Hi! My name is Eleanor and I wanted to share some of my best study strategies for massage therapy school. I’ve shared these study strategies with my fellow massage students, and the ones who have implemented them have seen an improvement in not only their test scores but also their overall comprehension and information retention.
Here are my best study strategies and tips for massage students:
- Take time for yourself
- Get adequate sleep
- Eat well
- Find ways to relax and reduce stress
- Record lectures if possible
- Take notes during class lectures
- Review PowerPoints and class handouts
- Take online practice tests and quizzes
- Label as much as you can
- Answer all the review questions in the textbooks
- Take the end-of-chapter test in the textbooks
- Watch online videos to supplement in-class material
- Utilize all the online massage therapy resources
The first few tips for self-care may not seem important or relevant to studying but trust me, they’re possibly the most important. I tried to get by without self-care. I wanted to prove I was serious and studious. Nothing else was important besides school and work. Well, I burnt out quickly and my brain couldn’t handle any more information. I started finding myself procrastinating and going back to old habits simply because I was so unhappy.
Luckily, my employer reeled me in. Relating with me and telling me self-care would be the best thing for my brain. He wasn’t wrong. The things that help me the most are movement (yoga, stretching, exercise) in the morning, meditation or naps after work, and a little tv time with a favorite show. I incorporate at least one of these in every single day.
Massage study tips for before, during and after class
Now for the actual study strategies. It begins before you even step foot in the classroom. Keep your things organized. It may be tedious, but it will keep your stress levels down later when you have finals and you need to look back at notes and homework from 3 months ago. I have a designated folder and notebook for each class. Plus, an expandable file folder to hold all past papers. Don’t throw anything away. Trust me they’re all important and will come in handy when finals come around.
Next comes class time. Use a voice recorder to record your anatomy classes (with your teacher’s permission of course), It feels silly to do but none of my classmates noticed I was doing this until I told them and then I had good material to listen to when driving or while doing housework. Repetition is key when learning so many facts in such a short time frame. Plus embedding it into your subconscious while doing other things really helped me spout out answers in class, I wasn’t even aware I knew!
While my phone is recording the lecture, I take notes. You can do this on the PowerPoint print, in a notebook, or directly in your textbook. Some people type their notes. I prefer to handwrite them. As tedious as it might be there are studies that say handwriting increases neural activity and I’m here for all the help I can get!
After class, I do two things. The order of them depends on my mood. One of them is to carry on with the handwriting and take notes from my books as I read the correlating chapters for the lesson. It helps me to break everything down; from definitions to how systems in your body work. Drawing the images helps too. You can go one step further and label your drawings. I like to use index cards to make flashcards for massage subjects like kinesiology and anatomy, and for medical terminology. If your teachers are like mine there will be lots and lots of labeling on your tests.
Using practice quizzes and online resources
The other thing I do is review my PowerPoint and handouts/homework packets. This is usually just a scan to refresh my mind and also see what kind of information I should be picking up on. Once all my notes are done, I answer any review questions throughout the chapter and also at the end of the chapter. If I have questions about anything I go back and review.
Next I do my homework. At this point I’m feeling pretty confident in the material. I might check some things in the book but overall, I feel ready to be tested. All of my anatomy and pathology books came with quizzes for each chapter. One book had a quiz at the end of each chapter, the other one had online quizzes. Utilize these as they ask you questions that prepare you for your test. One of my books also came with a study guide workbook and I did every page for the chapters we went over. Again, this will all be super helpful to review for finals.
As an extra bonus, to really drive it home, I would test myself with online quizzes. Watching online videos related to massage, anatomy, kinesiology, and other massage school subjects also helped. These all depended on the context of what we were learning at the moment, but they were super helpful and I might even say a necessary supplement. All these steps are preparing you for not only your class tests, but also your finals, for the MBLEX exam, and your career as a licensed massage therapist.
Grades aren’t everything but they are a reflection of your retention and commitment to the massage program. I currently have an A in all my classes because I show up, do the work, study hard, practice self-care, and continuously look for ways to improve. I wish all of you the best of luck on your journey and I hope these study tips and strategies serve you well!
