Do you want to know the most effective study tips for college that’ll send your grades out of this world?

If you answered yes, read on to know what the 7 best study tips for college students are (with a bonus tip at the end)!

Secret #1: Read Before Going To Class

This is the handy trick of any successful student that you find.

Here’s the thing with college lectures:

In most cases, professors expect you to know what is being discussed in class.

They anticipate you to ask well-thought out questions that seek to clarify the material being discussed rather than teaching the entire concept from square one.

That’s why many students don’t get much out of a lecture. It’s not set up to teach you what you need to know.

Now because of this reality, this can serve an advantage for you.

Why?

Because not many students will ask these well-thought out questions.

As a result, not only will you get more out of the lecture because you are on the same wavelength with the professor on the subject matter, but you will stand out as someone who actively participates in a lecture rather than just being a bystander in class.

Actively participating in class doesn’t contribute much to your grade (if at all), but it’s useful because if you participate consistently, you build the professor’s trust in you and possibly earn a recommendation letter down the line, which is something that DOES matter in getting a job.

And not only will you gain an advantage for yourself in that regard, you will also force your classmates to listen to the lecture on your own terms instead of someone else’s terms.

This will hurt their grade and you can send some of your classmates transcripts down the tubes when it comes to applying for jobs.

This might seem like a crazy strategy, but from my experience, it works.

Let me tell you how this happened.

A few times in my classes, I would read beforehand and have questions ready to go for the professor.

Most people would just sit there and not pay attention.

Then there were some individuals who would ask questions, but weren’t playing as hard as I was in the lecture.

When they tried to ask a question, I would raise my hand instantly to “block” them from asking their question (and say my question out very loudly) and I would get my question answered.

Most of the time, they wouldn’t ask the question they wanted to ask for whatever reason and as a result, I became the dominant force in the lecture and hence, their test scores suffered.

Do you see how college is a game?

Not only can you study more efficiently, but you can force others to look elsewhere when they need to study.

And in most cases, students won’t go elsewhere and they will be lost and complain.

So a score for you.

You might say “I might become disliked and viewed as unprofessional.”

That’s an understandable concern and some professors took me aside and asked me to stop doing that, but it didn’t lead to any consequences at all.

In fact, it helped me get the top test scores in each of my classes.

If you are not sold, let me tell you a story about a basketball team with the best culture in the NBA.

The Miami Heat is arguably the most elite franchise in all of basketball, not just the NBA.

They are known as the hardest working team in the NBA and the team that does not stop going after it when it’s game time.

For the last 25 years up to this writing, they have dominated the NBA with 14 division titles, 6 conference championships and 3 NBA World Championships.

For all of the world championships, they had star power, but for the 2019-2020 season, there was something different.

They didn’t have a superstar on the team.

They had 2 all-stars, but that was it.

The rest of the players were rookies or seasoned veterans who typically wouldn’t do so much.

But when they all got to the Heat, things changed quickly.

Everybody pegged them to miss the playoffs or barely make it as the 8^th seed (the worst team in the playoffs).

That wasn’t what happened.

They took the NBA by storm, going an extremely impressive 29-12 through the first 41 games of the season and making the NBA Finals, taking 2 games away from a LeBron James led Los Angeles Lakers team who were expected to sweep the Heat after 2 of the Heat’s most important players got hurt during game 1.

How did they do this?

Well, look at their site here and you’ll see why.

Now how does this apply to you as a student you might ask?

Here’s the deal:

College is a competition.

Read that sentence again.

You are competing for a limited number of jobs on a crowded marketplace (depending on your major).

Therefore, you have to think with a competitive and ruthless mindset and ask yourself “How can I get an edge over every student out there?”

And when you do that, you put your foot to petal and just run over everyone with what you do with extreme fierceness.

And THAT is how you dominate everyone in the room.

Play hard or go home.

It’s that simple.

And now for one of the all-time favorite study strategies of the super successful students:

Secret #2: Active Recall

This is the secret sauce of every successful student who has ever walked on Earth.

Here’s how it works:

Whenever you review something you have read or watched for class, you verbally recite it without looking at your notes.

This way, you simulate the testing environment without being reliant on your notes to save you (which you most likely won’t have on the tests you take).

This activity will force your brain to go deep into its memory bank and recall word for word everything it has to know.

Additionally, when you do this active recall technique, you will close your eyes while doing it and make yourself the teacher of an imaginary class that is listening to you talk.

I swear by this strategy because not only have I benefited from it directly, but research backs my points up completely.

There are a multitude of studies that have compared different study methods and these studies all say that active recall outperformed other study methods like simply reading notes and reciting the material only one time.

This is true.

The reason for this is because when you simply read notes, your brain is not as active in the learning process. The signals in the brain don’t work as much and it won’t know how to navigate the material properly.

With active recall, the brain is “active.” It is taking in a lot of information ad it is adapting itself to handle it, just like your muscles trying to adapt to heavier weights as you progressively overload them.

The brain works the same way.

Think of simply reading and simply watching videos as if you were at the gym lifting the same weight over and over again.

You wouldn’t get any progress.

Why?

Because your muscles are not enduring more forces and hence, it can’t withstand those forces when your body goes up against them.

When you do active recall, it will be extremely hard at first because it is like you are lifting heavy weights at the gym. You have to train it to acquire a lot of information and get to it as fast as possible.

When you do this, the signals in your brain will materialize and it will access that piece of information quicker.

It is like developing big muscles after all.

Now another performance enhancing drug that successful students use is closing their eyes while doing it.

This does sound crazy, but this is yet another technique backed by research.

According to a study from the University of Surrey, when participants were asked to watch a video of an electrician stealing equipment from a job site, 1 group of participants was asked to recall their recollection of the events with their eyes closed and one group was asked to recollect the events with their eyes open.

The study showed that the group who closed their eyes recalled 23% more information than the group who had their eyes open.

This is a significant difference considering 23% could mean the difference between an A and a C.

I bet that students who actually put in the work aren’t getting results because they are using the wrong techniques.

Maybe you were using the wrong techniques yourself, resulting in you clicking on this post today.

Now here is a case study that I can testify to.

There was a student who went to MIT and initially had difficulty mastering physics (for anyone taking a physics class, it’s not the same as that program you have to buy to do homework).

He would miss 30% of the problems he encountered, which by all standards raises a lot of question marks going into test day.

He did something similar to what I and many students do in that he “lectured to the wall.”

I don’t know if he had his eyes closed if he did this, but basically, he used active recall to internalize the concepts as if he was teaching an imaginary class.

The results:

He breezed through the textbook, he got all A’s on his chemistry major and he got the highest GRE scores for every applicant applying to MIT.

It goes to show the effectiveness of this technique.

And you CAN implement this starting today and get results.

I encourage you to print out this post and read it again while taking handwritten notes (not typed) and performing the technique to the best of your ability with your eyes closed.

I guarantee that you will retain the vast majority, if not all, of the information in this post and in everything else you read.

And with this technique, you will not just ace your tests, but you will apply your knowledge to the real world in a ridiculously powerful way.

Now here is a research-backed productivity schedule that is guaranteed to make you perform like superman (or superwoman) on exam day!

Secret #3: 90-30 Rule

This is one of the best study tips for college exams. AND, it’s researched backed.

Let me explain how it works.

The 90-30 rule says that you will work for 90 minutes straight without interruption and with 100% focus on your task.

You then break for 30 minutes and take your mind off of whatever you were doing.

This was tested by Florida State University in a study done on high achieving individuals who reported that using this technique resulted in their increased performance compared to everyone else.

The reason this technique works is because our bodies operate in 90 minute intervals in that we have periods of work and rest that are biologically programmed to this number.

When we sleep, we do this. We go through 90 minute intervals when we sleep.

It’s a set number that we have to be the best that we can be.

I personally used this strategy and when I implemented it, my grades went through the roof.

The worst semester GPA I got throughout my last 2 years of college was 3.85.

It really is a powerful work schedule and I suggest you try it next time you study instead of studying for, say, 4 straight hours (tried it; doesn’t work even though it’s fun).

Secret #4: Handwrite Your Notes

This one is research backed to the tee.

According to a study done by Princeton University, 2 groups of students were instructed to watch a lecture and take notes on it with a test on the lecture coming a week later.

One group was instructed to take notes by hand and the other group was instructed to take notes by laptop.

The researchers performed the test and they concluded that those who took notes by hand scored higher on the exam than those who took notes with a laptop. More specifically, the group who took their notes by hand had scored 0.39 standard deviations higher than the group who took their notes with a laptop.

This means the handwritten group had their bell curve much higher than that of the laptop students.

In the article linked here, you will see the average score across the board and the average scores for each of the groups.

Do you see how big of a difference that is?

This means that if you are typing out your notes and you notice your exam scores are low, this is the reason.

Typing out notes does not engage the mind.

The mind doesn’t exert energy from typing notes out and as a result, you can’t shape the material the way you want to.

As a result, you don’t understand what you are reading.

Sure, you can get away with typing notes for, say, history (I hope you aren’t majoring in that for your own good), but nonetheless, writing out the notes will internalize your thoughts and you will be able to create what you are doing since you’ll be able to know the mechanisms of what you are studying.

Do you understand?

Oh and if you are in a big lecture hall, just look at the amount of people typing their notes and then look at the class average and you will see why it is ineffective for retention.

Now let’s explore another study technique that is extremely useful when you just don’t know something and you feel clueless.

Secret #5: Lateral Thinking

In a nutshell, this is outside of the box thinking.

I also want to distinguish the conscious brain and the subconscious brain so you can fully understand this strategy.

The conscious brain is what you have control over. It’s your judgment (prefrontal cortex) and the parts of the brain that control emotions (amygdala), motor skills (cerebellum) among many other things.

Now, the subconscious brain is what you DON’T have control over. This controls what you dream about at night.

The role of the subconscious is to take all of your thoughts and experiences and assemble them to create different experiences for you at night and to solve problems that the conscious brain is unable to solve.

With this background information on the brain, let me show you how lateral thinking works and how it applies to a test setting.

Before you consider lateral thinking, the first thing you do is you look at the problem you have and you try to solve it with the knowledge you have at your disposal. Try to think critically through it with the concepts you know.

If you feel like your brain is frying up, this means you don’t have the knowledge in your conscious mind.

This is when you have to use lateral thinking to solve the problem you have.

What you’ll do is look at the problem and understand what needs to be solved and why.

Really get it down in your head.

Try not to overthink the problem when you do this.

Next, you will move onto something else.

Don’t even worry about the problem or question. Don’t even try to solve it.

This is to get your brain out of the box and to allow the subconscious to go to work on the problem.

What your subconscious is doing here is it’s taking all of the data it can and figuring out the problem from multiple angles.

Eventually, you will have a “lightbulb” moment when your intuition is telling you to consider this solution as the answer.

Right then and there, you go to work on the problem you are trying to solve.

At this point, your conscious has enough information to think about the problem and attempt to solve it or to answer a question.

Please note, the answer to your question might involve anything, even an Instagram story for all we know.

No seriously. It can. Nothing is out of bounds with this technique.

Most of the time, you will reach the correct answer.

Now with the overview of lateral thinking, there are 3 scenarios where you can apply this technique academically:

1. You get a question from a chapter or a section that the professor said wasn’t going on the test (ex. The professor said the test would only cover chapters 6, 7 and 8, but he put a question from chapter 9)

2. You are dealing with a subject that is not very clear cut and you need to really think about what you are doing (ex. Dynamics)

3. You don’t know something you knew you had to know (ex. You knew section 6.2 was going on the test, but you didn’t study it enough and it shows up on the test)

Let me tell you my experience with all 3 scenarios so you can get an idea of how this works.

For scenario one, I had this test one time where the professor said, in class, chapter 9 was not going on the test.

As you can imagine, I didn’t study it for that test.

However, I got a surprise.

It was there.

So I had to get creative.

I didn’t try to solve it and I didn’t think about it.

Then, a lightbulb moment came.

For this explanation, I will be bringing up some terminology of the concept that was tested on, but this will give you insight to the specific application lateral thinking.

I remembered the professor saying something about the volume being the area under the curve.

So I thought “Well, this must be the answer.”

So I went ahead and correctly identified that the area under the curve was the volume of the concept in question.

Now here comes the thing I did wrong.

I had a preconceived notion that volume units had to be one specific way (since I was used to it).

But little did I know that there was another way that it could be reported and the correct answer had the other way I didn’t know about and that I could’ve figured out instantly.

As you can imagine, I got that answer wrong.

Why?

Because I kept myself in the box instead of rolling with what my subconscious was telling me.

Using this experience, I told myself to trust the lateral thinking process the next time a question that wasn’t supposed to be on the test shows up.

Indeed, this happened again. This time, I ended up with scenario C).

On a final exam that same semester, I came across a question where we were supposed to know a particular formula to solve the question, but being the rigid person that I am with my vision, I didn’t copy down the formula on the cheat sheet allowed for the test.

Hence, I was on my own again.

Luckily, I had a game plan for this one beforehand.

I realized that the concept tested involved material from a prerequisite class, so I figured when I was on the question “Why not use that concept since it’s directly similar to what’s being tested?”

Granted, I didn’t rehearse it enough before the test to execute it the way I wanted to, but when I got the final grade, I knew I did enough (not acceptable in my book, but a lesson learned to go harder).

Nonetheless, the MVP here was lateral thinking because I was able to go outside the course material to solve the problem at hand even though I didn’t use anything that was given.

And when you have a situation like that, you need to adjust.

To adjust, you need lateral thinking.

Now if this is confusing you, bear with me with another example.

This one is scenario A) again, where I learned my lesson from the first incident and how I successfully used lateral thinking to answer the question.

I go into the test and right away, I knew the professor didn’t say this question would go on the test.

Immediately, I went to my gut for 2 of the questions because I happened to study for them beforehand and I got those two questions right. Note: When in doubt, go with your gut.

Now for the last question, I knew this problem wasn’t covered at all in class nor in the reading, so I had my work cut out for.

The first thing I did was I tried to solve the problem with what I knew. Right away, I saw that this wasn’t going to work.

Next, I took my mind off of the problem. I let myself go answer other questions while my subconscious did all of the work.

Then, all of a sudden, my brain came up with something.

To be content specific, my subconscious decided to use basic geometry and went with the flow of what my gut was telling me to do instead of using equations that would typically solve that problem.

I then made some adjustments in accordance to the problem and lo and behold, I got the answer right even though the concept was not taught nor presented beforehand.

The point is this:

When you have a situation where you are completely point blank about what to do (even if it isn’t a test) and you can’t ask for help, lateral thinking is your BEST option to solving the problem or answering whatever question you are answering, even if it’s multiple choice.

Having said this, don’t try to reinvent the wheel just to reinvent the wheel. Only use lateral thinking when the answer isn’t obvious to you and you have thought about it, but it’s just not coming through.

And don’t rule out ANYTHING as an answer, which if you recall was one of my mistakes that I later corrected to solve the other questions.

If you rule out anything without a valid reason, you are only limiting yourself in what you can do and you will be very disappointed at the end.

So learn from this and run.

If it does sound confusing, please comment below with your questions. I am more than happy to answer them.

Now here is a technique that has proven time and time again to work for anyone.

Secret #6: Repeat Everything Multiple Times to Maximize Retention

I’m sure someone has told you this, but let me reemphasize for you so you clearly understand how useful this strategy is.

Repetition is the mother of all learning.

Why?

Because we are creatures of habit.

And when we make a habit of things, we tend to do them repeatedly.

This is no different with learning something new.

Every time you practice something or say something out loud an X number of times, your mind becomes accustomed to doing this thing and over time, it becomes better at it since you are putting in the work to keep it there.

Just like when you go to bed at a certain time or you eat lunch a certain time, the more you do it, the more your brain and your body becomes accustomed to the action performed.

So when you walk into the test, it’s automatic and you don’t have to think about it (in most cases).

You just do it.

And this gives you confidence and decisiveness instead of wondering and fearing the outcome.

You CONTROL the outcome since you follow the process of keeping the information in there repeatedly.

This is when you have everything in the bags and you are able to secure you’re A combined with the rest of the strategies in this post.

Now there is one more ingredient to successfully carrying out an academic semester and it’s arguably the most important step.

Secret #7: Plan Your Schedule Every Day and Be Disciplined

This is extremely important.

Without a plan, you plan to fail.

I am not kidding you when I say this.

If you don’t have a plan, you are literally sailing into an ocean with no map as to where to go.

This is reckless and if you are doing this, that habit needs to stop today.

If you are having difficulty planning, I highly recommend breaking up your day into time increments corresponding to the 90-30 rule I discussed earlier and sticking to it.

Don’t deviate away from it and combined with the techniques in this post, you will flourish academically. I promise you that.

Now, the hard part with most people, at least in America, is that they are not disciplined with what they do.

You see, everyone at one point or another goes on social media endlessly and scrolls at random stuff that doesn’t matter.

You’ve probably done that haven’t you?

Well, that might be your problem when it comes to studying and doing well.

In fact, research shows that not being disciplined in class leads to lower comprehension and attentiveness in class.

Now are you convinced (if you aren’t already) that using your phone in class like the army of students in the lecture hall will torture your grade and actually hurt you in the long run in the eyes of the professor who could mean the difference between you getting a job and not getting a job?

I thought so.

You see, discipline plus consistency with the correct knowledge will yield tremendous benefits in everything that you do.

You just have to stick with the process, work at it and you’ll kick the living behind out of whatever you are doing like the boss that you are.

Believe me when I say this, you are a boss and you can get whatever you want out of life.

You just need to own the circumstances and take charge of everything that you do.

All of the glory will come.

Promise yourself that.

Now because you are awesome (no really, you are), here is a bonus strategy that  might put you over the edge if you do it consistently.

BONUS: Go To Office Hours When Needed

This is a must.

Not only will you get the help you need for the class (at least for the good professors), but you will be able to develop a professional relationship with them built on trust.

Let me explain how you can benefit from this.

People like talking about themselves.

Read that again.

In any conversation with people, if you start the conversation in terms of their interests, you will build a deep rapport with them.

Why?

Because they can’t help but listen to what interests them.

Over time, this will compound and if you perform well in your class and make an active effort to learn, that might just turn into a recommendation.

Now why will this turn into a recommendation (of course it’s still a big maybe)?

Because they like you.

To get anyone to like you, you MUST provide them what they find valuable.

It could be getting a certain grade, it could be talking about their favorite sports team, it could be talking about a certain topic in a profession they’re in or whatever it is.

For a professor, it’s usually going to be things they have an interest in as far as research is concerned.

So one thing you can do is go to their website and find out what they have an interest in as far as research.

You might even just go to their office just to talk about their research.

Make it a point to do it consistently because eventually, they will forget about the conversation.

And you don’t need to use this just for professors.

You can use this technique on everyone that you encounter.

To get started on this path, I highly recommend the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.

It’s an all-time classic that many of the world’s most successful people have used in order to get what they want in life.

I have used this book myself on several occasions and I’m here to tell you that this book is a must read if you want the best knowledge possible on getting people to buy into what you are saying.

You can also use the book to get out of bad situations. I elaborate on such a scenario here where I used the book to trick a guy into thinking he was in control of a situation when in reality, he wasn’t.

You can order the book today on Amazon using the link here.

Please note: I am an affiliate for Amazon so I will earn a commission off of the sale of your purchase, but it will not affect the price that you pay for the book.

Also, know this:

Everything you do in life is a sale.

There is no if and or buts about it.

The real goal of the interactions with your professors is to get something from them so you can get closer to your career goal.

In order to do that, you need to provide value first without asking for anything.

And office hours are an EXCELLENT first step to doing this.

Sure, ask for help from them when needed, but go beyond that.

Have a conversation with them about what they are interested in.

You’ll stick out while it lasts compared to everyone else.

And those are all of the study tips you need in order to not only do well, but really thrive in college from an academic standpoint.

Now of course, college is much more than just going to class and passing your tests (Don’t just pass your tests; go for more. You’ll feel better.).

That’s why I wrote an epic 25000+ word post specifically on all the college tips you need in order to do excellent at playing the game of college.

It goes over everything from how to handle extracurriculars to handling your tests to tips on how to take care of yourself to the exact things you need to do to make sure college is the best business decision for YOU.

It’s in that post for the taking.

As you’ll see, there are misspellings, but I dare you to take the challenge I throw down in there.

I hope you take it. You might be pleasantly surprised if you conquer it 😉

These are the very best study tips for college students just like yourself. I hope you got a lot out of this post and that it was beneficial for you in some way.

And if you got a lot out of this post and you want more epic content on how you can become massively productive not just in college, but in life so you can control your own world, definitely subscribe to Join the Island, the world’s greatest blog,  below with your email so you can crush it in everything that you do!

Until next time,

This is Evan signing off.

PS: If you have any questions about ANYTHING in this post, definitely leave them down below in the comments or shot me an email at evan@jointheisland.com and I’ll be more than happy to help you out.

PPS: If you want to become an academic god amongst gods, you should definitely check out this post here about how to do your homework and how to study for a test so you can become invincible on test day!