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Student, Develop Study Habits For Sure Success

Date of Publish - Saturday, 5th May 2018

Studies serve for delight, ornament, and ability said English scholar Francis Bacon. Today, career-conscious students are looking for success and work overtime to realize it. Let me express my solidarity with the same as we need successful students to create a New India envisioned by the Prime Minister. It is an undeniable fact that success depends much on one’s academic achievements. To excel in studies, what matters more is how to manage studies than being a brilliant student. Herein comes my hypothesis that even a below-average student can perform exceedingly well by following a methodical study habit. Before dwelling deeper, students try to answer these questions:

Do I want to score more marks?
or
Do I want to develop effective study habits?

Dear students, the reason I asked this question to you is to tell there is a big difference between these two. To gain more clarity you need to understand the difference between ‘ordinary’ and ‘extra-ordinary’ or what constitutes into this little ‘extra’. This will help you work towards earning that ‘extra’.

How to Be ‘Extra’ ordinary?

Students, it is good that you want to be ‘extra’ ordinary. To add that extra, you need to sacrifice for that. Let us take an illustration from bee and ants. To gather 10 grams of nectar, a honeybee visits about 40,000 flowers. Ants strive to gather their food to have food security for rainy and winter seasons. The Bible says, “Man is born to labour and the bird to fly.” For success, a committed student should aspire high and labour for the same to achieve his/her lofty goals.

Bharat Ratna and former President Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam has said, “Do not stop until you finish your work, and once you finish the plan for the next big goal.” Dear students, success is a process of getting from one point to the next with a vision and mission. Those who don’t have a clear vision and mission on their career are likely to be less successful. Therefore, you need goals and plans that guide you like road maps. You should have an aim for your career as well as an integrating goal to create a New India, Better India, or a Sreshta Bharat envisioned by our Prime Minister Shir Narendra Modi. Let us discuss steps to add that extras to be extraordinary.

Create a Background to Study

First of all, you need to create a background to be studious. Students, create a special place to study with a desk or table and a chair with ample daylight or artificial light to read for long periods of time without straining eyes. Besides, a study area should have enough space for our textbooks and relevant. A place to store paper, pencils, pens, notebooks and other study materials give a good ambiance for scholarly pursuits and make you disciplined.

Plan Your Study

Once you set a good background, you can plan your studies. Many students prefer to study immediately after arriving home from school or college. Others have a job or participate in sports and other activities and so they study in the evening. Some students study later at night, or early in the morning because their home is too noisy when they return from school or college in the evening. Two points to consider in developing a study schedule are

the best time during the day for studying and
the time that each study session should last. You can try out this.

Combat Attention Disorder with Robust Study Habits

We have attention disorder problems. Therefore, study the subject soon after it has been discussed in the class. Second important thing is to rehearse the topics and make it alive in mind. Wait for the exam to start studying will certainly work against your success goals. Remember your focus should be for success not marks. Therefore, plan a weekly study timetable. The length of your study sessions depends on your age, your ability as a student, and whether you already have good study habits. If you have just begun to develop good study habits, you should probably allow about an hour a day for study. As your schoolwork or college-work becomes more difficult, you should plan longer study sessions gradually.

Creative tips:

Study the most difficult subjects first, when you are the most mentally alert. You should also take breaks between subjects. A short walk or some pushups, or other simple exercises can refresh your mind. If you still face lack of concentrating, work on such tasks as writing out next week’s study timetable or reviewing the previous day’s work. Repeating out loud something you have just learned is also helpful. Some students like to study in pairs so that they can test each other orally on a subject.

Enhance Memory

Here are the workable ways to help your brain remember information quicker and easier and ultimately help you do better in your exams:

Exercise Before an Exam:

Do we need exercise before exams? Research states that physical exercise can boost your memory and brain power. Experiments conducted by Dr. Chuck Hillman of the University of Illinois suggests taking 20 minutes exercise like walking before an exam can improve one’s performance to a greater extent. Read aloud instead of merely reading. Though this may make you look a little crazy, give it a try! You will be surprised how much more you can remember and recall when you’ve said it out loud.

Connect Topics with Visuals:

Create mental associations of the topics you study. The ability to make connections is not only a simpler way to remember the content of the subject, but it’s the fuel of creativity and intelligence. According to Steve Jobs, “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something”. Mind Maps are an easy way to connect ideas by creating a visual overview of different connections. Read more about the benefits of using Mind Maps. Draw diagrams wherever the need arises. Drawing diagrams will help you visualise information which would be difficult Make your study space portable. We may be creatures of habit with favourite seats in the library but information retention actually improves when you change the places where you study.

Practice, Practice, Practice:

Practising sample answers to past exam questions can help train your brain to retrieve information. Create realistic, exam-like condition and test your understanding. Students, don’t stay up all night before an exam. Make sure to get adequate rest the nights leading up to your exams. When you sleep, your brain assimilates the information you have learned when studying, so getting a good night’s sleep will help you remember those maths formulas you need for your exam!

Apply Technology in Learning

Use technology to your advantage by watching educational TED Talks or downloading useful dictionary Apps for example. Read more about the benefits of using technology to study. Use scents or gum to jog your memory. This may seem a bit random but spraying an unfamiliar scent while you’re studying can help jog your memory when you spray it again just before an exam. The aromatherapists say that this idea works much to effective memory retention. Chewing a strange kind of gum will work the same way. Try out once.

Group Study

Studying in a group can help you collect new insights to enhance your learning experience. Meditation matters a lot to remember things. Studies say that meditation can help students stay focused when studying. Not only will meditation help you concentrate when studying but it will help reduce pre-exam stress as it improves both mental and physical health.

Share Knowledge

Another important thing is when you share knowledge, your knowledge will increase. Try to teach the same to your friends. The best way to test if you really understand something is to try to teach it to someone else.

Stay Positive

Finally, students stay positive before and while writing the exams. Your positive attitude can impact on your exam results or motivate you to complete that assignment.

Conclusion and Challenge

As land can be made prosperous by sowing it with various seeds, so is the mind by exercising it with different study habits for a New India. Let us connect the study habits to knowledge linking its relevance to Dr. Kalam’s quote. Learning gives creativity, creativity leads to thinking, thinking provides knowledge, and knowledge makes you great to build a New India. Jai Hind.

About author: Dr.Vangeepuram
Sreenathachary is the Principal of University P.G.College, Palamuru
University, Mahabubnagar, Telangana State. He is a triple Guinness World Record Holder in English language, National Service & Soft Skills in addition to Asia, Limca, India & Telugu Book Records. He can be reached on: info@ignitingminds.com