Building Good Study Habits

We are already at the end of week 9 of term 1, which means the end of this term is fast approaching, and the beginning of term 2 is in sight. The first term of the year has flown by, and now is the time to build good habits and develop useful ways of learning and studying ahead of assessments. 

Research shows that it takes around 21 days to make or break a habit, and to create a healthy academic routine, my advice would be to start now. How do you start? That seems to be a frequently asked question. The answer is to find what works for you, there is no right or wrong way to create healthy habits.

A general idea to kick things off is to spend 10 minutes every day revising what you learned or covered in class that day. Spending 10 minutes revising every day is proven to be more beneficial than studying for prolonged periods of time at random intervals. Starting now means less work is required at the end of the year, when this learning is crucial (for seniors specifically). If you start a routine of revision for 10 minutes every night today, the information you have learned gets stored in your long-term memory, which means it stays with you for longer and takes more time to forget. 

The 10 minutes revising may consist of rewriting notes, annotating them, reciting them out loud in front of a mirror, educating someone else on what you’ve learnt, or simply watching a YouTube video related to what you have done in class that day. 

Doing something like this stimulates the human brain, encouraging growth and deeper understanding, which will benefit your learning further on. Find what works for you, as this will make the 10 minutes easier and more enjoyable, which then makes it easier to create these habits over time. 

Hayley Roding

Academic Prefect 2025