Concentration

Are you easily distracted?
Can you direct your attention to school tasks?
Do you know when you need a change in your study environment?
Do you have the ability to pay attention (studying and listening) to academic tasks?

Some Successful Concentration Techniques.

Have a Positive Attitude.  Try to look upon studying as an opportunity to learn, rather than as an unpleasant task to complete.  Also, since you may be spending a great deal of time in your room, do not make it a prison; rather look to your room as a sanctuary.  Remember, you are always free to take a well-earned break.
 
Confine your shifts in attention. It is quite natural for your attention to shift frequently.  There will be shifts in attention, but try to confine these shifts to the subject matter at hand.  If you cannot study because your mind is clogged with personal worries, write it out on a sheet of paper to deal with when you have finished your work.

Ignore noise around you.  There will always be some noise around us.  Avoid disturbances if you can, but do your best to ignore the noise you cannot avoid.  By all means do not let yourself become annoyed.  The internal irritation that you create has a more devastating effect on concentration than the external noises themselves.

Make Sure you have everything.  Before sitting down to study, make sure you have everything: sharp pencils, fresh paper and cards, necessary books.  Then stay in your chair until you have studied an hour or so.  In that way, you’ll remain in the driver’s seat –that is, in control.

Use the Checkmark technique.  Have a sheet of paper handy by your book; then, when you catch yourself not concentrating, put a checkmark on the sheet.  The mere act of doing this will remind you to get back to work.  Students report that when they first tried this system, they accumulated as many as twenty checkmarks per textbook page; after one or two weeks, they were down to one or two checkmarks per page.

Don't daydream.  Daydreaming is a way of escaping from hard work.  Pleasant as it is, it can use up precious time in which you could be working toward your goals.  It is far better to establish the positive habit of plunging directly and efficiently into your work.  This is a habit which will stand you in good stead all of your life.

Set realistic goals.  Set up realistic goals for study.  If a student has hardly been studying at all, it is not realistic for a student to announce suddenly:  “Tonight I plan to study for six hours.”  The chances are that the required effort will be too much for them, and they will only experience another discouraging failure.  To succeed, the change in habits must be gradual.  If the same student were to study for only two hours on that evening, he/she would have a far better chance of achieving their goal.
 
Use a reminder list.  To avoid worrying about the possibility of missing personal appointments, write them down on your daily 3x5 reminder card.   If an appointment is several days away, write it on a desk calendar.  Having made a written reminder, you will no longer clutter your mind with these details.  
 
Don't rely on will power.  Will power alone can’t make you concentrate.  You will be breaking concentration whenever you remind yourself, “I must use will power to concentrate.”

Don't fight hunger!  Hunger is such a basic and persistent state that there is no sense trying to overcome it.  Give in!  Feed yourself; then get back to work.