Adjusting to college classes can be difficult. Luckily, BYU has many study resources available to help.
The first step to studying is discovering what works best for you.
“Really just be honest with yourself and how your brain works, because everyone works differently,” Elijah Ward, a writing consultant for the research and writing center at BYU, said.
“Sometimes you're just going to need to walk away and go somewhere quiet,” he said, "and find your little study nook in the library and go be productive for a couple of hours.”
There are also many resources available for students on campus, including the research and writing center.
“We won't write your essay for you, but we will ask you questions and kind of talk about your essay and work through it with you,” Ward said.
BYU has student development classes designed to help students succeed in their college career.
“They have academic reading skills classes, they have time management and study tips,” Kennedy Young Vassar, a research consultant for the research and writing center, said.
Vassar says finding a personal study spot helps maintain focus.
“Just having one place where you can go and lock in is really effective for me.
If you go everywhere, it gets hard to settle down and lock in,” she said.
Studying alone in a quiet room isn’t the only way to learn.
“Get help. Because I think sometimes when we think about studying, we think it's a very solitary thing. But it doesn't have to be,” Rachel Wadham, the education and juvenile collections librarian, said.
Wadham is the education and juvenile collections librarian for the BYU library.
“There's lots of research, particularly in the research of learning, that shows that breaks are so important,” she said. “And that includes sleep as part of that break, right?”
Studying in smaller amounts over a longer period of time produces better results.
“You're not going to learn everything you need the night before the test, right? If you do it slow and steady throughout the semester… I find that when you get to that test, the reality is you already know it,” she said.
BYU has a variety of study resources to make your semester better.