Study Hard or Study Easy?

 Photo source: http://hwstheherald.com/wordpress/2011/05/06/the-where-why-and-how-of-studying/

Studying in college is a lot different from studying in high school. Freshmen students find it more difficult to survive their first year of college as they are in a period of transition and adjustment. Breaking through this transition period requires a student to study well in order to succeed and achieve higher performance. Studying well doesn’t have to be hard, it has to be easy.

Study Hard

Students who study hard take longer time in reviewing, in reading texts, and in working on their assignments and projects. They stay late at night, and they don’t find enough time to complete their school requirement. Studying hard means exerting much effort, yet the quality of their output is still the same. 

Students who fail in their academics would also say that they studied hard, but then their performance still show otherwise. Studying hard is understood to be straining the body, stressing the mind to think and stretching the available time.  In some cases, they need to do over their assignments because they were just rushing to do it. 

Those who study hard, do a lot of things which are not even part of their priorities. They spend so much time on less important things and so they find difficulty in completing their requirement. Those who study hard are too preoccupied of other things so they take a hard time in meeting their academic expectations. 

On the other hand, they have no expectations at all. Without a set goal and a set of priorities, they do so many things that are not even necessary for them to do well in their academics. They do not have the drive to achieve because they just do not have goal before them. Their actions are mere dependent on what is taking place at the moment. 

Study Easy

Students who achieve and who succeed in college are often found by others to be doing easy on everything. They seem to find the subjects easy to understand, and they could comply with the requirement with less problems. They know what to do and they know what they want in their status as students. They study with ease. For their teachers, they are a lot easier to handle. They study well.

Students who study easy have clear expectations or goals that they want to meet. They know their priorities in life, and their academics is on top of their priorities. They set the things beforehand, like what they have to do for the day, for the week, for the term. They have a clear end in mind. They strive to achieve that end over time. With their priorities in mind, they know how to use the time they have without even waiting for the deadline.

Students who study easy are active learners. They take down notes. They listen attentively. They ask questions for clarifications. They openly share their ideas and they are humble to accept correction. They use their spare time to review their lessons and they even do advance readings of the topics they need study in a course. Thus, when there are questions during recitations, they could easily respond.  Because they are active learners, they are able to fathom knowledge and to judge them critically. While being critical, they are also open to communication and they willingly share their ideas to others.

Students who study easy have strategies to overcome their learning difficulties or which are suited to their learning preferences. They read voluminous texts with ease, because they know how to preview the material and they have trained their eyes to read rapidly without losing comprehension of the text. They understand numerical problems because they know the basic operation at work. They seek help when they needed it. They use graphic organizers, highlight ideas, paraphrase key concepts, summarize and synthesize. They improve their memory skills through various techniques. They prepare for exams with their personal reviewers.

Students who study easy are engaged in the learning process. They are immersed in the learning experience with high motivation that comes from within them. They take learning with a positive attitude and strong interest, even if their teacher or the classroom climate is not that interesting. As they are engaged into learning, they take steps to learn on their own and to monitor their own learning performance. They are self-regulated learners.  

How do you want to Study?

To succeed in college, one does not need to study hard, one simply has to study with ease. EASE is setting Expectations, Actively learning, using Strategies, and fully Engaging in the learning experience. That is taking every learning experience as an opportunity to improve one’s self and to achieve one’s goal. Studying easy should lead to student’s success without doing things hard and having difficulty to overcome academic challenges.