6 Common Mistakes Students Make And What You Can Do About Them

“We should not regret mistakes, we should learn from them.” We all mistakes and it’s absolutely alright to do so. At different stages in our lives, we make different kinds of mistakes. Here are 6 of the most common mistakes students make and what you can do about them.

• Not Reading The Question Carefully

This an act that I’m myself guilty of. I often don’t read the question carefully and therefore not understand it enough to know what it actually demands. This sometimes causes me to lose marks. What I have started doing now is that I read every single word in the question slowly twice, in order to completely understand what exactly the question requires. Just reading the question properly can make a world of difference.

• Cramming

To be honest, cramming is the worst thing anyone could ever do. When you cram information, it gets stored in the short term memory area, in your brain, which results in you eventually forgetting everything you’ve learnt, on the exam day. Cramming causes you to get stressed and could even cause mental exhaustion. You should try understanding the information, truly comprehend what it’s trying to say and why it is saying so. When you understand the content, it gets stored in the long term memory area. That way you will not only know the information for the exam but also for the rest of your life.

• Studying For Extremely Long

Several students tend to study for hours either because they want to get done with it or the deadline is near and they haven’t done anything yet. This method won’t help you learn much. Our brains are designed in such a way that they require time to rest in order to process the content. You need to plan your study schedule. An amazing method you could make use of is the ‘Pomodoro’ technique. Here’s how it works:

1. You decide which task you want to do
2. You do the task for 1 Pomodoro (1 Pomodoro = 25 minutes)
3. After 1 Pomodoro you take a 5 min break
4. You repeat the same 4 times
5. After 4 cycles, you take a long break

This is an absolutely efficient and productive method of studying. It will help you feel completely prepared for the next day.

• Not Engaging In Class

Most of us feel scared to speak up. Due to this, sometimes our doubts our left unclarified or when a question is asked, we know the answer but we are scared to answer. When you engage in a discussion you completely understand what is going on. If you understand it there you wouldn’t have to study it all over again. If you don’t get your doubts clarifies how will you ever understand what’s going on? It’s important to speak and be an active participant in the class.

• Last-Minute Study

Many of us study on the day before the test. In this case, we start cramming the information, which as mentioned is a terrible thing to do. When we study last-minute our brain doesn’t retain any of the information, this way we are most likely to do badly in the test or task. What I like to do is that I start studying for a test or exam almost two weeks before the deadline. This way, on the day before the test, I just need to review everything once, and I am ready for the test.

Those were some of the common mistakes, I think students make. I have myself made some of these. Let me in the comments below if there is anything specific you would want me to write about!