Students study habits change post-pandemic

Lauren Beraradi '26 studies outside the library on November 9. Many students find working outside a helpful way to prevent distractions, which has become a bigger issue for students post-online learning.

Source: Cora Flynn '26

After experiencing Zoom classrooms, long hours of stationary work and barely getting air from the outside, students still feel the long-term effects of the Covid pandemic, but specifically with their study habits. 

Simran Chhabra ‘23 who was a freshman in Florence, Italy right before the pandemic struck has been able to maintain a work-life balance. 

“I usually did my assignments and all the projects that I had sitting in cafes around Florence,” said Chhabra.”Usually, I would be done on my weekend and the thing there is you don’t have classes on Fridays so I got extended time to finish everything so I used to be able to sit down and study for long periods of time and just finish it off in one go,” Chhabra said. 

However, once the pandemic set in, many students struggled with managing their time and a lack of structure. This was especially prevalent for students like Elise Stiefel ‘26, who was a sophomore in high school at the peak time when the pandemic hit. 

“Before the pandemic, I did ballet so I had a lot less time in the day. So I really had to focus when I was doing homework, but I also had less work. I would say that [my study habits] definitely got worse and I became less focused. Like my attention span shortened so much and it still is short,” Stiefel said. 

Returning to in-person classes provided some difficulties for students regarding maintaining attention. But overall, students have been able to recover their focus. 

“I feel like my concentration level has gone down a lot. But other than that, I think [my junior year] helped me rebuild a lot of it but it's still there. Because next semester I am taking theoretical classes and I still have this nagging feeling that I probably won’t be able to concentrate as much. But there is definitely a better sense of ‘oh I can do this now and be able to not hate it,” Chhabra said. 

Professors have also seen a shift in how students used to study before the pandemic. Now that the current semester has returned to a sense of normalcy, professors have watched some students struggle while others bounced back completely.  

“More students did and do seem to ask for more time to complete assignments, such as essays and presentations. There have definitely been more students who have shared their mental health issues due to the stresses that came along with COVID,” College Writing Professor Stephen Mercier said. 

The stress of managing in-person classes, jobs and extracurriculars can be overwhelming for students but practicing time management skills has been helpful. 

“I spend a lot of my time in the Steel Plant which is the fashion building but usually I try to set deadlines for myself because I am working on many projects at the same time. I am also part of clubs and an E-board member of MISA which is the international student association club. And I also work on campus. So I need to manage all my meetings, all my career service appointments. So for me I think I really need lists of things and deadlines and I make sure I adhere to at least most of it to stay on track with everything I do” Chhabra said.

Though returning to in-person classes originally presented some challenges, both Chhabra and Stiefel have found this year to be more manageable. Being more disciplined on where and when they are going to work has helped prevent distractions. 

“I think I am more deliberate about setting aside time for that instead of every single day as soon as I get back from school. I just have to start doing homework, but making that physical distinction of saying ‘I am going to go outside’ and ‘I am going to work.’ Which is a lot better than I am just going to sit at my desk and pretend to do work while I am actually on TikTok,” Stiefel said.