School is starting soon and that means that midterms and exams will hit you like a ton of bricks. But I have some good news for you, I have compiled the best study tips and habits to help you throughout the school year. Regardless if you are in the first or fourth year school never stops being about learning, so let's learn how to learn! 

Tips:

Start Early

Possibly the most important one, especially for first years. When you are fresh out of high school you are not used to the sheer amount of content that is dumped on you in university. So if you left only 1 day to study for an exam in high school, don't do that in university! Trust me, it will just cause you so much (avoidable) stress. And you upper years- don't think you are above this tip! Even though you guys are experienced with university entering a new year is like being a first year all over again because you don't know how much content a new class is going to be and how the professor teaches.

Take larger tasks and break them into smaller ones:

This one is self-explanatory. It feels like in university there are only big tasks and when you have to get all of them, it gets so overwhelming. So my pro tip is for exams divide the tasks into lectures and, if you start early enough, divide the lectures in half and cover them daily. 

Use visuals: 

if you are a visual learner it helps so much to look at pictures. If your professor doesn't put them into slides then just search them up! I use this a lot! As someone in medical laboratory science, I take a lot of health sciences and you will be surprised how many times this tip saved me. 

Study sheet: 

Try to summarize a lecture/ big topic by making a sheet with all the essential definitions, concepts, and diagrams. This will help you memorize it since you will be writing it down; make these without looking!

Put that phone away:

I know, this one is so basic. Who hasn't thought of this? But the truth is we all know that putting away your phone will help you focus but we just won't do it. So this is your sign to put your phone far away so you will be too lazy to get up and retrieve it.

Reward yourself and take efficient breaks:  

I know it might sound crazy to relax during exam seasons but it's so important to give yourself a well-deserved break. Emphasis on the well-deserved, don't be giving yourself breaks for only making a to-do list (even though we are all guilty of doing something like that). But, on the other hand, don't deprive yourself of grabbing a bite to eat after successfully finishing an exam or even a couple of lectures. At the end of the day, your well-being is the most important thing for you to excel at anything :)

Studying Techniques to Try:

Now that we have discussed some tips let's talk techniques.

Active Recall:

After studying a topic try asking yourself questions to see if you know your stuff or need to give some concepts more practice.

The Pomodoro Technquie: 

The Pomodoro technique is when you work for 25 minutes and take a break for 5 minutes. This helps you stay on track and prevent you from taking extremely long breaks or exerting yourself for too long.

And there you go! I hope you guys find these tips useful and best of luck!!