How to Improve Your Study Habits: Study Essentials

STUDY ESSENTIALS SNAPSHOT

• One-hour course; no tests, no textbook.
• Get memory hacks to speed up learning.
• Discover ways to manage exam anxiety.
• Improve focus and boost confidence.
• A free offering with all course purchases.

At Knopman Marks, we’re on a mission to help students supercharge their exam prep process. We developed Study Essentials to equip students with tools to make the most of their study time and strategies to address struggles or discouragement. This course aims to unlock the potential of every student and help them perform at their best in high-stress situations. Anyone having a hard time getting started, memorizing new content, staying focused, or quieting self-doubts will find value in this one-hour primer.

“We’re focused on training financial professionals to have mastery of the material and their state of mind,” said Dave Meshkov, head of course design at Knopman Marks.

What Is Study Essentials

Study Essentials is a one-hour, high-performance primer for students who want to maximize their study process and their performance on exam day. Most of us never learn how to learn. This course offers strategies to study smarter, whether it’s setting intentions, learning memory hacks, or getting tips to quiet the nagging negative talk inside your head. A great companion to our exam-focused courses, Study Essentials is automatically added at no cost to all course purchases.

“We include Study Essentials with all of our training because it helps them make more of every single hour they study,” Meshkov said. “We show you how to transform self-doubt into confidence so you can perform at your best in high-stakes situations.”

How Study Essentials Works

Dave Meshkov explains how Study Essentials helps students make the most of every minute spent studying.

Why Study Essentials Works

Study Essentials covers techniques to improve comprehension, retention, and recall that every learner can apply. The course draws on the latest research in learning theory, neuroscience, and positive psychology, as well as decades of hands-on experience from the KM faculty.

The three components of Study Essentials:

1.High-performance Prep

Meshkov encourages students to approach training with good “V.I.B.E.S.”—an acronym used in this unit of the course. This stands for vision, intention, breath, eliminate, and state. Students are encouraged to set a vision and intention to generate the motivation and energy that will help them persevere in times of struggle.

• Why are you studying?
• What is your vision for after you pass your exam?
• What is your larger vision for your career?

“Making visionary goals clear helps students push through the pain that can come with mastering new skills or material,” Meshkov said.

Next you set an intention, such as completing a practice question. Breathing exercises are introduced to calm your mind. Meshkov emphasized the importance of eliminating distractions, including texts, email, and social media. Finally, you want to get into the right state of mind by paying attention to posture, energy, and mood.

2. Active Learning

Many students have never been taught hacks to maximize learning. Setting study blocks, such as 50 minutes on with 10 minutes off can be an effective cadence for many students. The course introduces the importance of spaced repetition, including active recalls, the benefits of writing material out in longhand, and the best uses of flashcards. The physical act of writing out material helps engage different parts of the brain that facilitate recall. Other useful memorization techniques include rhymes, acronyms, mnemonics, studying with music, and painting vivid pictures that incorporate the new information.

3. The Fundamentals

Though most students know the importance of getting enough sleep and eating well to fuel studying, self-care is often the first thing to go when faced with a daunting amount of material to master. “Students sacrifice sleep, they stop exercising, they eat more junk food to stay up later,” Meshkov said. “Study Essentials reminds them that these choices harm your ability to retain and recall information more than you may realize. You need time to rest and recover to perform at your best.”

What Students Are Saying

Studies have shown that the state in which a person studies makes a difference in how well the information is encoded and stored, which in turn drives how well a person can retain and recall the information. KM students who have taken Study Essentials report applying the tools and strategies with successful outcomes. Many have also reported the benefits of KM instructors believing in their success.

“When we recognize and acknowledge progress and small wins, it allows students to feel their progress and kick-starts the positive feedback loop to drive ongoing performance,” Meshkov said.

“I’m so thankful to you all and to your amazing Study Essentials course.” – John R

“I trusted the process! I used V.I.B.E.S. every day! I believed you when you told us we knew this material.” – Katie L.

“I’d been feeling burnt out from studying. I found the 25 minutes of studying, 5-minute break technique from Study Essentials to be especially helpful.” – Gabriel T.

“Everything you said not to do, I found myself guilty of everything with distractions, late nights and negative self-talk. I feel a lot of anxiety studying and worrying about passing. After Study Essentials, I immediately wrote on three sheets of paper to say, ‘I can pass; I will pass,’ ‘stop negative talk,’ and ‘stay positive; stay focused.’ Thanks for the great motivational advice. I am incorporating your techniques.” – Cindy L.

Learn more about Study Essentials here.