How To Feel Good About Yourself When School Is Kicking Your Ass.

A good plan.

How I prepare study plans

Preparing study plans is one of my favourite ways of planning my work.

They allow me to know the exact amount of work I have to do and the exact amount of time it will take meyou to get everything done. 

I suppose we all have a personal way of doing a study plan, so here’s an easy, step-by-step post about how I prepare a study plan !

1. Take 10 pages out of your study material

Whether your study material is a book or notes you took in class, choose 10 pages out of it.

Do not pick the easiest ones ! This would ruin the whole experience.

2. Start studying and time yourself

Start studying those 10 pages, and time yourself while doing it.

Study normally, like you would do on any particular day of studying : you can highlight passages, annotate your notes/textbook, draw a mind-map, make a short flashcard,… Anything work-related that you would normally do.

3. Check the time it took and don’t worry if it seems like a lot

At the end of the 10 pages, stop the timer and check the time it took you to go through your work. Write that result down.

Do not feel like rubbish if it took you a lot of time to get through 10 pages : you might have made flashcards or mind-maps, or wrote some things down… There are subjects that might be tricky to study (like anatomy or other horrible things that med students have to go through - they are the bravest after law students ;-) ). There are subjects you’ll hate and those will take an awful lot of time… In short, some things will be hard and it’s better to know exactly how much time they take than just roughly estimate it… and get it all wrong !

For instance, it takes me an hour to get through 10 pages of Family law. This is because I highlight my notes and my statute book, I add post-its to my statute book and I quiz myself with the little exercises that the teacher gave us in class. All this takes a lot of time.

4. Repeat steps 1 to 3

And do this for every subject you are studying during the semester.

5. Estimate the time it will take to study the entire material for each subject

After having gone through 10 pages for every subject, divide each of your study material by 10. It will give you the amount of time (in hours, days or even weeks) that you need to cover all the material for every subject.

For instance, I have 279 pages to study to master Family law. Since I need one hour to study 10 pages of it, I’ll need 27.9 hours to get through all of it. One again, write the result down for every subject.

6. Prepare your pens and write your chapters down !

This is when things get funnier !

Take back your study material and write the headings down. By headings, I mean the subdivisions of your material. Depending on the subject you’re studying, it could be “parts”, “chapters”, “sections”,… Whatever the name, write that down and do not forget to note how many pages are included in each headings.

7. You can make step 6 funnier but do not lose too much time !

When preparing your study plan, you can unleash your creativity and end up with really good-looking things.

A really cute study plan can motivate you to study.

You can also use bullet points and check them when you’ve finished a heading. This is what I do and let me tell you something : it’s extremely rewarding to check headings. You feel accopmlished, serious and hard-working !

However do not lose too much time working on your study plan. It is there to help you going through the real work you need to do, and should not distract you too much from all the stuff that needs to be done in order to be ready for finals.

8. Prepare a weekly planner

If you already have a weekly planner, use it.If you do not, prepare one. There are cute ones available here on Tumblr (check @emmastudies : her printables are awesome).

Use it to write down your classes, your commuting time, your meals, the time it takes to wash your hair… everything you have to do in a week. This is what I call “Group 1”.

Do not forget to plan some “mental-health” time = activities that allow you to forget about college : sport, reading, meeting up with friends, shopping, family time,… This is what I call “Group 2”.

Group 1 activities are compulsory : you cannot cancel them and have to build your schedule around them.

Group 2 activities are not compulsory : you can move them around in your schedule.

9. With that weekly planner, draw a plan of action ! 

Using your weekly planner, check how many free hours you have. By free hours I mean the periods of time when you have absolutely nothing to do : no classes, no commuting, no essay writing, no laundry to wash.

Compare this result with the time you need to get through the study material of your different subjects. 

Fill the blanks in your schedule with the headings of your different subjects. For instance, every Monday, I have a three-hour free period between two classes (Family law and European and Comparative Law of Torts, just so you know - we’re getting intimate, don’t you think ?). I’m staying at uni during those three hours and usually go to the library. So, if a chapter from my Corporate law class takes three hours of studying, I will write this down on my weekly planner and plan to study this chapter during that period.

Alternate the subjects ! It is no use studying one single subject for a whole week : you’d end up studying things that were not covered in class (this is difficult). Plus, studying the same subject for a week is just boring.

10. If you end up not having enough time, cancel a “Group 2” activity

If you realize that you won’t have the time to cover everything you need to cover during a week, move a Group 2 activity (from Monday to Friday night, for instance) or cancel it(apologize to your friends of family if they were involved and agree to meet them later).

This is an extreme solution, but you might need to resort to doing it if your week is really busy with Group 1 activities. Here’s my method for a perfect study plan. I hope it will be useful.

Good luck with your studies. I’m sure you’ll all ace your exams !!

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1. Mindmaps - Terms are placed in bubbles on a piece of paper with arrows drawn between them to show how terms are connected.

Good at helping you see relationships between ideas.

Cause you to define a term, then see how it relates to a broader picture.

Can help you see cause and effect, dissimilarities and similarities, and how different ideas interact.

Maybe not good for learning what terms mean.

Particularly useful for essay exams, policy, history, social sciences, and literature.

2. Venn Diagrams - Two circles overlap, with the overlapping section being for writing similarities and the other two sections being for writing contrasts.

Good at helping you differentiate between ideas.

Maybe not good for comparing more than three ideas at the same time.

Particularly useful for essay exams or if you are confused about two similar terms.

3. Time Lines - A line is drawn and labeled with a unit of time (year, point in the book, etc), and events are added above the time they occurred. 

Good at helping you place events in relative order.

Maybe not good if you need to define events as well (there may not be enough space to do so).

Particularly useful for exams that require you to memorize relative order, history, and literature.

4. Flashcards - A card has a term on one side and a definition on the other.

Good at helping you memorize short bytes of information.

Maybe not good for learning complex concepts or connecting concepts.

Particularly useful for learning vocabulary, foreign languages, and English.

5. Vocab lists - A piece of paper has terms written in one column. Next to the terms are their respective definitions in another column. The paper is then folded and used as a memory tool.

Similar to flashcards, but it is easier to see the differences between terms.

Disadvantaged in that the order you see the terms is not random.

6. Step-by-Step How-To Guides - Write how to do a problem step by step. Optionally, include an example to the side that shows each step.

Good at helping you learn how to do methodical problems.

Maybe not good for learning the reason why you do the steps you do.

Particularly useful for math and science.

7. Rewriting Notes - This is not simply making it prettier but reworking the wording so that it is in your own voice.

Good at helping you review concepts thoroughly.

Maybe not good if you are on a time crunch or find yourself not thinking through each word you’re writing.

Particularly useful for classes with a lot of details.

8. Summarizing Notes - Going through your notes and condensing the ideas.

Good at helping you see the main idea/big picture/key facts.

Maybe not good if you want to see the relationships between ideas or if the ideas are very complex.

Particularly useful for cramming.

9. Teaching Someone Else - Tutor someone else, give a presentation to your friends or family, or simply voice your thoughts out loud to a pet or stuffed animal.

Good at helping you understand concepts.

Maybe not good if you don’t know anything at all.

Particularly useful for all classes!

10. Rereading - Rereading notes and diagrams.

Good at helping you review very quickly.

Maybe not good for memorizing or learning concepts.

Particularly useful for skimming right before a test.