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muddlinthrough
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01 Feb 2006, 12:32 pm

I find that contrary to popular wisdom, a completely quite isolated enviroment isn' ideal.I start to sink.
A few people or some mediocre music help-partly because having other people around makes me self concious
which keeps me working.
A compuer or t.v. though, or good music, is way too distracting.

What works for other people?



Sophist
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01 Feb 2006, 1:17 pm

Usually for the reading part of studying, I need to be in my bedroom with as much quiet as possible (though not deadly quiet... maybe a fan or something going). My concentration sucks for reading and so I need that silence.

For studying/memorizing test information, quiet is prefered though it's not absolutely necessary I be in my bedroom. I can be on campus going over the info. Usually my study guide, a good place to do some pacing where I can mumble without people looking strangely at me, and relative quiet is prefered. Before a test while I'm doing my last dash of memorization, stimming aids the process-- usually more normal gross motor stims though, like I mentioned pacing.

As for doing actual homework assignments (which is everything but writing an essay), I require less quiet for these. For essays I still need it fairly quiet; otherwise peoples' talking or other noises distract my sentence construction and I end up making a lot more mistakes and having to recopy.


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Astarael
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01 Feb 2006, 10:19 pm

I need a bit of space so I can put everything I need around me and not need to get up every 2 minutes to find something else I need. I found that playing the same type of music every time I was writing an essay really helped - whenever I got stuck I put some Powderfinger on and that made my mind start clicking again for some reason. Music that you really like does distract you though so you need to find something that's suitable for studying and can play quietly in the background.
I also need a constant noise (like a fan or something) in the background that wont distract me but I can concentrate on to block out all the other noises I might hear. If I get frustrated and noise starts getting to me then there's no way that I'm able to study efficiently.
That's really the only things I did, once I started studying I'd get absorbed in it until I got tired and needed a break.



Beau
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04 Feb 2006, 10:58 pm

When I study by myself for an exam, I have to be in a quiet room. When I'm with my friends studying, I'm okay with loud talking, music, etc.

If I'm writing an essay, there cannot be any music or talking in the background because it's too difficult for me to focus.



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06 Feb 2006, 12:31 am

The expert opinion on what is the best study environment is BS. They can do studies on what is most often the most productive study environment for people, and they can say what works best for them, but the REAL best study environment is whatever works for YOU. And after you try a bunch of things you probably already know what is the best study environment for you.


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NeantHumain
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06 Feb 2006, 11:54 am

My own mood and other internal factors have a much greater effect on my ability to study than any environmental factors. I can easily filter out most distractions.



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06 Feb 2006, 12:59 pm

I have to have background noise to distract me from my tinnitus. I much prefer to have a piece of classical music that I know well; other background noise is just distracting. I'm useless at studying though - any I do is a miracle. Actually doing homework is OK - I can do it during my free lessons with my friends around, though again quiet aside for music is best.


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Kiss_my_AS
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06 Feb 2006, 8:18 pm

NeantHumain wrote:
My own mood and other internal factors have a much greater effect on my ability to study than any environmental factors. I can easily filter out most distractions.



rhubarbpluscustard
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07 Feb 2006, 10:03 am

My study environment either has to be completely quiet or have a lot of background noise. I can tune out constant noise as long as it’s not very loud, but occasional slight noises keep me from concentrating. I can't listen to music whilst studying though, because I end up concentrating on the music instead of on my books.



colonel1fan
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07 Feb 2006, 1:31 pm

I used to feel the same way about having a quiet environment in which I could study, but that didn't help me very much. I think it was the thought of having it be too quiet and I would still be hearing noises somehow, which bothered me. So, I went from being in a quiet environment to being in my room on my bed with my study pillow with noise in the background. Usually the noise in the background is online music (soundtracks) mostly, but if I'm doing math homework, then the T.V. is my background music. I don't know, for some reason quite environments won't work for me anymore.


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muddlinthrough
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20 Mar 2006, 8:49 pm

I noticted today that what I need in order to read is very different from what I need in order to conjugate Spanish.
For reading quit-with a slight degree of dicomfort-is best.But I focus better on Spanish in a cafeteria with some background noise and people.



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23 Mar 2006, 10:37 pm

When I was in School, I had to have quiet music playing in the background, while I was attending to my Homework and Studdies. That was the only way that I could keep from falling asleep.



hell_grey
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02 May 2006, 9:08 pm

i do homework in my room. if i have an exam, i absolutely do not study in my room. i cannot concentrate knowing that the computer and tv are within walking distance. i go to the library and study in the quiet room. unfortunately, the last few time ive been to the quiet room there have been a couple people who don't seem to understand the purpose of the quiet room..... which is that you SHUT THE HELL UP. i had to ask some guy to stop talking on his cell phone and this other lady was listening to stuff she had dictated on a recorder without an earpiece. what the hell man. the quiet room is for studying, not for listening to recordings without earphones and talking on the cell phone. that really frustrated me. but usually, studying in the quiet room has been quite helpful