The Study Habits That Actually Work (From Someone Who Used to Wing Everything)

• Chris The Grad
• 0 Comments
• November 30, 2025

By: Chris the Graduate 

I’ll be real with you, studying was never something I took seriously when I first got to college. I used to be the type of student who walked into class half-awake, scribbled a few notes I knew I wouldn’t look at later, and somehow expected things to work out when the test came. And honestly, that worked for a while, until it didn’t. Eventually, the classes got harder, the material stacked up, and reality hit me: college isn’t something you can coast through forever.

Once I accepted that, I started building better study habits, not the aesthetic, color-coded, perfect habits you see on TikTok, but real ones that fit the way I learn. The first habit was switching to short, focused study sessions instead of forcing myself into long hours. Twenty to thirty minutes of real focus, with a five-minute break in between, keeps me from burning out and helps me stay consistent. I also started doing quick note reviews right after class. Even ten minutes helps keep everything fresh, so I’m not confused weeks later.

The biggest thing that changed how I study was active recall. Rereading your notes might feel productive, but it doesn’t stick. Testing yourself with flashcards, practice problems, or talking the content through out loud forces your brain to work. It changed everything for me. I also stopped being scared of office hours. Sitting down one-on-one with a professor is honestly the fastest way to understand something that seemed impossible.

Another thing that helped was figuring out where I study best. Some people thrive in quiet spaces; others need background noise. I experiment depending on my mood. And last but not least, I learned to stop studying once my brain checks out. There’s no point forcing it, and rest is part of staying productive. These habits aren’t perfect or fancy, but they’re real and they’re what helped me go from winging it to actually learning and keeping my sanity in the process.