Studying

Thank you for your question. Let me try to answer it and provide some advice.

If you look at studying, there are 2 important factors that influence this: concentration and memory. If you look at memory in the brain, it's making new brain connections between existing 'nods' of knowledge. When you're learning something new, these connections tend to be very weak. Similar to a muscle, you need to strengthen it by repetition. And in order to strengthen it well, you need to train correctly and not overtrain.

If you try to study everything in 1 go, 2 problems arise:

1. The connections will be weak, because there hasn't been repetition yet.  
2. The maximum efficient concentration span is +- 45 min. If you strain yourself without rest and no repetition, there's a big chance you won't learn the best way.

So here's something you can try in order to study more effective:

• Study for 45 min.
• Take a break of 10 min.
• Try to recall everything you studied. When you feel you can't recall sufficiently, study again either right now or at the end.
• If it's sufficient, continue to the next part.

Another way is to do the recall part the day after by making a (mental) summary of everything you've studied.

A last tip: Sleep is super important! During your sleep, the memory part of your brain (hippocampus) strengthens all the new connections. If you sleep well, you are able to memorize everything better.

If you notice you keep on having troubles studying, it can also be a good idea to contact your school. There are always study advisors that can help you overcome any obstacle.

I hope this helps you a little bit!

Kind regards,

Wouter