Published 15 June 2026

Best Study Tips Every Student Should Follow 

University is genuinely exciting. New city, new ideas, new people. But somewhere between the first week and exam season, some students can hit a wall.  

Here’s the thing: studying harder isn’t the answer. Studying smarter is. And the difference between a student who just scrapes through and one who genuinely flourishes often comes down not to intelligence, but to method. 

This guide pulls together the best study tips for students who want to build habits that actually stick, not just make it until the next deadline. 

Why Effective Study Habits Matter for Students 

The Importance of Good Study Habits 

There’s a reason some students consistently perform well while others put in similar hours and get half the results. It almost always traces back to how they study, not how long. 

Good study habits do more than improve grades. They reduce anxiety, build genuine subject knowledge, and give you the kind of confidence that shows up in seminars, presentations and job interviews.  

At a university like the University of Europe for Applied Sciences (UE Amsterdam), where programs are professionally oriented and industry exposure is built into the curriculum, being able to absorb and apply information quickly is a genuine career skill. 

How Study Techniques Improve Academic Performance 

Research consistently shows that active learning strategies significantly outperform passive revision methods like re-reading and highlighting. Students who use structured study techniques and methods, such as retrieval practice and spaced repetition, retain information far more effectively and perform better under exam conditions. 

The gap between passive and active study isn’t small. Studies confirm that optimized spacing algorithms can double recall efficiency compared to cramming. That’s the same content, studied in less total time, just distributed and structured differently. 

Common Mistakes Students Make While Studying 

Before getting to what works, it’s worth naming what doesn’t: 

1. Re-reading notes without testing yourself. 
2. Studying in long, unbroken marathon sessions. 
3. Leaving everything to the night before an exam. 
4. Treating highlighting as a form of learning. 
5. Multitasking during study sessions.  

Create a Structured Study Plan 

Effective study planning looks like this: 

1. Map out all your deadlines and exam dates at the start of term. 
2. Work backwards from each deadline to allocate preparation time. 
3. Break each subject into specific topics, not vague blocks like “economics revision”. 
4. Build in buffer days — things always take longer than planned. 
5. Review and adjust your plan weekly, not just at the start of the semester. 

If time management is something you struggle with, dedicating 20 minutes at the start of each week to planning pays back several times over in focus and reduced stress. 

Choose the Right Study Environment 

Where you study matters more than most people acknowledge. A noisy, cluttered, or uncomfortable space quietly drains concentration.  

A few things that make a real difference: 

1. Phone out of sight. Not just face-down, actually out of reach.
2. Good lighting. Natural light where possible.
3. A tidy desk — mental clutter often follows physical clutter.
4. Temperature — slightly cool rooms tend to support alertness better than warm ones
5. Designated space — training your brain to associate a specific location with focus is a genuine psychological tool.

If you’re studying at home and struggling to separate “home mode” from “study mode,” the challenge of balancing study and personal life as an international student is worth addressing directly — not just pushing through. 

Use Proven Study Techniques That Improve Memory 

Active Recall Study Method 

Active recall means testing yourself on material rather than passively reviewing it. Instead of re-reading a chapter, you close the book and try to write down everything you can remember. Then you check. 

Research from cognitive psychology confirms that retrieval practice — the act of pulling information from memory — strengthens memory and comprehension in ways that re-reading simply cannot. Every time you successfully retrieve something, the memory trace deepens. 

Practical ways to use active recall: 

1. Write questions in the margins of your notes as you read, then test yourself later. 
2. Use flashcard apps like Anki or Quizlet. 
3. Try the “blank page” technique: close everything and reproduce what you know from scratch. 

Spaced Repetition Method 

Spaced repetition works by reviewing material at increasing intervals, just before you’d naturally start to forget it. The principle is rooted in Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve, which maps how quickly memory fades without reinforcement. 

Studies show that spaced repetition can significantly improve long-term knowledge retention compared to traditional study methods, especially for subjects requiring large volumes of retained information. 

The 2/3/5/7 method (reviewed later in the FAQs) is a simple version of this. Apps like Anki  automate the scheduling for you, surfacing the right cards at the right intervals. 

Pomodoro Technique for Focus 

The Pomodoro technique for studying breaks work into 25-minute focused sessions, each followed by a 5-minute break. After four sessions, you take a longer break of 15–30 minutes. 

The appeal is structural: it makes large tasks feel less daunting by turning them into a series of contained sprints. Surveys of students using this method report feeling more focused and less overwhelmed by their workloads. If 25 minutes feels too short for complex tasks, adjust to 45- or 50-minute blocks — the principle matters more than the exact timing. 

The Feynman Study Technique 

The Feynman technique is a four-step method named after the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, who was famous for his ability to explain complex ideas in plain language. 

The steps: 

1. Pick a concept and write it at the top of a blank page
2. Explain it as if you were teaching a 12-year-old
3. Identify every point where your explanation breaks down or gets vague
4. Go back to your source material for those specific gaps, then try again

The gaps in your explanation are the gaps in your understanding. This technique turns confusion from something to avoid into something to locate and fix. 

Take Smart Notes for Better Learning 

Note-taking approaches worth trying: 

1. The Cornell Method: divide your page into a main notes column, a cues column for questions/keywords and a summary section at the bottom. It builds review into the note-taking process. 
2. Mind mapping: useful for visual learners and subjects with lots of interconnected concepts 
3. Outline notes: hierarchical structure that mirrors how ideas relate. Good for structured lectures 

Improve Concentration While Studying 

The single biggest threat to study quality isn’t lack of time, it’s fractured attention. A two-hour session with constant interruptions produces far less than a focused 45 minutes. 

Practical ways to protect your focus: 

1. Use app blockers like Forest or Freedom during study sessions. 
2. Put your phone in another room. Not on silent, not face-down, another room. 
3. Use noise-cancelling headphones in busy environments. 
4. Set a clear intention before each session: what specifically are you going to accomplish?
5. Avoid studying in bed — it genuinely blurs the mental boundary between rest and work. 

Focus techniques for students don’t need to be complicated. Often the most powerful one is just removing the thing that keeps pulling your attention away. 

Use Technology and Study Apps 

Best Apps for Studying 

The right tools can meaningfully reduce the friction of studying. The ones consistently rated most useful by students: 

1. Anki — gold-standard for spaced repetition flashcards. Free, highly customizable and backed by strong evidence. 
2. Quizlet — easier to get started with than Anki, huge library of shared study sets and good AI-powered quiz generation. 
3. Notion — excellent for organizing notes, assignments, and projects in one place. Free with a student email. 
4. Forest — gamifies focus by growing a virtual tree during your study sessions. Sounds trivial; works surprisingly well. 

Using AI Tools for Studying 

AI study tools for students have genuinely improved in the past couple of years. According to a 2025 study, 78% of university students now use at least one AI-powered study tool, and the gap between those using them strategically and those using them lazily shows in results. 

How to use AI productively: 

1. Use ChatGPT or Claude to explain concepts in different ways until one clicks. 
2. Use Perplexity AI as a research assistant that cites its sources. 
3. Ask AI to quiz you on a topic rather than just summarize it. 
4. Use it to generate practice questions and essay prompts. 

The important caveat: AI should deepen your understanding, not replace the work of actually learning.  

Digital Flashcards and Productivity Tools 

Tools like Anki and Quizlet, when combined with spaced repetition, turn studying from endless re-reading into something active and efficient. Anki in particular uses an algorithm to resurface cards at exactly the right moment — just before you’d forget them. 

For productivity and organization, Notion AI can generate study plans, summarize readings, and organize everything by subject in one workspace. 

Study With Friends or Join Study Groups 

Study groups work, but only when they’re controlled. Socialising that occasionally nods at the textbook is not a study group. 

What makes group study productive: 

1. Each person reviews material independently first, then meets to discuss and test each other. 
2. Assign topics: different people summarize different sections, then teach their section to the group. 
3. Use the session to identify gaps and disagreements. This is where learning happens. 
4. Keep sessions time-limited (90–120 minutes maximum). 

Review and Test Yourself Regularly 

Build regular review into your weekly routine: 

1. At the end of each day, spend five minutes recalling the key points from that day’s lectures, without looking at your notes. 
2. Weekly: use flashcards or practice questions to test yourself on the past week’s material. 
3. Monthly: do a longer review session covering the past month, identifying which areas need more attention. 

Study Tips for Exam Preparation 

How to Revise Effectively Before Exams 

Effective study techniques for exams start several weeks before the exam date, not several days. The best exam preparation is mostly built during the semester.  

In the weeks before exams: 

1. Create a revision timetable that covers all subjects, not just the ones you feel less prepared for
2. Use past papers. They’re the single most reliable indicator of what an exam will actually demand
3. Focus on understanding not memorisation where possible; understanding survives exam nerves better
4. Sleep. Seriously. Sleep is when memory consolidation happens.

Last-Minute Study Tips 

If you’ve arrived at the night before an exam and still have big gaps, here’s what actually helps: 

1. Focus on high-yield content: concepts that appear repeatedly in past papers. 
2. Use active recall, not passive re-reading. 
3. Create brief summary sheets of core ideas. 
4. Do not stay up all night. A rested brain outperforms an exhausted one almost every time. 

Managing Exam Stress 

A degree of exam anxiety is normal and can actually sharpen performance. Chronic stress, however, impairs memory retrieval and makes it harder to think clearly. 

Practical ways to manage: 

1. Exercise — even a 20-minute walk on the day of an exam can meaningfully reduce cortisol. 
2. Avoid comparing your preparation to others (rarely accurate, always unhelpful). 
3. Keep perspective: one exam doesn’t define your degree or your career. 

Common Study Mistakes Students Should Avoid 

Cramming Before Exams

Cramming produces short-term recall at best. Research consistently shows that spaced study outperforms massed practice, meaning six sessions of one hour across a week will almost always beat one six-hour session the night before. The information hasn’t had time to consolidate.

Multitasking While Studying

Multitasking doesn’t exist, cognitively speaking. What it actually means is rapidly switching attention between tasks. Each switch carries a cost. A phone notification, a quickly checked message, a background TV show, these fragment your concentration and reduce the quality of what you absorb.

Passive Reading Instead of Active Learnin

Reading and re-reading creates the feeling of familiarity without necessarily creating genuine recall. You recognise the material on the page but may struggle to retrieve it during an exam. Always pair reading with some form of active engagement: notes, questions, summaries, or flashcards.

Quick Daily Study Habits Every Student Should Build 

Small habits, done consistently, compound. These take less than five minutes individually: 

1. Morning: review your plan for the day — what specifically are you going to accomplish? 
2. After lectures: spend five minutes writing down the three most important things from that session. 
3. Before sleep: briefly recall what you studied that day without looking at notes. 
4. Weekly: update your flashcard deck with new material. 
5. Monthly: review your study plan and adjust based on what’s working. 

The students who struggle most aren’t usually the least capable, they’re the ones without a system. A simple, repeatable system beats sporadic bursts of intense effort. 

Final Thoughts 

Studying well is a skill. Like any skill, it can be learned, practiced and improved. None of the techniques in this guide are complicated. The difficulty is in applying them consistently when it’s easier to scroll, skim or procrastinate. 

Start with one or two changes. Add active recall to your next study session. Try a Pomodoro block this week. Build in one review session before the weekend. Small shifts in how you study can change what you’re capable of.  

If you’re a student at UE Amsterdam or considering joining, these habits aren’t just about passing exams. They’re about building the capacity to keep learning long after you leave university, which, in most careers today, matters more than any single grade. 

Ready to take the next step? Contact us to know more.

Author’s bio

Georgina works as a content specialist within the GUS network, having completed a degree in creative and professional writing. She has been a Page Turner Awards finalist on two occasions, and her commercial experience includes contractual copywriting for Arnold Clark, a prominent UK automotive company, alongside independent freelance work. Focused on making higher education accessible and engaging, she brings her expertise to UE Amsterdam to highlight the diverse programmes and opportunities available to students in a global academic landscape.