How to Study With Less Stress

7 Science-Backed Ways Students Can Learn How to Learn

How to study isn’t the No. 1 aspect of many students’ education. But it seems like a concept students would learn in school, right? At many schools, you’d be incorrect if you guessed “yes.” Sadly, according to a national Yale study, the most prevailing attitudes about school and learning are boredom and stress.

This is not what parents (or educators) want to hear.

Our hope is that students would find a niche they’re interested in, learn the concepts related to it, and soar through middle and high school as they launch into an exciting college or post-high school career. So, what’s keeping our students from learning how to learn?

Why is learning how to study so challenging, boring, or stressful?

Why Learning How to Study Feels Boring or Stressful

One scientific reason tests cause anxiety and stress is that the prefrontal cortex gets overloaded. This compromises a student’s working memory, making their thoughts scattered and hard to decipher. However, there are tools students can use that give them an advantage over test-related stress.

Another common complaint from students is that learning is boring.

According to research and a term known as desirable difficulties, students need to be challenged at just the right place to be engaged in the learning process. If students learn the information too quickly, it will not (in many cases) be retained in the long term.

And slowing the learning down, in many instances, can allow the student to train better rather than simply study harder. Think of it like an Olympic athlete.

In order to train smarter for a race, an athlete doesn’t just run sprints around a track about a week before the big day. No, the athlete takes into account nutrition, hydration, strength training, cardiovascular fitness, skills training and so many more variables. He or she trains for years to compete at the highest level of the sport.

So, for a student to not be bored — or to engage in learning as a process and retain what he or she has learned — there needs to be the right amount of challenge and the right pace of learning.

7 Ways to Learn How to Study

Learnwell students begin exploring how to learn when they reach 8th grade. While many of these tools are used in lower grades, students in 8th grade are taught about why they work for some people, which ones work for different types of learners, and how they can apply these techniques to their toolkit for learning how to learn.

Their life skills classes equip them with more than just information; they have the time they need to apply each technique behind learning how to learn. Here are ways students can be more effective and enjoy the learning process.

1. Don’t procrastinate. It’s so much easier to say this than it is to do. There are multiple reasons students (and many adults) procrastinate, but one of the chief reasons is the faulty belief that in order to complete an undesirable task, we have to be motivated. Accepting that you will not enjoy every task related to a specific subject or assignment is crucial to help you recognize what you can and can’t change. Author Maya Angelou famously said, “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”
2. Practice self-regulation. Self-regulation is when you can assess your feelings, thoughts and actions based on your long-term goals. This means you’re able to look at something difficult and understand it won’t be forever. You are better able to respond to emotional swings by remembering what you value and sticking with uncomfortable pursuits for the overall goal. Students who learn to self-regulate while they’re young tend to have a better sense of self and more confidence as they get older.
3. Try not to cram. While it can be tempting to learn information too quickly just to “get it over with,” it will not stick in your brain if you try to rush it. Research shows that the sudden, concentrated amount of study interferes with sleep — another important component of learning.
4. Get consistent sleep. Not only does a sleep deficit impact your working memory, but it also disrupts your ability to concentrate and focus, among other predictors.
5. Take study breaks. You’ve already learned that cramming before a test or trying to learn information too quickly isn’t a great idea. But what if you’re under a time crunch? Does it make sense to spend the little time you have left studying all at once? Actually, the Pomodoro Technique suggests otherwise. Taking breaks helps you manage time well and keeps you calm, which can keep anxiety at bay. (Anxiety ramps up stress, and stress ramps up ineffective studying and prevents your long-term memory from retaining what you’ve worked hard to remember.)
6. Make a connection. Like a plant that needs to root well in soil that’s been worked, learning something new also needs to be rooted in what we already know. So, if you can make a connection to what you already know, it feels easier to remember new information.
7. Keep the overall picture in mind. Have you ever looked at a random dot stereogram–or the pictures that appear to be a collection of dots, but there’s actually more to it than what you can see at first glance? Neuroscientist Bela Julesz pioneered these images, and he realized that when he applied what he already knew to something new, it led to solutions previously unrecognized. So, when you look at your overall goal — or your “why” for learning — try to remember that the information you’re learning may not seem relevant, but the experience of learning how to learn is. You may not always need to know how to diagram a sentence or remember the U.S. capitals, but you’ll always need to learn new things — in college, in your career and beyond.

Students at Learnwell are being exposed to brain science as they learn how to learn, and they relate that to something they already know—themselves. That’s why it’s so important that they develop a strong foundation in knowing who God is, how He created them and gifted them uniquely, and why these things matter.

Our middle and high school programs focus on helping students understand who they are because this knowledge will stay with students no matter where their future takes them. Curious about our hybrid school? Join us for an upcoming Discover Learnwell parent preview night.