How to make studying interesting and fun?
Studying has always had a love-hate relationship with students, with some of them enjoying it and others not so much, but both the groups needing it to pass their exams and gain knowledge as well. Often even for students who enjoy studying it can be monotonous and boring with learning and doing the same set of questions and syllabus over and over again. To make sure that you do not get bored when studying from this point onwards, and also gaining knowledge while doing so we have brought you a list of Top 5 Study ideas to make learning fun.
- Study somewhere different
- Space study sessions with activities
- Use nice stationary
- Listen to music
- Use interactive learning materials
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1. Study somewhere different
One of the things that I myself follow as well is to study somewhere different whenever you study. Now I am aware that not all people like picking up a different location for each study session, but even if studying in your home, try studying in different rooms to have a change of scenery and not fall into the cycle of monotony. Studying outside can sometimes pose different problems as well, with the sunlight being too strong in summer and other weather conditions that come with different weathers.
However, during days of ideal weather try finding a local park or a shady spot under a tree to study and note how it would make the whole process of studying more interesting and relaxing in nature.
Now, for people like me who study the best in their home or any one place that they have probably designated as “their place” be it the local cafe, library,etc., will not be able to study in a completely different environment, contrary to the people who would be willing to have a frequent change in their scenery. Therefore, for these people it is advisable that you try changing your scenery by changing rooms if studying in house, tables if in a cafe and seats if in a library. This would not be mentally exhausting for you and at the same time will make learning fun for you. Moreover, some people who like studying in their house often use association when studying, wherein each subject is assigned a room and when studying these rooms rotate between the subjects. This helps them differentiate the subjects based on the rooms and helps them study better and have fun.
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2. Space study sessions with activities
Another biggest mistake students make most of the time is to study for extremely long hours in one sitting, thereby completely exhausting themselves before even half of the study material to be covered is done. This then makes the study sessions very boring and we often do not want to study anymore. To prevent this boredom from creeping up to you as well try spacing study sessions with different activities. For example, after a study session of say 3 hours take a break from studying for at least 90 or 60 minutes. In those 90 minutes either do or take up a hobby or an activity instead of just sitting and scrolling through your Instagram. Activities like painting, dancing, exercising, taking a walk, playing any sports, catching up on a tv show or drama, meeting friends,etc are some that you can take up. Doing activities for a change between study sessions work as a great refresher and recharge your energy for your next session. Not only this, but doing some or the other activity and making time for them during these breaks makes sure that you remain active and healthy.
It is important for you to note that before you even take a break, many times while studying when in a routine you might often forget about taking a break, which could later cause a burnout to you during the exam season. Therefore, it is extremely important for you to take “appropriate” breaks and sometimes even naps if they help you better. Here we have specified appropriate due to the fact that often when advised to take breaks, students start by taking 3-5 hour long breaks after an hour of studying which is definitely nob the type of break that we advise. When asked to take breaks we mean to take 30 minute break after 90 minutes of studying or 90 minutes break after 180 minutes of studying or any other pattern that you deem as appropriate. You can thus, time your breaks appropriately and in accordance with your own schedules that you deem fit for yourself.
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3. Use nice stationary
Remember the number of glitter pens, highlighters, colored pens, pencils and other stationary material we use to carry in our bigger-than-our-head pouches. Now, remember the giddy feeling every child had when walking into a stationary shop and wanting to just buy every single unnecessary material just for the sake of it. Excitement, giddiness, and happiness were some emotions that stationary evoked in all of you as a child and still does for a lot of us. And that is why, using nice stationary more often than you probably want to admit might help you in studying better and would make it fun as well. For studying with stationary to be fun you do not have to be completely impractical and buy glitter pens or start using color pencils to color the digestive system but, you can buy some nice pens, pencils, sticky notes, notebooks, stickers,etc. And make your notes fun with them. Firstly, this might help you in retaining these notes better when writing them and secondly, later on while revising it would be fun and interesting to read these notes. However, using nice stationary does not mean that you throw practicality out completely. The more fun stationary material can be used when writing notes or doing internal assignments(if permitted), but when giving exams do not use this material. For instance, there have been many cases observed when giving exams, that wrong stationary material can cause you a precious amount of time, like using a fountain pen when giving the exam would slow you down alot and would cause a mess with the ink smearing everywhere on the paper. Therefore, using stationary in a fun and practical way would ensure that your mind slows down for a moment and makes you genuinely enjoy the note-making process and studying in general.
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4. Listen to music
Listening to music is the most classic idea that is given to students who wish to make learning and studying fun. Listening to music while studying can be therapeutic in some sense to certain people and it helps them concentrate better. However, Opinions are often divided when people give out this classic idea to make learning fun. Some listen to music to help in their concentration and others instead get distracted by it and can barely study in the presence of music. Listening to music can indeed be very distracting with the wrong choice of music. Listening to your favorite songs while studying can lead to distraction in the sense that you would barely be able to concentrate on the words written and would probably start singing along. In addition to this, finding the ‘right’ song according to your mood at that time can be annoying and can take ages for you to find and select thus wasting time.
But, using the correct type of music can vastly affect your concentration levels and helps a great deal in studying. For starters, music without lyrics is advised by most people when studying. This is because, when studying you are often trying to either memorize or write something, lyrics often end up confusing the student. Listening to music without does not mean that you now have to be a classical musician and listen to Beethoven. Any music without lyrics would work like soundtracks. In addition to this, a lot of experts have recommended listening to White Noise when studying to improve concentration and memory. Spotify playlist and different apps are available to access these. Sounds like flowing waterfalls, life in a coffee shop, raining, and thunderstorms are some popular white noises used by students to listen when learning. These noises not only are relaxing, but definitely help in improving one’s concentration and memory retention.
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5. Use interactive learning materials
An advantage that our generation has over the previous generations is the abundance of resources and study material available to us. With e-learning platforms like Byju’s or Vedantu, that provide a variety of online courses and different study material you thus, have a variety of interactive material to study from. For instance, to tackle the Chapter Linear Equation of Math there are a bunch of videos and other courses that explain the concept and provide you with practice questions, quizzes and assignments making learning fun. In addition to this, according to a variety of research, visual learning helps in better memory retention than simply reading which is another reason why teachers now-a-days in many schools have started to teach primarily through PPTs making it easier for students even if not paying attention to retain the information taught.
Mixing up different media and formats of learning makes it not only fun for you but interesting as well, again breaking the everlasting monotony in simply reading the theory or solving the questions from books.