 states, the periodic table) and language acquisition.
Exercise: Exercising before studying prepares the brain and makes it easier to retain information, as it boosts the size of the hippocampus, which is involved in memory and learning.
Make your own study guide: Creating a personalized study guide helps students to organize, condense, and review a large amount of material while determining what content they already know and what they need to spend more time studying.

5. Manage Stress by Mastering Test-Taking Strategies

Experiencing anxiety before a test is normal, especially for high school students who often feel extra pressure to earn good grades or score competitively on college entrance exams. Fortunately, solutions exist, and most students can overcome test anxiety by adequately preparing, arriving early, reading the directions, managing stress during the test, and mastering test-taking strategies.

If you’re looking for study ideas to help with those extra difficult courses, check out Connections Academy’s "5 Study Tips To Making Tough Subjects Easier to Learn."