Online Research Tools
Another very important but overlooked aspect of studying is to take proper notes when doing research online. If you are simple doing a cut and paste into notepad or ms word then eventually you are going to jumble up and lose valuable information. In a survey done of 5000 college students, it was found that 65% didnt use an online research tool and simply used notepad and ended up spending twice the time they should when typing and doing research online.
The main two tools that can be used are Google Notebook and Evernote. Both have pros and cons and we will start by looking at google notebook. The good thing about google notebook is that with a simple firefox plugin, you will always have your notebooks at the tips of your fingers. And with the same addon you can add and lookup information. It also saves information in its whole form in the notebook. For exmaple, if you copy and paste the contents of a web page, it will also insert the images that come along with it. This can help understanding of the text later and also saves you the trouble of saving the images seperately.
Evernote on the other hand unlike google notebook, is an application that you install on your computer. But also maintains a copy online for you to access when you dont have access to your own computer where the program is installed. It has the same features as google notebook and ultimately the decision about which one to go for will depend on your preferance after a few uses.
Both have one very important feature in common which is that whenever any information is copy and pasted, it retains the URL of the site that it was copied from. And for those of you who have to provide very specific locations that the information was referenced from, this can make a huge difference in both time saving and energy.
Touch Typing
Another very useful skill to have is to be able to touch type. No university student is going to be without a laptop or a computer nowadays and other than developing short notes for your studying, a lot of your time is going to be spent writing assignments and essays. The best way to improve your grades and your writing is to be able to type faster and this is where touch typing comes in. It is the ability to be able to type sentences and entire documents without ever looking at the keyboard with minimal or no errors in the text.
Why does this improve your grades and your writing? Simple. Because one 0f the biggest problems is that our typing can never keep up with our pace of thought. So while writing your latest assignement, as the flow of words and sentences forms in your brain, you have probably only typed a few words. How many times have you come up with a nice para only to find that you cant remember everything you thought of. The other factor is speed, the faster you type the more you will get done sooner, thereby giving you more time to make the corrections that you will probably always need to be making.
There are plent of books and software you can buy or download that will teach you how to touch type. One additional help would be if you spend a lot of time at the computer, this tends to make it easier to learn touch typing as you have already gotten used which key is where. Your performance and typing speed will greatly depend on what keyboard you have been typing on but regardless, if you only ever use your own computer or laptop you should see massive speed increases in a very short period of time.
Study Faster With Speed Reading
One of the best ways to reduce your study time, or at the very least, reduce the time it takes for you to study is to master the concept of speed reading. Not simply just reading fast, but to maintain standard levels of comprehension when reading. Learning to speed read is not as hard as you might think. All it takes is learning the basic principles behind it and then spending a short time practising. The best part about it is that you can actually practice with whatever study materials you have, so in effect you will also be learning whatever it is you are practising.
There are a lot of different kinds speed reading techniques available and you will need to try a few to see what works for you. One of the most common methods is to be able to identify words, not as a collection of letters but as a single object. So for example the word “the” would be recognized in its whole form and not from the three letters combined. When reading you would pickup “the” as a single entity instead of seeing the letters “t”, “h” and then “e”. Its actually a very simple concept and does not require any great talent.
Another method is to be able to identify words just by the shape of the top of the word. In that sense almost all words are unique to the shape at the very top and this technique goes a long way to radically improving your speed.
At the end of the day, once you have the hang of speed reading, with the proper comprehension levels, you can read a text book in roughly a quarter of the time it would normally take you. This means that you can either spend a quarter of the time studying or read the same text several times over if you need to memorize the information. How should you start learning? Well, the fastest way is to download or buy software which teaches you speed reading. These programs also test your comprehension levels after the reading session and can give you statistics on your performance and any improvements you might have registered.
Why Google And Wikipedia Can Be Your Textbooks
If you’re like most students, you probably rely on the internet a lot to research for papers and presentations. But what about when you’re studying for a test? Or answering questions on a worksheet? Or if you’re just plain confused about a subject?
Don’t be afraid to look outside of your classroom for information or clarification on what you’re learning.
Knowledge is universal!
Unless you’re a graduate student studying cutting edge discoveries in your field, the stuff you’re learning about is probably pretty basic for that subject. There have been thousands of books, articles, and lectures covering Econ 101. Where do you think your textbook and instructor are getting their information? Unless your prof is making it up, they are getting their information from the same sources that you can find on the internet: scholarly journals, encyclopedias, news media, etc.
You should seek to learn instead of memorize. When you really get that point ingrained in your noggin, you won’t need to rely on your textbooks and teachers as much.
Finding answers on the internet is sometimes faster than searching through your textbook.
Have you ever come across a term in your textbook that just made you think, “What the $@%# does that mean?” and then spent half an hour paging through that textbook to find the definition of this word?
Try typing the word into Google, and you might be surprised that the first result is a dictionary definition or Wikipedia entry about that exact term.
Wikipedia is about as accurate as any other encyclopedia.
I know most teachers treat Wikipedia like the red-headed stepchild of encyclopedias, but it really is good! A study in 2005 found that Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Britannica had about the same amount of errors.
Whether Wikipedia is an authoritative source of information for your research paper is a subject for another article. But when you’re just looking for understanding on a subject, Wikipedia rules.
Textbooks can suck at explaining stuff.
A lot of textbooks are just plain horrible at helping the reader understand the subject. If you’re reading a chapter that’s just really dense and hard to understand, hop onto Google and see what you can find.
Getting information phrased in many different ways will help you to understand the topic. You might have to read several different explanations until you find one that is written in a way that “works” for you.
Then there are those damn bold faced words. Some textbooks like to drop a ton of fancy technical terms on you and then give you a one sentence definition in the back of the book explaining it. Sometimes a one-sentence definition of a word just isn’t enough to understand what the heck they are talking about! If you want a little more clarification, look it up online.
There are all kinds of websites especially made for students of various subjects
You might be able to find a full-blown website that’s devoted to helping students of a specific subject. If not, a lot of professors will put their notes and lectures online for their students to read. These are really easy to find through Google.
Websites That Will Help You Improve Your Grades
The internet can be a powerful tool for a student. When you know how leverage the power of the internet, you can improve your grades while being more efficient and thus having more free time.
You probably know how useful the internet can be when researching for papers, but what about for other things; like studying for a test, or getting help on a homework assignment? In this post I will give you 9 powerful websites that will help you do just that:
1.) Google
Always start your search with Google.
Google is the king of “finding stuff” online. With the advent of search engine optimization (SEO) and niche content sites, it’s getting easier and easier to find exactly what you want by searching for it in Google.
Quick Tip: Get the Google Toolbar for your browser (or just use Firefox.) It lets you search Google right from your browser, and saves you the added step of going to the Google homepage each time.
2.) Wikipedia
I don’t care what your instructors say. Wikipedia is great! If you want a brief overview of a topic and you want it fast, Wikipedia is second to none.
Wikipedia is a good textbook-replacer because it gives the same broad, over-arching view of a topic that any textbook can give you. Sometimes Wikipedia is better than your textbook. I’ve successfully used Wikipedia to study for a 300-level college psychology exam.
Quick Tip: Add “wiki” on the end of whatever you’re searching for in Google, and it will give you the Wikipedia page on that topic.
Quick Tip #2: The good Wikipedia pages cite their sources. When you are writing a research paper, instead of citing the Wikipedia page (which most instructors don’t allow,) cite the source that Wikipedia lists at the bottom of the article.
3.) Scholarpedia
Looks and feels like Wikipedia, but with a more “scholarly” atmosphere. It has less topics than Wikipedia, but goes more in depth into each subject.
Scholarpedia has more stringent posting standards, like only allowing experts to post, giving each article a “curator,” and requiring each article to be peer-reviewed. Use this site if you need a little more detail than the Wikipedia page provides.
4.) Yahoo Answers
Yahoo answers is a community where regular folks can ask and answer questions. Have a history question? Stuck on your math homework? Go to the Yahoo Answers and ask anything you want. I guarantee it will get answered; and fast too.
Quick tip: If you have a specific homework question you need answered, go to “Education & Reference” and then “Homework Help.” Then type up the whole question verbatim. I’ve seen people post Calculus and Trigonometry equations and get them solved fairly quickly!
5.) AllExperts
Like Yahoo answers, but with experts. It will take longer to receive replies, but they are usually more informative.
6.) About.com
About.com has thousands of articles on thousands of topics. It’s a little more reliable than Wikipedia because they pay free-lance experts to write for them.
Plus, About.com is old school. They have been around since 1996, so they have quite a library of good informative content built up.
7.) CliffsNotes
Good old CliffsNotes. They have saved my hide many times. CliffsNotes provide study guides and summaries of many novels. If a book typically part of a school curriculum, it’s probably in CliffsNotes.
CliffsNotes will help you analyze the main points of a book, understand the symbolism, and even give you a practice quiz. And it can be a big help when you…er….you know, maybe didn’t really read the book. 
8.) SparkNotes
Like Cliff’s notes, and just as good. Sometimes one site won’t have a book you need so you can use them both interchangeably.
9.) How Stuff Works
If you need to figure out “how something works,” go here. Their guides aren’t just on machines either. They give detailed explanations of science theories, political systems, historical events, and a lot more.
How Stuff Works is great if you’re in a class that’s heavy on theory, and you need things explained in normal every-day language.