Determine when and where you are the most productive. If you are a morning person, make plans to rise early and allot enough time for plenty of sleep the night before. Some might feel at their best at night and others prefer to complete all tasks in the early afternoon, leaving their evenings free. Along with finding your most productive time of day, determine how you are most alert. Some prefer to be seated at a table or desk, while others are most comfortable sprawling. Figure out which combination is most effective for you and schedule that time for studying on a consistent basis.
Take responsibility for your learning. If you determine early on that you alone are responsible for the information you intake, you will be more receptive to figuring out a different way of doing it if one way is not as effective. For instance, if you do not grasp a concept and reading over the material is not helping, you may need to seek out the teacher or another student who does.
Teach yourself to prioritize and act accordingly. When you prioritize, you determine the things in your life that are most important either in the long term or at that time. For instance, if a paper is due the next day, you must get enough rest and food for energy, but you may need to forgo that birthday party you meant to attend. Teaching yourself to make studying a priority every day will help you keep up to date on your homework and allow you to avoid marathon study sessions. When you set aside a time for studying, devote yourself to it wholeheartedly. While halfhearted studying is likely better than nothing, it is not nearly as effective in the long run.
You will be a more effective studier if you can pin down your specific learning type. Visual, auditory and kinesthetic are the three main learning styles, and although all three are often utilized with effective studiers, most people fall into one primary category. A visual learner will have learn more with anything they can view or read. Auditory learners need to hear or vocally repeat something for it to be most effective, while a kinesthetic learner may need to write it all out to get the information settled. Playing to your primary sense can make your study experience more effective.