Good Study Habits for Academic Success:

1. Pay Attention to Study Location
Find a quiet, uncluttered, distraction-free area. Try a few locations until the ideal study place is discovered. Different spots may work for different subjects, too. Whatever the location, leverage powerful new mobile, interactive study solutions that allow high school and college students to better prepare for tests and course work through any portable device from anywhere, at any time. Such engagement helps students better prepare and minimizes stress, providing everything needed to study in one place, including hundreds of practice questions, detailed explanations, guided study plans, and high-quality reading content from the world's most respected publishers.

2. Vary Study Topics
Psychologists say alternating study topics rather than cramming on a specific one in a single session leaves a deeper impression on the brain. So, don’t grind on the same subject all night. Change it up, take breaks and re-visit the material in intervals - even spacing over a period of days if possible, which has been proven to enhance retention even further.

3. Make Information Meaningful
Whether it's creating rhymes or patterns, or even relating material to something else perhaps through word or scenario associations, such tactics can make information more meaningful and, thus, will enhance information recollection. The University of Maryland reports that mnemonic devices, or memory tricks, are particularly useful for remembering factual information like names, dates, formulas, or other information that requires rote memorization.

4. Tap Online Resources
Don’t get stuck on a problem or resigned to an ill-fated grade in a difficult class as there are powerful resources at a student’s fingertips. For example, companies like Academic Earth offer a comprehensive online collection of free video tutorials for college courses—all accessible at no cost. Other companies like OpenStudy enable Internet users to readily connect and engage with other students who are learning the same subjects at the same time—regardless of school, expertise or location—facilitating online, on-demand peer-to-peer assistance, support and other helpful interactions.

5. Engage in Social Learning
Research has found that there is a benefit to studying with friends. In one recent study from the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California San Diego, it was revealed that “the higher the volume of interaction, the more likely the students were willing to exchange information in more complex ways and with greater frequency, forming ‘information cascades,’ a mechanism that spreads information from a single source to one or multiple sources.”

6. Have a Great Study Attitude
Think positive and focus on skills. Rather than dreading the experience, thinking positive will make the time to study easier to approach and mind share won’t be expended on feeling resentful. In fact, “study attitudes” was identified in research as one of four pillars that “play a critical and central role in determining students’ academic performance.” In short, study time is a friend. Regard it that way and, soon enough, any student can look forward to a productive, self-fulfilled academic experience.

http://www.examiner.com/article/study-habits-for-students-bad-ones-to-avoid-good-ones-to-achieve-success