Academic Resources

• Start now!
  Always start studying earlier than you actually need to.
  Study material as you’re taught it. This gives you time to ask questions and get clarification on concepts you don’t fully understand. Start with the most difficult subject first and work towards your easiest  
  
  
• Set up your study schedule 
  Determine what will be on the exam and what you need to focus on. 
  Be an active participant in your course exam review 
  Simply studying without direction isn’t effective.  
  Break up your tasks into small, manageable chunks  
  Take adequate mental and physical breaks.
  
  
• Don’t waste time.
  Make use of free time between classes to study and prep for your exam. 15 minutes here and there, adds up.
  
  
• Find your prime location and time.  
  Block out your study times for your most productive time of day. Find your most energized time of the day and use it to study.
  
  
• Choose Quality over Quantity 
  Focus on concentrating 100% when you are studying, rather than trying to study for an impressive number of hours.  
  
  
• Don’t study where you sleep. 
  Find a separate space where you can get comfortable and concentrate. Studying in bed can make it more difficult to get quality rest once you're finished. 
  
  
• Get rid of the distractions!  
  Put your phone on silent and put it away. Let your friends and family know it’s your study time so they can limit their distractions. Stay off social media when you’re studying; you can use it as a reward when it’s break time. 
  
  
• Find study techniques that work best for you. 
  Cue Cards, Practice recall, Repeat, repeat, repeat and test yourself.
  
  
• Use study groups effectively. 
  Working in small groups is great when you’re struggling to understand a concept. However, a study group can be very ineffective if it’s not structured/if some members are not committed to the learning environment.
  
  
• A good night’s sleep is essential to learning. You may be tempted to stay up late and review the material again and again, but a good night’s sleep is essential for learning new info and remembering it later. During REM sleep you are better equipped to understand and remember complex, fact-based information.   With a good night’s sleep: learning becomes easier, you gain better problem-solving skills and it helps improve recall. 

• Create to-do lists 
• Organize your to-do lists by class/course (colour code)  
• Break down what you need to do by the semester, the month, the week and the day. 
• As you complete tasks, cross them off on your to-do list. 
• Keep notes/materials for each class separate (use a separate notebook/binder for each course) 
• Separate folders on your computer to keep each course assignment/material together and not mixed up.

Following these small steps can help you keep up with deadlines and make it easier to manage your time and workload.

Here are a few strategies we suggest when taking a test or exam. We've broken the strategies into categories based on the style of question you're trying to answer

• Make a quick outline  
• Include part of the question in the answer 
• Use full sentences!  
• Expand your answer 
• Give your answer, support it with information and back it up with an example! 
• Check to see how much the question is worth  

• Concentrate on key facts and words
• Get straight to the point!
• Look to see how much a short answer is worth and base how much information you need to give on that. 
• If a short-answer question is only worth two points, be brief.   
• If a short-answer question is worth five points, include more information to support your answer.  

• Read the question carefully
• Look for qualifiers (never, rarely, always, etc.)
• The answer will usually depend on the qualifier
• Always or never often indicate a false statement

• Read all the available options before you choose the answer you think it is! 
• Answer the question in your head  
• Process of elimination with answers  
• Cover the answers and go through one-by-one 
• Ensure the option you chose actually answers the question  
• Look for cues in other questions throughout your test  
• Your first instinct is typically correct!