Study tips

I just came home from college and I am not doing so well, but I have established some study tips.  A lot of study tips on the internet are cliche and they are same thing:  sit in a quiet spot with good lighting, limited distractions, listen to classical music only because studies show the Mozart effect makes you more "intelligent", etc.  But I do see the cliche is the best help.  Everyone seems to study best in their own way and there is no standard way to study effectively, but I do have some tips.

Since I am interested in psychology, I will give you some study tips in a more psychological viewpoint.  In general psychology, you need to have a motivator to study.  If you like the class more, you'll study more but there is some need for some psychological motivation to study.  The career thing is a good thing and the amount of money you can have and what you can buy with that money is a good motivator.  But sometimes the money thing doesn't motivate - sometimes it is more of a way to find yourself or to get some help,  or it is some way to help others.

You need to have a purpose to study - a motivator and the motivator need to be something that is a long term goal; not to get that sticker and to look cool for the day. When you get older, your motivations and rewards get a lot more advanced, and they become more concrete than the rewards you have at a young age.  In high school, you have the motivation to study because you don't want to get your butt kicked by bad grades or you want to get that car insurance, but in college, you have more advanced motivators.  To be screwed on, it is best to use more intrinsic and long term motivators than short term.  Why do you want to work?  To get money is the most logical and it is an extrinsic motivator but the intrinsic motivator should be something different.  Maybe you feel you want to help others or help contribute to society - you need to have something deep in your heart to have a reason why you are studying to do this kind of work. 

There is a reason why you want to be a carpenter or a plumber.  Maybe you want to see new homes being built or the idea that people have a home to live into.  Maybe you want to feel like you are working on a project.  There might be a reason why you might want to be a psychologist - you have feelings that people are messed up and you are on a mission to fix them, and try to make everyone psychologically screwed on, or you want to learn on what makes people tick.  I have a feeling that people are messed up and I think people need to be "screwed on".  People are not being nice and they need some help or things are going to go downhill.  A messed up society means messed up people.

I have a feeling that people will study in school, or do anything if they put their mind to it.  You need to have a driving force that makes you do things; you are not floating in space being impacted by stimuli and instinct.

Studying doesn't mean trying to encode facts into the memory banks and try to recall it when you take a test.  The only way for you to learn anything is in the form of operant conditioning or trying to apply the theory that you are learning into practice.  You can't just memorize a bunch of rhetoric and try to recall the memory on a test, and then not use it in life; you need to have a purpose for you to learn it.  You need to apply what you learn and try to relate.  Critical and higher level thinking is needed for studying and you need some motivator - the theory that you learn is needed for the workforce and your personal development along with developing your own position in society.

I can give you the more cliche study tips but I want you to think.