Steps To Effective Studying

In our day to day experiences we come across a lot of people, situations and experiences that add to our knowledge base. Moreover direct information from text books and other sources help us educate ourselves, but what is most important is to be able to retain this information for use over time. We cannot simply forget it after a short period of time and this article will help you not just to learn faster but also to remember better.

Table for revision

All this while we have been talking about creating a schedule for using the hours effectively for studying but we have not really dealt with revision in details. Revision is very important and marks our progress in covering the syllabus. A revision time table should be carefully charted out keeping in mind regular revisions of covered portions of syllabus punctuated with regular short breaks.

Re-writing

Re writing of your notes is one of the greatest and most effective ways of studying. It is termed as mind mapping. Here when a person is writing something he thinks about what he is writing, the reason why he is writing it and what is it all about. It also refreshes your memory. Re-writing will also help you to remember study material learnt earlier in time.

Correct Lighting

This is more related to the psychology of the person. Here the lighting plays a very significant role and indirectly affects how our mind works. Statistics show, that men studying beneath dim lights (not overly dim) are able to learn better, with 70% positive results. And for women, studying in a bright room with no noise helps them to learn better, with 90% positive results.

Stop Nest Building

In times of stress when there is very less time remaining and there is a lot of syllabus to be covered most students tend to build nests. This is a common practice where a person to justify his guilt plans how he can effectively spend every hour in a day and maximize his output.  He plans everything just right, from waking up in the morning to his breakfast, to the last activity before he sleeps. This is a common practice and should be avoided. Aspirants should spend less time in simply making plans but should get on with actions.

Short Study Breaks

This is a very important aspect that is often skipped by most people. A person tends to study for longer periods of time, not realizing that the mind has an internal capacity and after 30-45 minis it tends to shut down automatically. He needs to constantly take breaks and refuel himself with sufficient quick meals and naps to recharge his mind. This will help him to learn better and more effectively.

Study Cards

This is a very under rated practice and has not got its worth. Study cards, while making them help us to revise our study material. And they even act as superb revision tools at the time of revision. They are less time consuming and fun to use. Study cards and other multimedia tools should be used by students individually or who study in a group to enhance their learning abilities.

Re-reading

Is should be taken as a negative approach towards studying and should be avoided under all circumstances, coz when u are re-reading you are actually not studying. Moreover, re-reading basically proves that you have not read the first time properly and you are simply spending more time reading it over again. Re-reading should be avoided. An easy step to substitute re-reading is to read a particular portion of the text and then writing a small summary is an every effective way of studying.

The Big Day

It is best to avoid any study on the day of the examination. One should maintain a calm mind. Be prepared both mentally and physically and should give in his best at the examination.

Studying hard is easy all one needs to do is follow the strategies listed above carefully. Many students discover other effective ways of studying and they mix it up with the old techniques. As long as the strategies lead to positive results following any strategy is good.