10 Smart Habits of a Smart Student

Excelling in school isn’t always defined by sheer intelligence only. What sets the smartest kid in your class from others is his study habits. So if you wanted your name to be included in the top 10 in your class, don’t just study hard, develop smart habits, and you’ll surely find yourself crawling or even skyrocketing towards success.

Listed below are some habits I’ve researched or even implemented during my school days:

1. Studying when you’re mostly focused

Don’t force yourself to study when you don’t feel like it, but that’s not saying you should only study when your heart is set on it. What I mean is, identify the time when your concentration is at its peak. For me, it’s always set around 9PM-12MN. For others, it might be earlier like from 6PM-8PM or in the early morning, from 3AM-5AM when everyone is still asleep yet. This way, you’re upping the chances of remembering every term you read in your reviewer.

2. Avoid cramming

During my college days, I tend to study bit by bit, every day, weeks before our exam even comes. This is better than flooding your brain with big info dump the night before the examination. Remember, to ensure information sticks in your brain, consistent remembering is the key. And the only way to do that is to keep revisiting your notes everyday even if there’s no upcoming exam today or tomorrow.

3. Identify which study trick works for you

Each of us is different. What works for one may not work for the other. So start by knowing yourself more. Experiment which study trick helps to make you remember things efficiently. For some, this may include highlighting key terms with colored highlighters, reading out loud, listening to classical music while reading, or giving your hands some crafts while perfecting your invention.

For me, I prefer jotting down notes. Even though what I’m reading is already written on my handout and I could just highlight everything, the act of re-writing it helps me remember things more effectively.

I also create my own quizzes. If I have ample time, I’ll try to open an excel and encode every term on my handouts along with their definitions. Then I’ll ramble everything so that even if my teacher created an exam about our lesson in a randomized manner, I’ll still be able to answer everything.

4. Not forgetting to sleep

If you’re thinking successful students sacrifice their sleeping hours for reading another chapter in their book, you’re wrong. Sleep is as important as your study habits. Waking up groggy and drained, with only 2-3 hours of sleep will surely affect your grades negatively. Also, know that sleep acts as a glue to retain every information you just reviewed last night. So if you sacrificed 6 hours of sleeping time to cram lots of information in your head, and has only gotten 2 hours of sleep, your efforts will go down the drain. For sure, you won’t remember much from your review.

5. Being unafraid to ask questions

A class discussion should be a two-way exchange of information. You’re not just there to absorb information from your teacher. If you have an idea and wanted some clarification about it, do not be afraid to raise your hand and express your opinion. This is an opportunity to show that you really are dedicated to learn, not just for grades, but to actually learn and grow.

6. Learning from different sources

Accept the fact that what schools teach us doesn’t scratch the learning surface that deep. It only encompasses a small percentage of what you needed to learn in order to be ready in the industry after you graduate. So what should you do? You need to do your part. Have the initiative to equip yourself with additional skills not offered by school’s curriculum, such as learning a different programming language not included in your subjects, practicing your English communication skills, and sharpening your soft skills, such as your leadership, problem-solving skills, and your ability to organize.

Where to learn these things? The easiest way is by browsing on the Internet. Try watching a youtube tutorial, read blogs and articles about a specific topic, participate in seminars and workshops, etc.

7. Finishing the easiest task first

It’s no secret that schools tend to pressure students by giving multiple assignments and projects. This problem not only takes away your study time but can also make your other subject grades suffer if a student doesn’t know how to manage time efficiently. Do not antagonize these tasks. Think of these as another avenue to learn new things. The easiest way to lessen the pile of to-do’s in your list is by doing the easiest assignment first. Sort them by priority and their difficulty. I tend to focus first on the small assignments so that when I am dealing with the hardest assignment, I have my sole focus on it. No distractions. Thus finishing it faster.

8. Getting help from your group members

Sometimes, students are faced with a group activity. This is one problem for students, especially introverts, who are afraid at human interactions. Without good coordination, your grade will surely fall. And you wouldn’t want that, would you? So, how to prevent this to happen? Come out of your comfort zone and invigorate your team by taking the initiative to assign tasks (if you were the one assigned as leader). Or you could entice the other inactive members to participate by talking to them. Every member in your team has their use, even those lazy ones (no matter how useless you think they might be). The truth is, deep inside, they wanted to help. They just don’t know how. So as a leader or an efficient group member, your role is to assess their strengths and weaknesses and assign tasks which they are confident in dealing with. In that way, you’ll be sure that you’ll get the task done much faster than you have anticipated.

9. Eating the right foods

They say you are what you eat. If you wanna be a smart student, eat smart, eat healthily. Add protein in your diet and other needed micronutrients. Eat nuts, green leafy vegetables, eggs, fatty fish (which contains essential fatty acids), and fruits.

Try to chew on chewing gums while reviewing. The act of chewing helps to retain the information you are reading and remember that information when you chew a piece of gum again, which is why I always do this during exams. But do this in moderation. Too much sugar is detrimental to your health.

Eat in moderation. Too much of a good thing (especially chocolates) may do you more harm than good.

10. Taking the time to exercise

Yes, I admit, I am not a fan of exercising. It tires me. But I still do it sometimes because of its many benefits, as well as its positive effects in improving brain function. How you ask? Exercising pumps up your blood and increases the oxygen flow in your brain to positively affect your thinking. Think of oxygen as another source of fuel for your brainstorming activities. You wouldn’t want to jeopardize your academic performance by not taking even a small time to exercise, would you? Just a ten-minute light exercise is enough if you’re lazy like me. Haha!

Don’t worry if you didn’t have the wit. You can be a smart student too by applying these smart habits in your life with all your heart. Just remember, consistency is the key. Discipline yourself by doing these everyday, and for sure, you’ll climb to the top in no time.

God bless on your academic journey!