Here, I present to you 8 smart steps you must take to effectively study any subject of your choice.
Every ambitious individual with big dreams is always aware of the need to keep adding to their stock of knowledge. Getting serious about improving our personal circumstances ultimately means undertaking to study to acquire new, relevant information and cutting-edge knowledge.
My message to you today is that it is a good thing to keep on learning but learning should never be a chore. To me, studying either for an upcoming test or for general personal growth should be a fun-filled activity with a promise of producing the desired results. Over the years, I have encouraged my adult students to approach learning in ways that might appear less serious than what many believe learning itself should be.
Every year, those who adopted much of what I showed them surprised themselves with fantastic results.
Here are some of the not – too – common ways you can power your brain for effective private studies and earth-shattering results.
1. Engage in frequent physical exercise.
This could be early morning jogging, visiting the gym or doing any outdoor activity you can think of. Example, gardening or biking.
Exercise is scientifically proven to have the effect of sharpening mental alertness. So, it is one great, fun way of preparing your mind to easily absorb whatever you are going to learn afterwards.
Read also: 3 Learning Difficulties You Can Overcome
2. Take a cold shower.
This one works like coolant in the brain. It is good especially for those of us who experience this strange feeling of extreme heat in the body or head during any activity demanding much mental effort.
Cold water splashed on the head and the rest of the body quickly re-energizes you to go back to your studies and be able to take in so much with very little effort. It is a refreshing medicine for the brain.
Just try it often and you’ll prove me right.
3. Take long breaks from your studies to rest.
It is never true that the longer time you spend studying the more capable you become to do well in an examination. No, don’t get me wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong with spending enough time studying, but you must know when enough is enough so as to give yourself a break.
The human brain, according to science, resembles a machine in the manner in which it works. For that matter, it needs regular intervals of rest and relaxation. Just like a machine will begin to perform poorly or break down altogether if overworked, so does our brain.
Give yourself a reasonable length of time for your studies and as soon as it is over, simply stand up and get away for some time. You and your brain can now rest and recharge for another bout of learning.
4. Read something different and interesting.
I could remember when I was in university my roommate would always complain about me reading storybooks in the examination period while everyone else was busy studying their lecture notes. I always laughed.
You know why? To me, reading something not obviously related to the exam subject was the most powerful way of relaxing and recharging my battery for a more effective study time when I got back to my studies – and it always did the magic for me!
Learn to read other stuff, even during a period of intense preparation for a crucial examination. This relaxes your brain and prepares it to absorb better.
5. Stop being anxious.
The last time I checked, I found out that anxiety has never solved any problem. If it does we all will only need to sit in one place and get busy being anxious and all the world’s problems will be solved!
One way to prevent falling into a state of panic whenever the word examination is mentioned is to start preparing well in advance for the D – day. So, as the time approaches for you to go and write that paper, what you must do is to focus on implementing your study plan in a relaxed manner.
You need a clear, focused state of mind to be able to write acceptable answers to any examination question and, surely, excessive worrying won’t make that happen. So stop worrying and get positive.
Read also: 5 Private Study Tricks That Actually Work
6. Remain optimistic about your chances of success throughout.
As I said earlier, this attitude becomes easier to adopt if you started your preparations long before the examination date.
Avoid entertaining any fears of failure. A negative attitude and achievement are strange bedfellows. All the questions that you’ll have to answer have been there in the syllabus or course outline for your easy access all these months or years. No one is going to spring any new surprises on you with questions on totally strange topics. No.
It is therefore advisable that you get hold of that syllabus early and make it your close companion even if you have a teacher who is tasked to prepare you for the test. Take this from me: Not all teachers can be trusted to finish even one-half of the topics in the syllabus. So please, take matters into your own hands and be the pilot of your own destiny.
This is the best way to ensure that you remain optimistic about your prospects of success; because you’ll have done everything humanly possible to make your success a matter of course.
7. Manage your time effectively.
Any productivity expert will tell you that effective time management is vital for maximising outcomes. This maxim holds true for private learning as well.
Put together a personal study timetable as early as possible. Then dedicate yourself to following this schedule. You may need to be flexible with the business of life since it is full of uncertainties. On the whole, however, you must learn to be a disciplined learner.
Read also: 7 Simple Steps To WASSCE Qualification Without Attending SHS
Remember that very short spells of time spent studying effectively are far better than long, empty hours spent with books. Do not make yourself appear as if you’re studying while in fact, you’re doing absolutely nothing!
8. Avoid taking so-called learning medication.
No matter the name of any drug which is presented to you as being capable of producing a magical effect on your learning abilities, avoid it. It can end up creating only additional learning difficulties for you, not to talk about the long-term health hazards you may have to deal with in the future.
Learning can be fun and effective at the same time. It only takes some creativity and simple methods as the ones outlined above to obtain excellent results from your learning efforts.
So, go ahead and try them and you can only become a most effective learner.
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