Studying From Home: How to Study Effectively for Home-Based Learning (HBL)

Thought that your days of studying from home will be over once the pandemic dies down? Fortunately, or unfortunately for some, home-based learning (HBL) is here to stay.

As announced by Minister for Education Ong Ye Kung, pandemic or not, HBL is expected to become part and parcel of routine education. Going forward, schools will be dedicating a few days a month for online learning.

Find it challenging or unproductive to study from home? Instead of lamenting your fate, why not try to adapt to the circumstances at hand.
To help you along, here are 4 useful tips to help students like yourself study effectively from home:

Create a conducive study area

Want to maximize your studying efforts at home? It all begins with a conducive study area. After all, no one, even the best student can study when the environment is super noisy or distracting.

Here’s how you can get started on creating a conducive space for studying:

• Choose an area in your home that is the quietest and free from distractions. (if it has a door to keep out other people even better!)
• If there is no area that is free from noise, then invest in a headphone or earpiece that can help you drown out the ambient noise.
• Have a clear and uncluttered table space to allow you to spread out your notes and materials for studying and revision.
• Have proper lighting in the room to ensure that your eyes don’t get tired so quickly
• Set up your drinks and snacks nearby so you don’t have to interrupt your studying flow by heading out of the space
• Have power points nearby to charge your laptop, iPad, or phones that you might need for your studying session.

Schedule your day

Unlike being in school, you can’t just follow your classmates around from class to class or wait for your teacher to remind you. So, the next most important thing to do is to have a schedule for your day and stick to it! This will allow you to know what you need to do during each part of the day.

Set a proper timetable for each and everything that you will be doing throughout the day. List down the important things you need to keep track of for home-based learning:

• Timings for your e-learning classes
• Prepare materials or notes ahead of any e-learning classes
• Check your emails for any notices and assignments from your teachers
• Set aside time for doing any homework assignments

Apart from studying, make sure to factor in mealtimes, rest times, in your schedule to make sure you work hard and play hard.

Need help to keep track of your schedule? Set alarms on your phone to help remind you of what you need to do at each part of the day!

Avoid distractions

Classroom learning is a lot more conducive as it is a dedicated environment for learning. In contrast, at home there are plenty of distractions from the television, gaming rigs, mobile phones, noisy siblings, and more.

It’s little wonder why many students like yourself find that they cannot concentrate on studying at home.

So, what can you do? Keep your study area away from distractions!

• Turn off the television and gaming rigs during studying time. You can even give the remote or gaming controllers to your parents for safekeeping if you want to stay away from temptation
• Can’t stop checking your phone for social media notifications? Turn off all notifications or opt to use anti-distraction apps that use “Forced modes” to ensure you cannot access any distracting sites or in some cases the internet for a limited period.
• Close (and lock) the door to keep pesky siblings from interrupting your study sessions. If not possible, ask your parents if they can help keep your siblings away from you for a few dedicated hours of studying.

Set up a support system

Studying from home can become tedious at times. Because you don’t get to meet your friends and teachers in person, you may feel frustrated and alone.

Combat this frustration by talking to your friends and family around you. Share with your parents what you learnt in school for the day or chat with your friends online or even online study groups and ask for their advice if there’s anything you feel stuck with during your self-study for the day.

With friends and family as a support system, you will find that undergoing home-based learning is not so boring or tiresome anymore!

Check Out Learnyn.Sg for More Useful Tips

Want to learn more useful tips for studying and learning in general? Check out our blog on Learnyn.sg for helpful student resources and tips.