University study method: find out the effective one

Hi, and welcome to this mega post talking about university study method.

Take at least ten minutes of your time to read it, because the post is epic in length!

But it can only be otherwise.

Indeed:

• In college you invest a lot of time, energy and expectations, and while you do, you surround yourself with them pressures of all those who expect something from you. It is not easy to get by!
• College is completely different from high school, just as different as you are from when you were 14.  And so you have to take a leap of mind.

We will therefore take the time to see together:

• What is, really, a good method of university study. 
• Why the high school study method it works bad at the University
• Le 3 basic rules to change your study method
• THEgoal number 1 that you must have when you study
• The resources you need to start with study better and less

University Study Method: Did They Teach You One?

Concentrate, e come back in your mind for a moment to the world of high school:

• Almost every day for 5 years you are more or less obliged to go to the same place every morning for more than 200 days a year. And in the end you also go there willingly, all your friends are there.
• Every day you spend at least 5 hours in the classroom, together with no more than 25 classmates, with the professors at sneezing distance.
• You have homework to do every day, which is often checked.
• You have periodic queries, homework, quarterly report cards.

The result of this approach is that, to graduate, you just need to:

• Follow a minimum in class
• Do what you are required to do at home

If, on the other hand, you really don't study at all, maybe you go wrong, maybe you lose a year, but in the end you can do it.

With this setting, in fact you hardly need to have a study method. And in fact everyone is careful not to teach you.

The university study method

Now instead, think about how the university works ...

You are more or less abandoned to yourself from all points of view, and you find yourself suddenly having to manage everything from A to Z, between demanding subjects and courses, and without anyone having ever taught you to do it in the right way, that is through a study method suitable for university. 

The result, if it suits you, is that in the end somehow you get away with it, but with three times more effort and trouble than you should.

But if you go wrong, join the ranks of those who drop out of university, or stay there for a demoralizing time.

In fact, the guys who face the Spanish university without a effective study method, or worse, without an absolute method, they have it in front of them a desperate undertaking.

 When your university study method DOESN'T work

In college once abandoned to yourself, a lot of unpleasant things happen:

• You make a lot of effort
• Get low grades
• You study a lot without getting results
• Argue with parents
• You feel stupid or maybe guilty
• You graduate late
• You risk dropping out

And learning becomes a obstacle course where you have to deal with problems like:

• Lack of motivation
• Inability to concentrate
• Poor memory
• Indifferent or scarce professors
• Very difficult subjects

All these problems can be countered and solved using a complete and efficient university study method.

The first three steps of your new university study method.

As I said before, you are used to studying in a way that, more or less, is the same as you learned in elementary or middle school: read, repeat, maybe make some patterns.

It is by no means an efficient system, but you have been using it for so long that it is exhausting to break away from it.

To learn something new you must, as always, first of all look with detachment and critical sense at the method you have used so far.

And then get out of your comfort zone to change what's needed.

For this reason, your new university study method begins with three new rules. 

# 1 Stop studying "hammered"

The study method that is taught in most schools is more or less that of the early 900s: ball forward and pedaling.

That is, massacred on the books while everyone tells you how important it is, in life, to get the c ** o. First at school and then at work.

Because in this the mentality of our society is that of the anthill, or of the mine owners of the 1800s ...

Are you on the books for 2 hours and have no results? Stay 3!

Are you there for 3 hours and still no results? Remove 4.

Are you 4 and still not enough? Take it off 7, 9, 14 or as much as necessary.

Can't make it yet?

Well, you are still a slacker, or at the limit "you are not brought".

In short, everyone is very worried that you do more, while hardly anyone tells you that things can be done more intelligently.

Thus, apart from a select few, even those (and in percentage they are not many) successfully finish university often do so with great effort, and without having really developed an effective study method.

That is, he does it "with a hammer", with an effort of will and an enormous amount of work, and above all unnecessary.

# 2 Defeat the anthill mentality

develop a study method that gets you out of the anthill you have to  change these paradigms in which you found yourself immersed.

One moment though!

Maybe you are among those who grew up according to the mantra of working hard, one of those guys to whom the only thing they have been able to say in times of difficulty has always been “you don't do enough, beat yourself up harder”.

And so you too are convinced that there are no shortcuts, systems, strategies.

And that the only way forward is kicking your ass on books by reading and repeating, while everything else is black magic.

Then let's understand immediately:

Working hard has its good points, but it's not a good reason to get dull.

There are guys who graduate with honors studying no more than two to three hours a day.

They are not geniuses, they are just kids who have learned new strategies and have thus discovered that success in studying is not only achieved by working more, but also and above all by working better.

So the first thing you need to get out of your head to learn a good method of university study it is precisely this idea of ​​hard work as a panacea for all ills but also as an alibi for all failures.

# 3 Find time to change

Imagine that you are a sage, one of those like Master Yoda in Star Wars, and imagine that you are walking in a forest, one with trees so big that you are not able to fully embrace one with your arms.

Suddenly you run into a man feverishly busy cutting down a tree.

You have a gasp of ecology, but then you realize that the tree is not only old, but rotten, big, and threatens to fall for a moment destroying the man's house.

"What are you doing?"

Ask the man, mostly to start a conversation and see if he needs anything.

The man replies annoyed, without even looking up from his work:

"Do not you see it? I'm trying to tear down this goddamn tree before it knocks me down and everything dear to me."

You look at his tired and worried face and ask him:

"How long have you been working on it? You look exhausted"

"For more than eight hours"

He answers.

"My arms and back hurt, I'm broken, but I have to go ahead and get the job done, so get out"

The man looks desperate, so you look at the ax with which he is hitting the tree and you realize that it is so worn that it looks like a hammer. You then tell him:

"Why don't you stop for a few minutes, and while you rest you sharpen the ax you are working with? I can help you do that, and I'm sure you would go much faster after that"

The man turns to you for a moment looking confused, then looks at you as if you were crazy and says:

"I have no time to rest or to sharpen the ax! Can't you see I'm too busy cutting the tree?"

The behavior of that man, which appears so clearly absurd in the metaphor, is the behavior of most people when facing life.

They are so busy doing that they completely forget to learn how to do better.

And so, most of the students are so busy studying that they forget to learn to study.

But is it logical to work like this?

The # 1 goal of a good college study method: to make you free and happy

Think about it… When you study happy and quickly, you sure get great results.

While the reverse is not always true!

Because the anthill mentality makes life hell, e it does not make you study better, nor do you get better results.

Indeed, you end up using it as an alibi:

• I spent the afternoon on books, but I just can't study!
• I did my best but it went wrong!
• I worked on it all night but there wasn't enough time!

90% of the time these phrases are the alibis of those who only know how to do more, but never better. And this happens because you are lazy, and you never want to try something new.

Now, do you know what the main problem of the readers who write to me is?

It is certainly not the "success"In the study.

But it is the suffering and stress that exam preparation brings with it.

That is, students want to do well, but above all they want to feel good

For this reason a good method of university study it does not only deal with study techniques, but also with what is going on in your head.

And like this:

• You learn to study quickly and well
• Smart solutions are found
• Less conventional strategies apply
• Everything is done better and faster

Because these are the things that really make you capable, free, and protagonist of your life and your choices. 

That is, in a word, happy.

Not just "kick your ass" * like a donkey.

* Note: but it counts that occasionally you will have to do your ass, but it will do you good, build your character.

 My university study method

For a university study method to be efficient, linear and simple it must be complete and balanced.

I say this because I realize, from what my readers write to me, that in general everyone places too much importance on this or that single aspect. 

While the real problem, as always, lies in theequilibrium of the whole.

And after all, it is not so complicated to develop an effective and complete study method: try to get an idea by reading this article on the 5 fundamental elements that make it up. 

Mostly my students of memory techniques they live in the illusion that, once they learn the techniques, all their study problems are solved.

But that's not the case at all!

Of course, the techniques are very powerful, and can help mask many preparation flaws.

But studying is a complex activity, of which memorization is only part.

Tiring, but still a part.

In fact, you may have developed a super memory.

But if you've lost motivation and don't feel like studying, the little time you spend on books is as frustrating and tiring as hard labor.

You keep staying in the anthill, only working less!

But maybe you are very motivated and willing but have a hard time memorizing

In this case you will get results, but with a huge effort.

Or maybe you study quickly but you don't know how to organize the work

In this case, you will probably pass the exams, but it will take you longer than necessary.

Or by being chronically late and then stressing yourself out and exhausting yourself on the last night before the test.

Resources and strategies to improve your study method

The British call "one trick dog" (the dog that knows only one trick) those people who have a single strength, a single resource. And outside of it, I am unable to cope.

The purpose of a study method, on the other hand, is to go beyond the single technique and make you become one student full of resources and solutions.

In the GetPersonalGrowth blog you will find what you need to:

• Improve your mental focus
• Rediscover the desire to study
• Learn speed reading and skimming
• Use mnemonics
• Take notes like a champ

And much more.

Read the articles, try and try again the strategies I recommend, try to understand what is right for you and what you don't need and don't care about ... But above all, keep your mind open and your desire to change high!

A greeting. Anthony.