General Resources: Study Tips

Recognize that your academic success is your responsibility.
In order to succeed, you must prioritize your work, your time, and your resources, and take responsibility for your success.

Determine your learning style and adjust your study habits accordingly.
Not everyone learns in the same way. If you learn verbally, perhaps you can use audiotapes. If you learn best in the morning, try to organize your day so you can study in the morning. Use your strengths to your advantage.

Take good notes.
Your lecture notes will serve as an important tool for preparing for tests, understanding the material, and recalling information later. Take detailed notes and review them after class to make sure they are clear.

Keep yourself organized and manage your time.
Make a “To Do” list and prioritize it so that the assignments that are due first are done first.

Create a learning environment. 
Eliminate distractions from your study area so you can concentrate fully on studying.

Do more than just read.
When you read, ask questions about the text and search for connections. Make an effort to determine what the point of a chapter is, and when you have finished reading, review to make sure you understand what you’ve read.

Exercise, eat right, and get some sleep.
Your brain can’t function at its top level if you don’t get food, exercise, and sufficient sleep.

Manage your stress.
College can be stressful, but stress-management techniques can help. Set realistic goals, learn to relax, and learn not to worry about things you can’t change.

Try something new.
If you’re having trouble with a problem or a concept, look at it from a different angle, combine it with another concept in a different way, or look at it in relationship to other things.

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Useful Web Links

Study Tips and Strategies
This site, created by the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, Minnesota, provides extensive study tips and strategies for students in all fields, and in a number of languages. Topics range from managing your time to memorizing and organizing projects. There is a section devoted to students with ADHD.

Study Skills
For an extensive collection of tips on improving your study skills, visit this site from the Indiana Career and Postsecondary Advancement Center.

InfoZone
This site includes excellent information about preparing research projects, including where to find information on the Internet.

Study Skills Guide to Note Making
For extensive information about taking notes that will help you remember information and succeed in college, visit this site, created by the Institute of Communications Studies at the University of Leeds.

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Additional Support for Students with Disabilities

Captioned Media Program
This program, operated by the U.S. Department of Education, provides free, open-captioned media for hearing-impaired students and educators.

PACER Center—Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights
The mission of PACER Center is to expand opportunities and enhance the quality of life of children and young adults with disabilities and their families, based on the concept of parents helping parents.

Special Education Resources on the Internet (SERI)
SERI is a collection of Internet accessible information resources of interest to those involved in fields related to Special Education.

National Federation of the Blind
The NFB is the nation's largest and most influential membership organization of blind persons.

National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
NLS administers a free library program of braille and recorded materials circulated to eligible borrowers by postage-free mail through a network of cooperating libraries.

National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) is a nonprofit, grassroots, self-help, support and advocacy organization of consumers, families, and friends of people with severe mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety disorders.

Learning Disability Association of America
The Learning Disabilities Association of America is a national, nonprofit organization whose purpose is to advance the education and general welfare of children and adults of normal or potentially normal intelligence who manifest disabilities of a perceptual, conceptual, or coordinative nature.

Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic
The nation's educational library for people with print disabilities, RFBD provides educational materials in recorded and computerized formats from kindergarten through postgraduate level.

National Association of the Deaf
Founded in 1880, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is the oldest and largest organization representing with hearing disabilities in the United States.

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