Getting Ready to Study: Home

A guide to goal setting [worksheet] (University of Saskatchewan)  

Ensure your success: set SMART goals (Grantham University, 2016)  

Get S.M.A.R.T. about setting your goals (Office of Academic Advising, Rice University, 2014)  

Goal setting (California Polytechnic State University, 2017)  

Setting goals (Fairhope Middle School)  

Setting goals: who, why, how? (Harvard University)  

SMART goal setting for students (Andrea Leyden, GoConqr, Exam Time, 2014)  

Download some of these apps to help you study and organise your time.

Trello. Streamline your classes, due dates, and study materials. With Trello, students can share entries with study partners and friends, too, all in one easy-on-the-eyes design. Free for iPhone/iPad, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows 8 and web.

Unstuck. Have a major case of writer's block? Get distracted waaaay too easily? Feeling generally overwhelmed with all your due dates and deadlines? Sounds like a life coach could be of service. Or this genius app which—through a series of eerily perceptive questions—figures out why you're stuck, helps prioritize your commitments, and gives you concrete goals to hit. 

Study Buddy. This awesome app helps make your dedicated study time more effective and efficient with customizable timers and alarms that remind you when it's time to take a break. Also useful: colourful graphs to chart how much time you're spending in the books versus perusing your Instagram feed. The alarms and timers are also key for practice quizzes and exams, plus motivational nuggets are available anytime you need a little extra encouragement. $.99 for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch.

Rescue Me. These days, it is way too easy to get distracted from studying by the latest on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Vine, Snapchat etc. On top of that social media black hole, there are all those hours frittered away emailing and endlessly surfing the web. You need some time management help, stat, so try this app to track your productivity and how much time you spend on all your digital distractions. Plus, if you really lack self-control, Rescue Me can temporarily block all those addicting, time-sucking sites—just until exam time is over. Free for web.

inClass. Just think of inClass as a virtual personal secretary for all your school and studying needs. The app allows you to create to-do lists, organize your class, deadline, activity, and study session schedules, take photos/audio/video within it, manage your class notes and share it all with your friends and study partners.  Free for iPhone/iPad.

My Study Life [free; Android, iOS, Windows, Chrome]
My Study Life is an all-in-one student organiser, with scheduling and class timetabling that can sync with your calendar. The reminders notify you of incomplete tasks and upcoming classes and exams. It provides a task manager that goes beyond the simple to-do list, with functionality specific to student lifestyles. It also syncs across all devices, saves everything to the cloud and is available offline. So you can work on a paper offline, then save it to the cloud and have it linked to a task and timetable.

Exam Countdown [free; Android, iOS]
If you need even more help organising your exam dates and keeping yourself motivated, Exam Countdown is for you. It keeps the study focus up with a daily countdown to all your exams. You can colour code all your upcoming exams and add symbols, such as an abacus for maths or a book for English. 

StudiezPro is a powerful scheduling app that won’t get you an A in bio, but it will help you ace time management. iStudiezPro allows you to input your class schedule and homework into a built-in planner, then alerts you of approaching deadlines, keeps track of your grades, organizes your extracurricular schedule, and counts down to your next class. 

Click for bigger picture.

Create a productive home study space (A Foyster, Swinburne University of Technology, 2016)  

Creating a good study environment (University of Alabama)  

Creating a good study environment [magazine article] (Certification Magazine, 2006)  

Creating the ultimate study environment at home (Charles Sturt University, 2016)  

Creating your study space (University of Western Sydney, 2016)  

Home study environment (Prue Salter, Enhanced Learning Educational Services, 2012)  

How to make a study space (WikiHow to do anything)  

Music while studying (Prue Salter, Enhanced Learning Educational Services, 2010)  

Preparing to study: a good study place (Mangrum-Strichart Learning Resources, 2017)  

Study inspiration: the best study spaces in all shapes and sizes (Caroline Halliday, Your Tutor, 2017)  

Working effectively at home (Prue Salter, Enhanced Learning Educational Services, 2010)  

Approaches to learning and studying (University of Bristol)  

Associations between approaches to study, the learning environment, and academic achievement [magazine article] (Mona Faisal Al-Qahtani, Journal of Taibah University Medical Sciences, Taibah University, 2015)  

Learning approaches (Skills You Need, 2017)  

Learning skills (Mind Tools, 2017)  

Passive vs. active approaches to studying (University of Kansas Medical Center)  

Scoring key for the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) (Enhancing Teaching-Learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses, Economic and Social Research Council, 2005)  

Students' approaches to learning (University of Technology Sydney, 2012)  

Successful learning strategies (University of the Sunshine Coast)