There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.

– Marcus Tullius Cicero

Reading is for fun, for knowledge, for quenching the thirst of knowing something better, or for sheer entertainment. Study is not only for above mentioned reasons but also for remembering the things that we intend to use later, to pass the exam, to score high and to be a learned person on that subject. Study is for success. And study is a technique. I have seen many students, (youths and adults) who want to take the test of a particular course, those who want to appear and triumph in a competitive exam, who want to score higher than the others, who want to win, but fail frequently in their attempts. Its not that they don’t study or don’t work hard. They study lot, and work tremendously hard. Still they fail. Despite all the sweat and toil spent, they can’t achieve success. The result is frustration and despair.

The sole cause for such despair is not knowing the proper technique of study. Study is a skill. Like for every skill, this skill can also be learnt and sharpened with practice. Here are a few tips I would like to share with all for effective study, in the sense of doing exams better and knowing things well.

1. Have a specific sleep-wake time schedule. Follow your own pattern. Someone can study well at early morning while some at late night. Follow whichever you are best tuned into.

2. Study regularly. Consistency is the key. Study daily for a minimum specified period. Studying 10 hours today and only 1 hour next day is not good. Studying 5 hours today and tomorrow each would be far effective. Don’t procrastinate studies.

3. When you start studying, stay in a cool and clear state of mind. When you start studying with many tensions going through your head, you cannot grasp a thing. For example, you want to watch a football match but you stay in next room to study. Your mind is always thinking about the match but you have books in front of you. While so, you are not studying rather pretending to study. That is pretension. You are not cheating anyone. You are deceiving yourself. While so, you are not studying and not enjoying too. Loss of time and fun! I would rather watch that football for some time, refresh myself and come back and study with greater efficiency.

4. When you sit for study, have all the materials ready by your side. Many students sit for study, then after some minutes take a break to get their copy, and again later realize that they need a pencil too and so go out again and then a few minutes later think they had to get another book from their shelf. Such interruptions break your concentration. You cannot study well this way. So first arrange all your materials before you start studying.

5. When you are studying a chapter, first study each word just as a glance, like reading a newspaper. You get a general overview of the chapter. Then next day, or later, come back to that chapter and study it again, this time highlighting the important lines with a pencil. Next time again, when you study, study only the underlined parts and then highlight the most important points out of it with a highlighter or a marker. From the next time, you can just study the highlighted portions and understand the entire chapter. When you have forgotten some portions, you can always go back to read the underlined portions.

6. Always have a notebook and a pen ready by your side. When you are studying, try to write down important points on your notebook. First, this will help you in better memory, second, you will have a collection of important points on your copy ready to refer for future use. Third, your writing ability and speed improves. Bacon has said “Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man”. Very true.

7. While studying, use as much senses as possible for better memory. Visualize what has been written, what you are studying. Try to visualize the concepts. Then read it aloud, and concentrate hearing what you have read aloud.

8. Revise. Revision is the key to better memory. Read frequently.

9. Before exams, try to attempt mock exams often. Try to attempt those simulating the real exam environment, and marking one’s score oneself. Preferably, do it in same exam time ( i.e if your real exam is from 7-10, attempt mock exams at home also at same time). This will maintain the circadian rhythm. Your body will get tuned to function at maximum at those hours.

10. When you feel like reading something, read it. Irrespective of time and routine, study it. When you want to study something, ah, that’s it. That’s the key to memory and success in study. Studying for delight. Studying for finding things you want to know. That’s the trick. Studying for pleasure. When study becomes your passion, you will always be successful. Many times it happens to me that I see a new case, let’s say of pancreatic cancer, and I want  to know much about it. So I come back to my residence and sit to study about this disease. I keep studying, get engrossed in it so much that many times I have forgotten to eat, and sometimes to sleep! Ah, its delightful. After that, I hardly forget that disease. I remember most of the points on all occasions!

11. When you are preparing something for exam, study just one book for one topic. Select a good standard book and trust it completely and read it thoroughly. Studying many books on same subject isn’t going to help you for exams, such study is beneficial only for specializations. Read just one book, once you finish that, read the same book again and again. This helps tremendously for memory. You will even be able to visualize the pages of the book for answers. However, when there are certain topics that are not given well in your book, you can get it from other books or combine and make notes of your own. But then, study only that note.

12. Note making is not an absolute must, it depends on one’s way of studying! You can study directly from textbook as mentioned above. But for some subjects, we don’t find good textbooks or for some subjects, class notes might be better. In those cases and for those who have a habit of studying from notes, note making becomes important. Remember that your note copy is not a text book! Don’t copy everything from your book! Copy important points from your book and include class notes there! Don’t copy class notes or books ditto. Copy only important points. It’s not necessary to write languages in notes. Just write points. And after you have prepared a note for a certain topic/ subject; whenever you need to study that topic/subject always read it from the note you have prepared. Some students make note and later study from another book! That’s absurd and waste! If you have prepared a note by yourself, it’s the best studying material and keep reading that. At least, respect your efforts yourself!

13. Have confidence and self belief. Never doubt your abilities to learn well and perform better.

14. Try teaching others. Bringing what you have learnt into practice strengthens your knowledge. Have discussions. Remember the Bacon saying that conference makes you a ready man.

15. Whenever you don’t know something for sure; try to learn. Seek answers from the ones who know. Study. Research. Never convince yourself that you know something that you actually don’t. To accept that I don’t know is the first step to learn. If you assume you know, which you don’t, you will never learn. So never hesitate to say “I don’t know” but with it add “But, I want to know it”. Feynman rightly said “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”

16. Take breaks. Don’t study continuously for long time at a stretch. Our mind gets saturated after stretching it for a certain limit. When you have felt exhausted, don’t study. You will not remember a thing, and will feel more tired too. Take small breaks during study. I would recommend taking 15-20 minutes break after each 75 minutes of study. You can have your own methods. See what works best for you.

17. You can segregate important topics by means of class notes and lectures. However, it is not essential that you copy everything the teacher speaks in class. Listen to what he has to say. Be attentive in class. Try to grasp concepts. Ask what you don’t know. Just not focus on writing down everything. Most of the things the teacher says will be in books. Understand concepts. Take notes of only important things and take shorthand notes. Write down important words and key phrases. Not everything. When you have reached home, study the same topic from a standard book. Then you can tally many things in the book that were taught in the class. If there were some important ideas discussed in class but not in book, write them down in the book. Many people feel hesitation to write down on their books. I tell you, don’t keep your books new and clean. Use them as much as possible. Write in books. Use colors to highlight them. Don’t keep your book new! Use it. Add materials to your book. No book is complete for your study. So add to it. Highlight it.

18. Have a small pocket-sized note copy and write down important points and facts to be mugged up in that copy. Always have that in your pocket and try to retrieve information from it at your leisure time, on a bus, while on a park, waiting for someone and so on.

19. Have interest in whatever you need to remember. Even though you don’t have interest in it, try to cultivate interest in it. Because you got to remember it! It is said that, “ if you can’t be with the one whom you love, love the one who you are with.” Surely, if you have joined plus 2 science, you can’t argue that you don’t like Chemistry. The less you like it, the more volatile the memory will be. Either you got to start to like it, or you got to ruin your studies.

20. Believe that you are excellent at your studies. Pray to God. Be humble. Be diligent. The world is yours to conquer.