Two Tips to Guarantee You Get the Most From Your Study Time

When seeking college or graduate school admission, each of us probably had to take the ACT or SAT exam or the GRE exam. If you wanted to practice real estate, nursing, become a doctor or lawyer, a personal trainer, a massage therapist, etc., you had to pass an exam. Well, there’s a long way around studying for the pertinent exam and there’s a short way. I am suggesting that you choose the latter. Let’s make our study environment as supportive as possible! Here are several “reminders” to get you faster to your destination!

Tip #1 – Prepare your environment for laser focus – laser studying!

Prepare your study space and materials so that they are easily accessible and available at any time.

How does this apply to me or to you?

Set up “quiet time” rules for your household and yourself – a “no interruption” time so you can have focused laser studying. Make a sign to hang in a prominent place in your home (if you use part of it as your study place) for others to see and respect! (Heck, your kids can get their homework done while you study.)

Find a room in your home, a place in a library, whatever place this might be and treat it as your study place. For example, what do you expect to do when you go to the bathroom? What do you think of when you think of activities you do in the kitchen? Your bedroom is for sleeping, right? The idea? Don’t use these places to bathe, eat, or sleep as places to study.

Have everything you need in one place (your study place) or in a travel bag that allows you to get to your study place (say, the library). This might include pens, pencils, highlighters, tabs for page identification/reference, a text or texts, notes, preferably organized in a binder by tabs for quick and easy reference, kleenex, water and easy-to-transport healthy snacks, earplugs (check your local pharmacy), staples, paperclips, cell phone that has been placed on silence and is out of sight

We interrupt ourselves and it takes more time to recover from an interruption, than the actual interruption!

How does this apply to me or to you?

Tip #2 – Prepare yourself for laser focus – laser studying!

Use the bathroom before you start studying (big interruption potential!)

Determine when you have time but especially energy to have concentrated, focused, laser-like study time. Break study time into short 30-45 minute segments with 10-15 minutes breaks between sessions.

Quantity is not the key here, rather, quality study is what you want. Consider…
When do I retain material the best? When do I have the most energy? The least?

Keep a calendar of your study days/times and how much you feel you accomplished. In fact, schedule your study time into your day’s/week’s activity. Confidence that you have “done” your time is critical to believing you can pass “the” exam.

Organize, organize, and organize some more! Plan, plan, and plan some more! Failing to plan = planning to fail. You have probably heard these “words of wisdom” before – right?

So, do yourself a favor. Create the conditions that are best for you and for your environment to get the most from the time you have available to prepare for that exam. In many cases, passing the exam is the key to where you want to go. Give yourself the greatest opportunity for being successful. Plan your valuable time!


Kim Fischer, owner of Empowered By Learning LLC, created the ACSM Certified Personal Trainer Exam Preparation workshop and accompanying Study Guide and Action Plan for Passing the ACSM Personal Trainer Certification Exam to support people in reaching their goal of becoming a certified personal trainer by the “gold standard” organization in the industry. Kim guarantees that workshop participants will pass the exam or their next workshop is free. Learn more about how to simplify and organize the process and the content for the ACSM Certified Personal Trainer Exam by getting a free excerpt of Kim’s step-by-step Action Plan when you subscribe at http://www.empoweredbylearningllc.com