Effective Study Habits:
An Open letter to all students.
Sammy Frank.
If I were asked to give the secret of passing exams, I would say that there is no such secret. This is because in all academic endeavors, the old-good-hard work is an evergreen. There are no shortcuts. It takes time, toil and occasionally tears.
In this article, I suggest a number of time tested strategies of effective study. I cannot claim that this list is exhaustive in any way. Each student should experiment to find out which combination best suits them.
I will discuss the topic under four headings:
· Attitudes: Ultimately, attitude determines altitude.
· Time management: A stitch in time….
· Study Skills: Why are we where we are?
· Examinations: Did you make hay as the sun was shining.
1. ATTITUDE.
Conventionally, the development of a positive mental attitude is not considered as a study skill. In my considered opinion however, the ability to see the best there is in life is not only important for studies but also for life.
Every important task that ever was achieved was accomplished by people who thought through it first to the end. They necessarily accepted themselves as being the right people to accomplish the tasks. They went ahead to make themselves to derive joy from the tasks of their undertaking.
Many students think of their classes as obstacles. This is the root source of failure in academic work. This outlook to study makes such students not to develop any concrete goals and they thus while their time indolently.
It is your own responsibility to see the gain that there is at the end of the educational cycle. Make an effort to remind yourself that you want to understand the content being taught. That is the beginning of enthusiasm.
Sometimes in the course of your study, you will be made to take certain subjects that do not appear to add up to your desired goals in life. This can be discouraging and adversely affect your performance. Try to look for the positive in such subjects and appreciate them. For example, take a student who does not like Chemistry very much but is good in History. Such a student should strive to comprehend fully the concept of Carbon dating which will reinforce his performance in both subjects. There is a good reason why some subjects are required to be taken compulsorily. You may not understand the reason today but such subjects tend to make you more self reliant later in life.
The following tips will help you to develop a more positive attitude in life.
i) Change your vocabulary:
There are no problems; only challenges. The greatest benefit of this simple change is that once a problem becomes a challenge, your attitude towards the same circumstance change. It is human nature that we try to avoid problems but accept challenges. Use your ability to confront and solve challenges.
ii) There are no hopeless situations:
It is very easy to lose hope in the face of difficult situations. But in reality, there are few situations that are hopeless. Keep hope that circumstances will improve in the course of time.
One of the most irritating habits that I see in many people’s lives is the ease with which they accept the word ‘impossible’. The great success guru, Napoleon Hill bought a dictionary and neatly cut off the word impossible from it. He achieved a lot. You don’t have to go to those extremes, but it is wise to push that word a bit further away from your day to day surroundings. However grim the state of affairs may seem right now, they can always be improved.
iii) Be thankful for the challenge.
The only person who does not encounter challenges in life is the one who stopped living some times ago. It is in such challenges that true character is molded. It is in challenges that growth happens. The writers of an article called The Making of an Expert say that winners can only be formed if they learn to ‘engage in deliberate practice that focuses on tasks beyond their level of competence and comfort.’
Battles are never won at mountain tops but at valley bottoms. Dig deeper in to the well of your potentials. Be happy when life drives you to reach further than you thought you could reach. Face every challenge with courage and resoluteness. You can do it!
2. TIME MANAGEMENT.
To a great extent, success in examinations is a reflection of how wisely you utilized your time in school. You need to develop reliable time management tactics to cope. I hope that the following tips will be of help.
i) Understand the nature of examination as early as possible.
Early in the term, be aggressive to find out the number of lessons allocated for each subject. Then inquire about the topics expected to be tested at the end of the term or year. This gives you some degree of mental alertness and also helps you to plan your study timetable. I will talk about the study timetable elsewhere.
ii) Priorities: First things first!
Two of life’s most important resources are in ever scarce supply: time and money. This is why each of us is required to make priorities in life.
As a student, you need to clear first all the homework and assignments that need to be submitted urgently. For other pending tasks, create a weekly check list, which should include the areas that you need to read that week. Check off the items as you complete them.
iii) Alertness
Find out the time when you are most alert during the day. Allocate your study time at the identified portion of the day. Some people, like yours truly, are early birdsJ while others are night owlsL.Be honest to yourself. Do not get influenced by your friends. Avoid studying at a time when you are drowsy and ineffective.
iv) Plan: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!
I talked about maintaining a weekly checklist of all tasks pending. That is an essential planning tool but it is not sufficient for effective study.
One other tool that you need is the study timetable. It is recommended that for every one hour taken in class, you need 2-3 hours of study outside the classroom. For a subject whose class-time allocation is two hours per week, you need at least six hours of private study on that subject.
Draw out your schedule blocking out time for classes, private study and other activities. Be realistic. You need to allocate time for sleeping, meals, clubs & societies, and time to play.
Stick to your study schedule. Unless it is followed, the schedule becomes just another stained piece of paper!
Some events may arise that interrupt with your adherence to the study schedule. To take care of this, allocate some time every week when you can ‘recover’ the time spent outside the schedule. Some level of flexibility in observing the study schedule. For example, when you are preparing for a continuous assessment test in one subject, you may have to take more time in that subject than in others.
Limit yourself to a continuous study time of two hours. After 2 hours, the ability to concentrate for most students decreases sharply. Take a break and then switch to another subject. Short frequent study sessions are much more effective than one or two marathon study sessions.
3. STUDY TECHNIQUES
Once you have established a study schedule, you need to maximize on the time allocated to study. Look for a quiet place free of interruptions. Most institutional and public libraries provide such an environment.
i) Interruptions.
Do all what you can to avoid interruptions in your study session. Clear the table of all other materials except the subject scheduled for that time. You may borrow a leave from the former president of India, Dr.A.P.J.Kalam. Dr.Kalam trained as an aeronautical engineer. In his autobiography, Wings of Fire, he writes;
“Once in the office, I would clean the table first. Within the next ten minutes, I would scan all the papers and quickly divide them in to different categories: those that required immediate action, low priority ones, ones that could be kept pending, and reading materials. Then I would put the high priority papers in front of me and everything else out of sight.” (Page 69)
I have seen students donning earphones during study sessions. Unless you are listening to a pre-recorded lecture, such a practice is not conducive for study. Listening to music, especially, can be very disruptive. Of course a debate rages on over this issue and the discretion of the reader is advised here.
Switch off the TV and sit away from places where passersby will interrupt. Here is Dr.Kalam again. He describes a phenomenon called ‘the flow’ which is a moment of deep concentration as below;
“(The) flow is a sensation that we experience when we act with total involvement. During flow, action follows action according to an internal logic that seems to need no conscious intervention on the part of the worker….
The first requirement is to work as hard as you can at something that presents a challenge and is approved by your heart. It may not be an overwhelming challenge, but one that stretches you a little. Something that makes you realise that you are performing a task better today than you did yesterday or the last time you tried to do it.
(Another) prerequisite for being I the flow is the availability of a significant span of uninterrupted time. From my experience, it is difficult to switch in to the flow state in less than half an hour. And it is almost impossible if you are bedeviled by interruptions.”(Page 91-92)
ii)Notes
Ability to take good notes is an important skill that is difficult to master. While you don’t have to write everything that was said by the instructor, your notes ought to be clear to you but not necessarily to everyone. Rewrite your notes as soon as possible after the lecture/lesson. If you don’t need to rewrite the notes, reread them and fill the gaps using suitable textbooks. Your handwriting is crucial in ensuring how well you utilise your lesson notes. The mahatma, M.K. Gandhi, in his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth says
“….bad handwriting should be regarded as a sign of an imperfect education” (Page 15)
iii) Active study.
Be conscious of your thoughts during study. This will keep you from ‘straying’ from the study subject. Test yourself frequently. Make short notes and try to illustrate the diagrams of processes referred to in the lecture/lesson. You may also try to create mnemonics that will assist you to understand even better. These mnemonics need not be known to other people as long as you understand them.
iv) Textbooks.
It is important to obtain the recommended texts for a given subject. Use additional resources only when needed. If you try to refer to too many sources, you may easily get overwhelmed. Generally, text books may be used to:
· Fill the gaps in your class notes.
· Obtain a different presentation of facts which may clarify the subject further.
· As a source of questions, answers and further examples.
v) Discussion groups
Discussion or study groups help you to review and evaluate what to study further. Always create time for the study group. Different members have varying insights to the study topic. This illuminates the subject further.
However, study groups can easily be misused. First, the study group should not replace individual study. Use study groups to review exam related questions but not to review the class notes. Avoid the possibility of straying outside the topic of study. Each member should participate. Care should be taken so that one member of the group does not unduly dominate the group.
vi) Take care of yourself.
Effective study demands lots of energy. As Dr.Kalam observes, climbing to the top demands strength, whether to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career. You need to eat healthy and sufficiently. It helps to have supportive friends and family. An unbending faith that God will help you overcome all your challenges is a great asset.
4. EXAMINATION SKILLS.
You have been reading hard. You have gone through your notes several times and you have done exercises from text books and past examination papers. Your participation in study groups has reinforced all your efforts. You need not panic as the exam approaches.
i) The Examination Eve.
On the eve of the examination, get yourself a healthy diet and sufficient sleep. Avoid the temptation of reading new materials at this time. Even referring to textbooks you are not familiar with at this time is discouraged. Looking for new study material on the eve of the exam is like the coach who goes out hunting for new talent on the eve of a world cup match! It is suicidal. New material at this time can easily destabilize you.
The wise thing to do on the eve of the examination is to guard and to reinforce the competencies you have acquired over time. In short, the first rule in preparing for an examination is Make hay when the sun shines!
ii) In the examination hall
· Read the instructions carefully before you start answering the examination questions. This is especially important in examinations where you have to select the questions to answer.
· Read through all the test items and make sure that you understand what is being asked. At this juncture, you may select the questions that you intend to answer.
· Answer the questions that you know very well first. Don’t get stuck in the questions where you are not very competent in. Skip them and come back to them later.
· Go back and work through the questions you were not sure of in the first time. If you look at a question that you answered and you think you should change your answer, but you still are not sure, don’t change it! Only change the answers that you are sure to be incorrect.
· Be neat. If your instructors cannot read your answer, they may not give credit for it.
· Answer the questions as if you were explaining to someone who knew nothing about the subject. Never assume that the examiners already understand the subject. It is your responsibility to show how well you can support your arguments. You therefore need to get as clear and as complete as possible.
· Where required, use well labeled diagrams and/or chemical equations .Some subjects have their own well developed terminologies and vocabulary. Be sure to use them when answering your questions.
REFERENCES
1. Gandhi, M.K. (1927),The story of my Experiments with Truth. Navajivan publishing house, Ahmedabad.
2. Kalam A.P.J. and A.Tiwari, (1999)Wings of Fire: An Autobiography, Universities Press (India) Private Limited, Hyderaband.
3. Tackle Your Studies Better, an article appearing in the Children’s Magazine of the star of Mysore, Tuesday 27th July 2010,Mysore, India.
5. K.Anders Ericsson,Michael j.Prietula and Edward T. Cokely,(July-August 2007) The Making of an Expert Harvard Business Review.
©Sammy Frank is the pen name for Samuel Mwangi. He is a Chemistry teacher in Kenya. He is currently (March 2011) a student for Msc. Chemistry at The University of Mysore, India. All rights reserved.
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