Many students work hard to acquire good study skills, but not many realize that having the right place to study is just as important. Your study environment can be a big factor in how successfully you’ll learn and retain information and be able to apply it in your assessments

Some tips to enhance your study environment are

Pick one study place
If you designate one room or area as your study space, over time your brain will catch on. You’ll enter into ‘study-mode’ sooner upon entering the space, which is an especially valuable before tests or whenever you’re crunched for time.

Background noise and studying.
Many students, especially those who are easily distracted or who have trouble keeping their attention focused, will find that it doesn’t take much noise to pull them out of their reading and into their surroundings.

Try a few settings, and pay attention to how each study session goes. One day, head to a public or local university library and see how that hushed environment works out. The next day, try a coffee shop or the park. After each session, write down some notes about how the studying went and how well you were able to understand and retain what you were studying. Once you know how your brain handles noise, pick study locations that matches your sound profile.

Turn off your phone
Don’t put it in your pocket. Don’t turn it over. Turn it off, or at least switch on airplane mode. When you’re studying, your phone can be your biggest distraction. Even just knowing it’s there, and that texts or Instagram likes might be coming through, will affect your focus. Switching it off can be mentally liberating, so unless you’re expecting an important call, do it whenever you sit down to study.

Getting distracted while studying.

Facebook. Email. Your smart phone. The TV. It doesn’t take much to pull your focus from studying, especially when you’re studying something you find boring or difficult. It’s difficult enough to get yourself to sit down and plan to study, it’s even harder to keep studying when you’d rather be doing something else.

Knowing yourself is crucial. Are you a compulsive email checker? Do you find yourself browsing Instagram or checking tweets without even thinking about it, even though you just checked them three minutes ago? Remove the distractions.