How to help your students’ study

Students are often told to go home and study, the issue is many students don’t know how or where to start. By helping students form a routine and create a schedule, it’ll help them know where to start, what to do and hopefully will soon see results in their tests.

Teaching students how to prioritise, section work load and when to take breaks will ensure their study time is used wisely.

Here are a few points you can discuss with your class.

1.Study Area

It helps to have an area set aside for studying and work. A desk in a quiet part of the house or bedroom to minimise distractions. If your students use the same spot every day, they won’t need to set everything up and eventually their brain will be trained that when sat at this desk it’s time to study.

2.What time to study

Having a routine enables them to focus and know what they need to do, but also having a set time will ensure the work is completed. You can discuss with your student’s what time works best for them, whether it’s before dinner or after. This way the students know that when it comes to say 6pm that means its study time.

3.How long to study for?

By setting out how long to study for, it gives students a set amount of time to focus. Discuss with each student what works best for them, it may be half hour, 1 hour, or 2 hours. This can also change the closer the student is to the exam.

4.Organise your space

Procrastination is something that can easily happen, “I can’t work unless my room is tidy”, “my desk is untidy”, “I can’t find the materials I need”. This can often eat up to half an hour of study time. By organising the space and making sure your students have all the materials they need such as pens, pencils, calculator, etc set up and ready, it’ll mean that when it’s time to study they can focus.

5.Take regular breaks

Without regular breaks students can often become less focused and will not utilise their study time wisely. A break every 15-20 minutes to keep hydrated, check their phone and stretch will keep them more focused when they are studying.

6.Minimise all distractions

Try and get your students to get into the pattern of either putting their phone away or giving it to their parents whilst studying. Having a mobile near you with constant notifications makes it that much easier to distract and end up procrastinating. It isn’t just technology that can become a distraction, parents can also distract students from study time. It’s important to communicate the study plan with parents so that they know during these times their child is studying and must not be distracted either by them or their siblings.

7.Prioritise tasks

Students will often complete the easiest tasks first and leave the more difficult ones till later. Leaving the difficult tasks till later only increases stress and anxiety. Teach students how to prioritise their work load by trying the more difficult tasks first, or the ones that have the nearest deadline date. This allows them to identify the areas they are finding particularly hard and either ask you for help or try again another day when they are more refreshed.

Once a schedule has been created, allow the students to add anything they feel important to help them study, this may involve adding background music or organising study groups. Encourage the parents to get involved with the schedule and add anything they feel would benefit their child. This not only allows the parents to know the schedule and follow it but also it encourages the children to continue using the schedule as they have helped create it themselves.

Do you have any helpful tips to help students study? If so, comment below or Tweet us @Staffroomed