At some point everybody wondered how can somebody constantly keep on getting A’s on their exams and wonder is it just given to some but not others or is there a secret to the high achievers. Our brain is not something that learns by itself and we constantly need to stimulate it and build new neurons and pathways every time we learn something. Repeated activation of networks of neurons strengthens these connections.
In the end it is not just about our brain or time that high achievers spend studying for material, but its rather simple solution which are habits high achievers tend to fall on.
Define Habit: An acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary: “The habit of looking both ways before crossing the street”. Make sure you check out my post on TOP Internet Hacks Every Student Must Know.
Let’s talk about these habits that high achievers tend to have and do daily.
1. Get Organized
Majority of us are not organized in areas that we really should be organized in. The importance of being organized will play a major role not just in school years but also your life. Keeping everything together and coming to school prepared with all the materials needed as well as pens, pencils, calculator, and any other materials needed.
Start by organizing your binder, stop keeping everything together. Get a separate binder for all your assignments you did before and new assignments in separate folder. This will ensure that your binder doesn’t fill with papers that you don’t need and papers that you need and will take you time to find it when needed. Also keep multiple highlighters and highlight material with one color if you understand and different color to come back to before exam and go over again.
Another thing I’ve noticed in University is that many students still walking around with a pencil and a notebook or just a laptop. Then, every time when we meet up as a group, they are asking for materials from other students. Stop trying to carry everything in your hands either, get a backpack if you don’t have one yet.
Being organized will not only help you in school but in your whole life, so learn this habit as a necessity for your future success, which leads us to another topic.
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2. Set Your Priorities Straight!
When you have homework or any other task that you need to do, what do you do? Do you shut everything down but your assignment? or whenever you get a text from your friend or your tv show starts you immediately drop everything and prioritize that other matter first?
Well, high achievers are known to have their priorities straight! If you have assignment to do, then shut everything down that could distract you, even involving Turing your cell phone off or you phone calls, texts unanswered because you have something much more important to do than hearing from your friend about their problems, that can wait.
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3. Studying Everywhere
When it comes to studying, high achievers tend to study not just in common places, but also at places you never thought is possible to study. There should not be a particular place for you to study, but instead next time you are doing something like riding a bus, waiting in line for your food, try instead pulling out your notebook and reading it. See, high achievers tend to be able to study anywhere, in the end as long as they get the material they are studying for, they are satisfied.
See, there’s always time to study, and people find unusual places to study like walking to their class (not recommend), in the bus, or even in the bathroom (to each their own). See, theres not really a particular place you should study at, but instead there’s always place to study and not just a library or a coffee shop.
4. Timing Assignments and Working on Them Ahead of Time
Almost every major assignment assigned that’s due at the end of a term is usually assigned ahead of time and you have time to work on it. Don’t leave it because you think that it will be relatively easy thing to do. Simply, don’t procrastinate on any work assigned, get a head start on any major assignment and get ahead by working on it early on.
High achievers tend to start everything way ahead of time or in other words way before the assignment is due. Procrastinators will leave the assignment for the last week or even last weekend before the assignment due, resulting in any questions that may come up not being answered timely and resulting in a bad grade.
In real world this approach won’t work, you might be given only few days to create, obtain, contribute, or put any information together to present and if you fail that, then this will most likely result in not so good of an ending for you like a termination.
Give your assignments a head start instead of leaving it for the last minute.
5. Take Great Notes That You (Actually) Understand
The secret here is simply to learn how to properly take notes and writing them the way you would retain the information when you refer back to study or use for your homework.
Taking proper notes is crucial for any success, but also writing everything that your professor or employer says at a meeting or conference is a complete waste of time. It is nearly impossible to listen and try to write everything professor says. If you don’t understand, you should ask question but also have few colors of highlighters on you and highlight what you don’t understand.
My problem is that I have definitely imp\roved my note writing technique but I don’t write neatly at all. Then when its time to study, I tend to look at my notes like somebody else wrote them. Properly organizing and understanding your notes is another secret of high achievers.
Next time after class also try to write an overview of the class or a meeting that you had in brief sentence or two and you will see the results for yourself.
6. Put Some Initial to Everything You Submit (Neatness)
This might sound simple but it applies into materialistic way. Anytime you do work on an assignment or a job assignment, you need to put initial into it, so that the person simply from looking at it will be amazed. This applies to the papers that you submit or assignments that you do.
Inspect you paper for any bends and make sure everything is in order as you wanted it to be. Do everything as it is your last time doing this assignment and make it presentable to the other person reading it. Why do you think food and drinks you order at restaurants and cafes add that presentation of their product. Just put some initial to everything that will be read by somebody else, you will be surprised with the results.
7. Try Studying Together
It is proven by many experiments that studying in groups could actually improve your academics. The reason behind this is by studying or doing homework together in a group of people, you will be facing different methods your group members are using which you might find it much easier one way than another approach you took.
If you seem to be having trouble studying alone, try studying in a group. In the beginning of a semester, just ask people around if they want to study together. You will also most likely will become good friends if you continuously study together throughout semester.
8. Test Yourself On Material
Now a days professors tend to mention what’s on exam, highlighting the material is one thing but trying to study for it might not work traditional way and you might need to consider notecards. There are many resources available online, primarily quizlet where you can build your own flashcards and access them any time you want without need to carry them
Bottom Line
I hope yo found this post informative and learned few things, I know I have 🙂 . As you can see the success in anything, either it is academically or anywhere in personal life simply depend on you and what you do about it. It is not secret that high achievers go beyond the minimums because they are aware of the results that minimum brings. Start practicing these techniques as soon as school starts and share you experience with me!
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Richard Barnett is a student majoring in finance, entrepreneur, marketer, content writer, budget traveler, and financial blog “Student Money Adviser” owner. You can read more about me here.