College life is not easy. You have to manage your time effectively to attend all classes, work on your assignments, prepare for upcoming tests and participate in extracurricular activities. To get good grades, you have to invest a lot of time and energy into studying. There is a wide range of study habits. You need to discover which ones are good for you and avoid the detrimental ones. Most college students have a hard time keeping up with their professors because they have formed detrimental study habits. In this article, we are going to discuss some of the bad study habits that can negatively affect your grades.
Why do habits matter?
Habits are what you do. They are repeated behaviors that gradually become automatic. You don’t have to spend time thinking about them. Habits have a huge influence on our lives. They determine how we think, feel and behave. And they create a lasting change in our lives. When it comes to studying, you get what you do repeatedly. If your study sessions are inefficient, it doesn’t matter how hard you study. You are going to get poor grades. To change the results, you have to change your study habits. Here are some of the study habits that negatively affect your grades:
1. Failing to ask for help
As you study, you’ll come across concepts that you don’t understand. Your tutor can also give you assignments that you don’t understand. When this happens, most learners avoid seeking help. They pretend that everything is okay. When you do this, the only person that is going to suffer is you. Your professors are here to help you get good grades. You can pay someone to write my research paper if you have lots of assignments and projects to work on. Apart from working hard, you have to work smart.
2. Cramming
A research study conducted by Scientific Reports found that college students who sacrifice their sleep and wake up at inconsistent times were more likely to perform poorly compared to their counterparts. To prepare for an upcoming exam, it’s better to study for a couple of weeks before the big day instead of pulling all-nighters. Your body and mind need rest to recover lost energies. Lack of sleep has been linked to a weakened immune system, poor concentration, stress, and fatigue. When you cram, you force your mind to remember concepts that you don’t understand. And this makes it easier for you to forget what you’ve been studying all night. In the end, you get poor grades and sacrifice your health. Without good health, there is nothing much you can do in any area of your life. Studying regularly and having a bedtime routine will help you get good grades and improve your health.
3. Multitasking
A study conducted by Stanford University found that your productivity levels and performance decline when you focus on multiple tasks. The human brain can only focus on one thing at a time. Therefore, what most people call multitasking involves switching tasks. You cannot study and watch TV at the same time. You are either reading your book or watching your favorite show. Trying to do both at the same time results in average results. You’ll neither have watched the show nor understood the topic that you are reading about. This is a complete waste of time and energy. You should train yourself to focus on one thing at a time. This way, you’ll not only get good grades but also have enough time to enjoy yourself.
4. Skipping classes
Most college students skip classes whenever they can. While no one will come to ask you why you failed to attend your classes, you should keep in mind that you are losing a lot. When you skip a class, you’ll never know how the professor explained certain concepts or the study materials that they were using in class. All you’ll have is your friends’ notes. Copying other peoples’ notes is not enough. You have to read research paper service essays to understand key concepts because they build on each other in most subjects. By skipping classes, you’ll have to spend a lot of time studying from scratch and getting online help from an online service with top writers to catch up with your colleagues and get good grades.
5. Failing to study
As we said earlier, most college students waste a lot of time hanging out with friends, going to parties, chatting on social media, and playing video games. While all these activities are good for you, it doesn’t mean that you should sacrifice studying to have time for them. The main aim of going to college is studying and getting good grades. Therefore, you should be spending most of your time studying. One of the easiest ways to ensure that you study regularly is by coming up with a study schedule. A study schedule is like a timetable that helps you figure out what you should be studying at a particular point in time. During your study sessions, consider incorporating active study strategies such as quizzing yourself, reading assignments, and teaching others what you’ve learned.
Conclusion
These are some of the bad study habits that can affect your grades negatively. As we said earlier, a habit is a repeated way of thinking, feeling, and behaving. If you can form bad habits, it means that you can also form good study habits. While forming a good habit takes a lot of time and energy, the payoff will be huge. You should never hesitate to seek help when you need it. Your professors, colleagues, and parents are there to help you whenever you encounter problems. In college, time management is everything. Doing your best to stay on top of tasks will lead to an easier life and better grades. Which habits are you going to form today to improve your performance in college?
Helen Birk
Author’s Bio:
Helen Birk is an award-winning academic writer and proofreader. She spends a lot of time conversing with college students to understand the problems that they are facing and come up with effective solutions. She enjoys writing articles and building her social network during her free time.
