How to Study

Get Ready to Become a “Lifer”
Learning how to study is really a long-term process. Once you under-
take the journey, you will be surprised at the number of landmarks,
pathways, side streets, and road signs you’ll find. Even after you’ve
transformed yourself into a better student than you’d ever hoped 
to be, you’ll inevitably find one more signpost that offers new 
information, one more pathway that leads you in an interesting 
new direction.
Chapter 2
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How to Organize Your Studying
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Consider learning how to study a lifelong process, and be ready to
modify anything you’re doing as you learn other methods.
This is especially important right from the start, when you consider
your overall study strategies. How long should you study per night?
How do you allocate time between subjects? How often should you
schedule breaks? Your answers to these questions are going to vary
considerably depending on how well you were doing before you read
this book, how far you have to go, how interested you are in getting
there, how involved you are in other activities, the time of day, your
general health, and a host of other individual factors.
What’s your study sequence? Hardest assignments first? Easiest?
Longest? Shortest? Are you comfortable switching back and forth
from one to another, or do you prefer to focus on a single assignment
from start to finish?
What’s your study strategy? Your high school history teacher may
want you to memorize a series of battles, dates, and generals. Your
college professor will expect a deeper understanding of the battles,
how they related to the overall conduct of the war, and how they
affected or were affected by what was occurring in the rest of the
world. Your teacher’s emphasis will change the way you study.
This gets even more difficult (believe it or not!) when you consider
that the tasks themselves may have a great effect on your schedule.
When I sit down to plan out the chapter of a book, for example, 
I need a relatively long period of uninterrupted time—at least an hour,
perhaps as long as three hours. That enables me to put my notes in
the order I want them and think through the entire chapter—writing
transitions in my head, noting problem areas, figuring out where 
I need an example or illustration. If I only have half an hour before 
a meeting or appointment, I wouldn’t even attempt to start such a
project.
What’s the lesson in all of this? There is no ideal, no answer—
certainly no “right” answer—to many of the questions I’ve posed. 
It’s a message you’ll read in these pages again and again: Figure out
what works for you and keep on doing it. If it later stops working or
doesn’t seem to be working as well, change it.
How to Study
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None of the study techniques discussed at length in this book is carved
in stone. Not only should you feel free to adapt and shape and bend
them to your own needs, you must do so.