With the instability of their schedules during the past few months, most high schoolers noticed significant changes in their study habits. For some, their abilities to learn and study efficiently have deteriorated rapidly after switching to a remote learning platform.

On an Instagram poll, 87% of students reported a change in their ability to do school-related work. 

Sophomore Livia Budwell said her study habits worsened while having remote classes.

“At the beginning of remote learning, my study habits slowly started to decline, and it’s been downhill since,” Budwell said.

Budwell also said online schooling has several substantial setbacks, but she struggles the most with Zooms.

“The problem for me starts with spacing out during Zoom,” Budwell said. “Then, [I don’t know] the material, so I didn’t even know what to study.”

She also said her Zooms take up most of her day, but teachers still post assignments that are due at the end of the school day. 

Once she finishes those, Budwell said she begins working on the plethora of homework or studying she has yet to do. Combined with her numerous Zooms, her online assignments have doubled the time it takes her to do homework.

Similarly, senior Canon Adams said he would normally spend three hours doing homework each night. With the transition to remote learning, the number jumped to almost seven hours per day, as he was struck with heightened levels of procrastination and low motivation.

“Taking the interaction element away takes away a lot of the excitement of learning,” Adams said. “There is not the typical reward of getting to hang out with friends as much or going to certain events to serve as motivation, so there doesn’t feel like there is much to work for.”

Like Adams, sophomore Ashley Kim said adjusting to online school was troublesome. 

“Learning new material is a challenge when you suddenly have to be away from the school setting, and when it’s somewhat self-taught,” Kim said. “…Retaining information quickly has become difficult.”

However, she is one of the few whose study habits remain consistent.

Kim said she accomplished this by maintaining the same studying methods as she did before online learning: reading her textbooks, writing out problems and adding more information to notes. Doing so has eased her transition from in-person to hybrid to remote schooling.

“Having school online is such a learning process,” Kim said.“…[But] the shortened school days have given me more time to plan out when I do my studying. I’m glad that I’m able to utilize that extra time to really go over what’s important.”

Though Kim benefits from less school time, Adams said the atypical time constraints and due dates are exacting. He finds it harder to learn from home. 

“I definitely do not feel like I know or understand the material as well as I would in class,” Adams said. “Now it is just about getting assignments done and keeping grades up.”