12.There’s nothing particularly wrong with taking a break when-
ever you feel you need to keep yourself sharp and maximize
your quality study time—as long as the breaks aren’t every five
minutes and don’t last longer than the study periods! In general,
though, try to increase your concentration through practice so
that you can go at least an hour before getting up, stretching,
and having a drink or snack. Too many projects will require at
least that long to “get into” or organize, and you may find that
breaking too frequently will require too much “review time”
when you return to your desk.Study Groups: What Are Friends For?
I never got invited to join a study group while I was in college and
didn’t think of forming one myself. If I had thought of it, even while
I was in high school, I would have probably started one.
The idea is simple: Find a small group of like-minded students
and share notes, question each other, and prepare for tests together.
To be effective, obviously, the students you pick should share all, or
at least most, of your classes.
Search out students who are smarter than you, but not too much
smarter. If they are on a level far beyond your own, you’ll soon be left
in the dust and be more discouraged than ever. On the other hand, if
you choose students who are too far beneath your level, you may
enjoy being the “brain” of the bunch but miss the point of the group—
the challenge of other minds to spur you on.
Study groups can be organized in a variety of ways. Each member
could be assigned primary responsibility for a single class, such as
preparing detailed notes from lectures and discussion groups. If sup-
plementary reading is recommended but not required, that person
could be responsible for doing all such reading and preparing detailed
summaries.
32 How to Study