Don't know where your study time goes? Track it! Try this for a week: record how you spend each day, each hour, each 10-minute chunk of time, and include every activity.

Your study space should be quiet, comfortable and distraction free. It should make you feel happy and inspired. Decorate it with your favorite photos. If you want to listen to music or burn incense, pick a space that lets you do that.

Make sure to study every day. If you study a little every day you'll be continually reviewing things in your mind. This helps you understand things. It also helps you avoid the stress of last minute study cramming.

Take regular study breaks. Study sessions will be more productive if you allow yourself to take planned breaks. Perhaps a schedule of 50 minutes spent working followed by a 10-minute break. Your downtime provides time to stand up and stretch your legs. You can also use this as an opportunity to check your phone or respond to emails. However, when your 10 minutes are up it’s time to get back to work.

Use background sounds while studing. Some students enjoy listening to nature sounds, such as ocean waves or rain. Others prefer white noise.

Don't multitask. A significant amount of research indicates that multi-tasking does not improve efficiency and actually negatively affects results.

Simply reading and re-reading texts or notes is not actively engaging in the material. Re-reading leads to quick forgetting. Think of reading as an important part of pre-studying, but learning information requires actively engaging in the material. Active engagement is the process of constructing meaning from text that involves making connections to lectures, forming examples, and regulating your own learning.

Distraction-proof your laptop. Set very long hard to remember passwords for Netflix, social media and anything else distracting.

Note-taking is something that you can’t do without if you want to learn how to study faster. You’ll spend time taking notes. However, you’ll save way more time when studying at home and preparing for the exam.

Find your best study time – Some people work better in the morning. Others work better at night. However, don't study much later than your usual bedtime.

Snack on smart food: Coffee and candy will give you a temporary boost, but then you’ll have a blood sugar crash. For energy that is more focused and sustainable, try healthy snacks such a oatmeal, apples, or nuts.

Use Mind-Mapping. Organize your ideas into maps, clouds, diagrams, charts and tables to make your facts visual and memorable. This study method is sure to boost your performance and save some time, especially if you are a visual person.

Encouraging friends to study with you can make it more fun and productive! Ask your classmates to study with you at a certain time and location. Ask your classmates to study with you after class for an hour at the school cafe. You can set up your computers at a table together and grab some snacks to enjoy the time.

Teaching a friend or family member the material is a great way to see how well you know it! When you explain it to someone else, you’ll have a better grasp of which information you already have mastered and which material you should revisit for yourself.

If you’re neurodivergent, as opposed to neurotypical, then you’ll be aware that in some situations you tend to think differently to other people – by definition. Finding the right study process for you might require a little bit of experimentation until you find an approach that works.

It helps to mix up your self-testing. Don’t just focus on one thing. Drill yourself on different concepts. Psychologists call this interleaving.

There’s no right or wrong study pace. So, do not try matching somebody else’s speed. Instead, through trial and error, find what works for you. Just remember that slower studying will require that you devote more time to your schoolwork.

Absorb information in smaller amounts. Think about how you memorize a phone number. You divide the 10-digit number into three smaller groups. It’s easier to get these three chunks to stick in your mind than it is to remember the whole thing as a single string of information.

Are You Getting Enough Sleep? Regular sleep is important for reducing stress and boosting your memory! Check out sleep expert and neuroscientist Matthew Walker’s TED Talk for tips on better sleep that could really help students.