<p>And how do you balance it around your social life? </p>
<p>-I'm not good at time management. I really need to pull myself together! If anyone could share how they balance study time and socializing I would appreciate it!</p>
<p>I make time to go to the library x amount of hours a week. I would start with 5 hours weekly and adjust it from there. </p>
<p>Usually I go after I get out of work and have dinner (around 7) or late at night (around 10) my library is open until 2am. </p>
<p>I work better when I sit down with my music and computer and just get things done, I work quickly which is why 5 hours a week worked well for me. I don’t have Friday classes so what I did was I went around 10 am on Friday if I had to and not go back until Monday. </p>
<p>The important thing about school is giving yourself time to recoup. </p>
<p>There is an app called StudyLife and it let’s you fill in all of your classes and then it let’s you add assignments, exams etc and you can set alarms. I strongly suggest it! </p>
<p>Set alarms on your phone as well. </p>
<p>And finally, keep your syllabi for each class and if you have multiple long assignments Start them early and work on them a bit each week</p>
<p>I use a Google Calendar to keep my entire schedule organized. I have all of my classes, work schedule, and slots for studying programmed into it.</p>
<p>I like Google Calendars because it runs right through my Gmail account. I have it pinned as a tab on my laptop, and I have it synced to my phone. I’ve got my calendar handy at all times.</p>
<p>My schedule for fall semester is somewhat of a rough draft right now since classes haven’t actually started. I’ll fine tune my study schedule once classes start up. Right now I just have rough blocks marked as ‘study time.’ Once I figure out how my classes are scheduled, I’ll get more specific with it.</p>
<p>For example, right now I have 3-6 pm Sunday marked as ‘study time.’ Once I figure out more of the actual class structures and time obligations, I’ll break that chunk apart. For instance: 3-4 could be Study Physics, 4:10-5 could be Study Calculus, 5:10-6 could be Read Spanish and so on.</p>
<p>I have blocks like that set up throughout the week. On Tuesdays, I’m not going to have any classes. I’ll work from 2-8 pm in my schools tutoring center. That gives me a lot of free time before work. I have 10 am to 1 pm marked as study time. I’ll break that apart in a similar fashion to the above.</p>
<p>I get reminders that pop up on my phone and my laptop simultaneously for all of my classes, work, meetings, study time etc. Having this keeps it more at the front of your mind. It reminds you that you -should- be getting something done right now. This in and of itself isn’t going to ‘force’ you to adhere to your schedule. That’s ultimately up to you. But having a rigid schedule like that can be quite beneficial. </p>
<p>Make sure to schedule in some free time to unwind and relax as well. :)</p>
<p>I kind of wing it each quarter. I start off with a general idea of what times might be best to set aside for studying, then experiment the first few weeks until a schedule eventually sets in. What my study schedule is depends on what time I have available, how my overall schedule is, and how much time I’ve determined I need for each class. As far as the time needed to study for each class, I err on the side of allowing too much time, going based off past classes with similar subject matter, and adjust down if needed.</p>
<p>Usually I end up spreading out my studying throughout the day. I’m one that gets fidgety and loses focus if I don’t get fairly frequent breaks (even if only a few minutes), so usually I end up going around 40-50 minutes then taking a 10-20 minute break, depending on what I’m doing and when I can tell I’m losing my focus. This goes on for a few hours (barring situations where I have a class or some other commitment), then I usually take an hour or two to do pretty much anything that isn’t studying before getting back to schoolwork, following what I outlined above as needed.</p>
<p>My goal is generally to get as much studying and assignments done as possible before the weekend, so I can then use the weekend for doing whatever. That also leaves me a cushion for if I need more time on something for whatever reason.</p>
<p>Check out this book:
How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Straight-A-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719”>http://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Straight-A-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719</a></p>
<p>I don’t study immediately after class, unless it’s a course that meets and collects homework everyday (like foreign language courses). Instead, I tend to shove it all off till the weekend. Weekends are generally my study days since I have lots of free time then. </p>