Yes, we know we’ll get a ton of sarcastic replies regarding the seemingly self-explanatory title. Dorm Rooms are naturally made for studying, right? Wrong. There’s more to studying spaces than meets the eye. Here’s how to effectively have a great study session in a dorm room.
PLAN FOR IT
Each residence hall plans dorm-wide education & social events for students to attend. Find out when those days are and arrange your study sessions before or after the event. Days like these can create a certain buzz in the residence halls – an energy that can end up causing more social activity, thus creating more distractions.
Plan well ahead during midterms or finals by anticipating the peak study session hours, such as “reading day.” Students will fill the dedicated study rooms or common rooms (often for long periods of time) to get studying done because the library or coffee shop is packed to the gills. On top of that, there’s this collective “stress tension” that can turn an already stressful situation into a potentially messy one.
REMOVING DISTRACTIONS
The wonderful thing about living in a dorm room is how easy it is to meet and talk to other students living inside the residence halls. However, this can also be immensely distracting. If you plan to study in your room, state your intentions and when you plan to be finished on your door. You can do this by writing your schedule on a white board, sticky note or a custom door hanger piece. This will let people in your hall know what you are doing.
We won’t get into this much, but the most powerful tool in your academic arsenal is your ability to focus. In order to focus best, we highly recommend deactivating all of your social media accounts while studying
Studying is a big part of a student’s life, but if you learn how to treat it objectively (like learning how to retain information instead of just trying to cram it in), then you will succeed. Who knows, you might just find or create a study group of your own in the dorm. Midterms are just around the corner, so good luck to all!