Effective Study Strategies Make
The Uphill Climb An Easier Hike
 As a student, you know how much of your time is spent
studying. No one wants to spend more time than they need to on school work, especially when you are young and
trying to enjoy what you feel are the best years of your life. If you could apply effective study
strategies, you could reduce the time spent in your books, while raising your grades at the same
time.
Unfortunately, most teachers are only trained in imparting the knowledge concerning their own particular field
of study, which is fine. Not too many teachers are going to take the time to help individual students develop study
skills necessary to absorb the information during hours spent in private study at home. The reason for this is
because study skills are a separate subject altogether which can be applied to Math, English, Social Studies, or
whatever. So the student’s lack of study skills is not the fault of the teacher, but rather on the system itself
which has failed to provide the tools necessary for success.
The schools, teachers, and even parents usually expect the student to simply “do whatever it takes” to pass
their courses. This is because if they were to share in the responsibility, they themselves would have to become
teachers of how to improve study skills. For teachers, this is not really a part of their job
description. It is extra work for them. Likewise, parents have jobs and busy schedules, and most of them have never
been properly trained in good study skills themselves either.
What’s Missing From Our Primary Education?
Study Skills and Strategies, Among Many Other Things
Our school systems have failed us in many ways. We should have mandated certain subjects in the lower grades so
that our students could excel when they finally arrived to the higher grades. Among some of the “missing”
fundamentals in our elementary education are:
- Personal finance
- Cooking
- Personal hygiene
- Nutrition and health
- Study skills and strategies
- Choosing a career
- Gardening and planting
- Elementary economic principles
Many of these things are taught in school, but very rarely or never at the elementary level where they would be
mandatory rather than elective. So we end up with college graduates who cannot balance a checkbook or cook for
themselves when they go out on their own. Most do not even understand the importance of practicing basic health
principles which would save them and others from diseases and numerous miseries later in life. These are basic life
skills which can be considered elementary “survival skills” in a world where you are expected to fend for
yourself.
Effective study skills and strategies are among the most important of these “missing”
academia subjects, because they are the hub by which other skills and talents are developed. Like the spokes of a
wheel, differing fields of knowledge project in a radial manner from the hub of effective study habits producing a
strong and well supported wheel of life skills.
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