Finding and maintaining healthy study habits is one of the challenging parts of A-Levels and University. Habits that work for your peers and friends may not work for you; at times this can be frustrating and can have a knock-on effect on your confidence if you consistently feel as if your work and your revision is not to the same standard as those around you.
Throughout GCSEs and A-Levels, I heard about effective revision techniques from organisations who visited my school. They gave us tips on how to create revision timetables, manage time effectively and advice on how to have a positive mindset towards your exams. And while all these techniques are effective and will benefit you in creating healthy study habits, I often felt and still do feel that when it comes conversations around revision and exams, people leave out the fact that it’s okay to not be perfect. And I believe that remembering that is the first step towards creating healthy study habits for yourself.
Likewise, when it comes to revising, I believe that the best thing you can do is to just start. For myself, and I imagine many others, the build up to writing an essay or revising for an exam can actually feel worse than the task itself; which in turn can often lead to procrastination and increased anxiety around your work. However, picking up a pen or your laptop and completing the tiniest of tasks (whether that’s finding research articles or completing a short practice question) will help you feel like you have achieved something and from there will help you to feel more confident and more at ease moving onto the bigger chunk of revision or part of an essay.
As already mentioned, what works for some students will not always work for others, and one of the biggest mistakes that you can make is not understanding what type of learning works best for you and your brain. There are lots of different ways you can learn. I have always preferred learning visually. When it comes to understanding detailed processes or systems, I like to see it visually in a flow chart or diagram to fully get to grips with it. However, some of my friends and peers have found that listening to podcasts and academic discussions helps further their understanding of a topic far more than a diagram will, which is completely valid. Once you start to figure out what works best for you and will help you retain information, then you are creating a healthy study habit.
I will be the first person to admit that I do not study in a way that would be considered “healthy” – I swap out water for red bulls, vitamin C for copious amounts of coffee and will sit in the library snacking on crisps rather than nutritious food. I know for certain that plenty of other students around the country probably do the same thing. Therefore, this next part is more ‘do as I say not a do as I do’. The first step is to try and stop drinking so many energy drinks or lattes and make sure to drink plenty of water. One or two per study session is completely fine, but the more you drink the less likely they are to be effective and the high levels of caffeine can lead to you feeling more anxious in the long run.
Secondly, stop sitting in one place for 8+ hours a day. I know the library (particularly the bottom floor of the Phillip Robinson) can feel like a place where time does not exist, however it does and spending 8+ hours in one seat probably won’t help you produce work or retain information. Instead, move around – go to a coffee shop, walk and sit in a different library or change what room of the house you sit in. By switching it up, you will find that you focus better and will feel less drained by the end of the day. Similarly, it may sound obvious but eating well is crucial, even if it’s just bringing some fruit with you to snack on alongside the sweets and crisps. That way you’re getting those much-needed vitamins and nutrients into your body that will help you function better.
Lastly, I want to reiterate that the most important healthy study habit you can adopt is taking care of yourself. On the days when I feel like I haven’t done my best or that the person sitting next to me is so much smarter than I am, then I try to remember that everything does work out in the end. It does not matter if you got a C instead of an A or a 50 instead or a 60, your world will not fall apart, it will keep moving and so will you. All that anyone will ask of you is to get up, keep putting in the effort and take care of yourself, because that is all that matters.
Written by Charlotte, a BA Politics and International Relations student
