With the quarter ending soon, grades need to be kept up. But how do you study? What is studying? According to Dictionary.com studying is “application of the mind to the acquisition of knowledge, as by reading, investigation, or reflection”. That’s a start but it’s still complex. Studying is the use of the mind to better understand information. This can be done by reading, rewriting, color coding, practice test. The list goes on. The most important thing to remember while studying, is to do it. But does studying have any real effect on grades?

After conducting a study of 62 northeast students, it can be concluded that studying is important. Only 8.1% of students from the study have a GPA of 4.0 or higher, but 43.5% of the students have a GPA of 3.0 or higher. After discarding the 27.4% of students who didn’t know what their GPA is, we can see that students here at Northeast have a fairly good GPA. But what does that have to do with studying?

The study showed that 53.2% of all 62 of the students felt that studying helped them in some way. 27.4% of students said studying is helpful most of the time. But only 19.4% of all 62 students said that studying did not help. But by looking at more data from the study, it shows that most of those students did not study at all. Those who said studying did study for 1+ hours. These students have a GPA of 3.5 or higher. But these students don’t study every day. In fact a large portion of them only study when the need to, like before test and when they do not understand the class. With this data it can be concluded studying does affect grades.

But how do you study properly? How can you get the most of your cram session before a test? Amanda Morin, writer for understood.org, says “make an environment for studying, schedule study times, and use a timer”. Valerie Strauss, writer for the Washington post, writes “Highlighting, underlining and summarization is less effective than other methods of studying.” On the opposite end Billie Streufert, writer for US today, advises treating yourself after long study sessions, as well as: taking breaks, over prepare, take practice test, stay organized and healthy, and lastly talk to yourself. While talking to yourself sounds odd, verbalizing what you are attempting to learn is very helpful.

At the end of the day, as long as you understand the material and believe in yourself. Any test will be a breeze. The most important thing is to not overwork yourself. Drink plenty of water and take breaks after long sessions. Good luck with the rest of the school year!