# Study Techniques by EssayCompany: Concept, Types, and Applications

In this post, the [essaycompany](https://essaycompany.org/) will try to show you what study techniques are and essential aspects that you can start to take into account when you begin studying a subject or learning some material.

# Study techniques. Concept.

Study techniques are procedures that allow us to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of our studies and learning in a given area.

For greater clarity, we have classified them to help you understand them better and adapt them to the specific context you may need them.

We have to say that almost all effective study techniques are based on taking advantage of the innate principles of learning, especially attention, association, order, categorization, visualization, and conceptualization.

On the other hand, we like to distinguish between study strategy and study technique.

A study strategy is a behavioral plan for dealing with the material to be studied.

A technique is a tool to follow through with that plan.

For example: if we were to take a trip across the country, our strategy would be the plan for the journey; where we are going to go, what cities or towns we are going to stop in, what we are going to do when we get there, and the road we are going to take to get there.

While the techniques would be our tools to make that trip we have planned; the car that allows us to get to a city, the mountain bike that will enable us to do that hike, or that bus to get home when we can't take the car.

# TYPES OF STUDY TECHNIQUES:

Planning study techniques:

These tools allow us to plan our study sessions most optimally. They can be found here:

Personal productivity techniques
Time management techniques
Habit development techniques.

Synthesis study techniques:

They allow us to summarize the material studied most appropriately and stay with the most important and relevant information.

Elaboration of concepts and categorization
Search for keywords
Elaboration of summaries
Mental maps

Execution study techniques:

They allow us to enhance the very act of studying and execute the most appropriate actions for learning the material. Mnemonics such as the following would fall into this category:

Keywords
Pair association
Hanger systems
Mental associations
Acronyms

Motivational study techniques:

They allow us to maintain interest in the material to be studied.

Visualization techniques
NLP techniques
Goal setting

Evaluation and self-regulation study techniques:

They provide feedback on the effectiveness of the techniques applied and the material learned and indicate how to vary our study method to optimize our learning.

# STUDY TECHNIQUES ORIENTED ACCORDING TO THE MATERIAL TO BE STUDIED

Depending on the type of material to be studied, it will be more convenient to use one technique or another. The first step to knowing which method to use is to always keep in mind what type of information and data are found in the material to be studied. Mainly we can see three different types of information:

Useful data:

We will have to employ logic, reasoning, and problem-solving to learn by its nature. Materials and subjects such as mathematics, physics, or chemistry could fall into this category. Here are five general steps that can help you deal with this type of information:

Identify and understand the problem at hand.
Identify what information we have and what information is essential.
What information is missing and needed?
What needs to be done first?
Identify what would be the possible solution or solutions to the problem.
Explore the alternatives and strategies to follow to reach that solution or solutions.
Make a plan. At this point, you can break the problem into smaller parts or sub-goals and attack them bit by bit.
Evaluate the steps followed, and the result of the strategy applied.

As a help, we can comment that as a general rule, when we do not understand a material, we lack information. When we feel confused, we have all the information, but this information is disordered. With this in mind, maybe the next time you have to look for a solution to a problem, and you feel that you are

The solution to a problem, and you feel this way. You will realize that those same feelings of confusion or not understanding are already offering you information about what the next step may be.

Connected or episodic data: This information is structured in processes, descriptions, storytelling, events, etc., and is characterized by illustrations, a common link, sequences or episodes in the exposition of information, and repeating patterns. Materials and subjects with these characteristics can be history, literature, environmental knowledge, and similar subjects and materials. In these cases, the techniques that in our experience are most effective are:

The use of categories and concepts to establish the order and organization of the material.
Searching for keywords
Elaboration of summaries
Concept maps
The use of repetition

For this type of information, the most recommended study techniques are those of synthesis applying the material's principle of order and organization. The REPETITION method is suitable ONLY if we have done the previous work of ordering and organizing the information and we have used synthesis techniques.

Searching for an order in the material we have to study and using categories will help us make the material we learn more meaningful to us and facilitate recall. Suppose, for example. We find a fabric or topic that talks about the functioning of the human body. In that case, it will be easier to remember if that material is ordered and organized in concepts, for example, the nervous system, the respiratory system, the digestive system, etc. Then if it is structured in a disordered way and first talks about aspects of the respiratory system and mix them with those of the nervous system and then returns to talk about the respiratory system.

You may have experienced how difficult it is to learn and pay attention in a class if you have encountered teachers whose explanations were disordered. You have an example of the use of this principle in the free study techniques course where you will see that you can remember 50 words in 10 minutes without hardly having studied them by paying a little attention to the explanations in the video.

Raw data or "just because" is the kind of data that, as many of our students say, they have to learn "just because" or by heart. They are data that, in some way, are like a raw rock, and once polished, knowledge can be elaborated with them. It is a type of information that cannot be reasoned with or connected.

Data of this type are the capitals of countries, geographical data, bones of the body, muscles, vocabulary of other languages, names of people and objects, etc. We have seen, very often and much to our regret, that most students use the repetition technique to study this kind of material, which is something like trying to hammer a nail into a wooden plank using your hands. Maybe this is possible, and some people succeed, but I think it is clear to all of us that the best tool for this is a hammer. The techniques for learning this type of information are going to be:

Imagination as a learning tool.
Keywords
Hanger systems
Mental associations
Acronyms

Both elements allow us to connect the materials we have to study and facilitate recall and learning. Mnemonics bring these elements together
these elements provide us with excellent tools to learn this type of information speedily and effectively, which will also improve our ability to imagine, visualize, and generate ideas.

In the free study techniques course, you also have an example video to learn vocabulary in other languages and experience for yourself the use of this principle.

We must say that ASSOCIATION is one of the most essential and relevant elements of learning. We learn a great deal of information by associating. Teaching concepts is also much easier if we can associate that new information with the one we already have. You may have already experienced the ease of studying new material if you have previous knowledge to associate the new material.

# STUDY TECHNIQUES INTEGRATED INTO A STUDY STRATEGY

The best way to take advantage of all these techniques is to use them within a study strategy adapted to our needs. It is crucial to define our objective in our study to outline a plan that will lead us to its achievement.

Using these techniques without having a clear idea of where we are going can be helpful. Still, it will be light years away from the results we will achieve if we apply a well-designed strategy, adapt to our situation, and know-how and when to use each technique in the best possible way. If we lack a study strategy adapted to our needs, it is like lacking the recipe for preparing a meal. We can have great ingredients, but we cannot cook anything if we do not combine and prepare them.