If you're a student attending classes, you have undoubtedly experienced many moments when it was hard to make yourself settle down and study, even when an important exam was coming up.

If you're like most students, you delay studying until the very last minute. The night before the exam, you'll burn the midnight oil cramming, getting little or no sleep. In the morning, you'll drag yourself out of bed, gear up yourself with lots of coffee and some cigarettes, and go into the exam feeling tired, drained and stressed out all at the same time. You'll find it hard to focus or think, and you'll be cursing yourself for not starting to study sooner.

And not surprisingly, unless you're blessed with natural intelligence, or you happen to know the subject matter very well, you'll probably do awfully on the test.

If this is your usual method of studying, you already know it doesn't work. Every time you go through this ritual, you tell yourself that you're going to improve the next time you face a big exam. Next time you'll start to study weeks in advance, you say. But instead, you keep repeating this crazy pattern. Why does this keep occurring? And what should you be doing instead if you want to get better marks?

A big problem for most people, especially those who are young students, is that life gets in the way. If you're a student, you probably have a part time job, and like most juvenile people, you also want to have a social life.

Studying can seem very dull compared to all the exciting temptations just outside your door. Or the games on your computer. Even watching old reruns of Sesame Street can seem more interesting than the biology text your teacher is expecting you to master!

One reason we often don't start studying until the last possible minute is that we have miscalculated how long it will actually take us to grasp and understand the material. If your mid-term is still six weeks away, that might seem like plenty of time left before you need to get around to studying. You might find however, that the subject matter is a lot harder to understand than you thought it would be, and all of a sudden there's no time left to ask someone to explain it to you.

Another reason we often delay starting to study is that we are too overwhelmed with how big the project actually seems to be. Somehow we assure ourselves that putting off a tough study project can be the best way to avoid feeling overwhelmed by it.

When we are faced with a study project that seems extremely difficult and overwhelming, it can be to maintain a high level of interest and motivation for the duration of the learning process.

If you have been guilty of all these bad study habits, it's not too late to pick up some other habits that will work better for you.

First, remind yourself why you want to perform better in your studies. Maybe you need a good mark to get into a good college. Maybe you want a chance at a career that will pay you well. Always keep your end goal in mind.

You can put little cards up around your room with inspirational messages, and attractive photographs that will remind you why you want to do well in school.

If you feel very overwhelmed, you can improve your motivation and your performance by breaking up the project into smaller sections, or "chunks". Each time you accomplish one little bit successfully, give yourself a significant reward.

If you have a deadline looming, decide how much of the project you need to tackle at one time.

Let's say you have six weeks to master the content of a difficult biology text. Looking through the book you realize that if you study one chapter each night, you can get through the book in 28 days, leaving two weeks in which you can again review the material.

With this erudition you can pace yourself. You know what your assignment is. You know how much you need to read every night. Concentrate on the immediate task at hand. You don't need to feel overwhelmed by the entire book at one time. Next, work out a system of rewards for yourself. Give yourself a series of small rewards each time you master one chapter, and a larger reward for completing the entire book.

For rewards to work they must be immediate, and personally meaningful to you. There is no point in rewarding yourself with a new fishing rod if you hate fishing.

Rewards don't need to be material objects if there is something else that would really motivate and inspire you. How about attending a special concert, or taking a special trip? You decide. Get creative and think of something that will incite you to take action.

It's very important that the reward take place soon after the work has been accomplished. This creates a sense of positive reinforcement. Give yourself a small reward every time you finish a small part of the job, and a bigger reward when the project is completed. If there is too long a gap between the activity and the reward, it will not have the effect of strengthening the desired activity.

Besides motivating yourself with a series of external rewards, learn to motivate yourself internally. Tell yourself you're a good learner. Tell yourself you enjoy learning. Tell yourself you enjoy giving your brain a good work out. Congratulate yourself for your efforts. Tell yourself you love gaining new knowledge, and let yourself feel a joy in learning. Be proud of yourself for the work you do to gain more knowledge.

For information to sink into your brain and be accessible to you, you need to review it several times, and your brain needs to sleep properly for the memories to be encoded in your neurons. You need to reduce your mental stress. Your brain requires good nutrition and it needs to be in a peaceful, confident state. Drugs and alcohol don't help the process of learning.

Write out what you are learning in your own words, and find a learning partner. Practice explaining to someone else what you have learned. This will increase the possibility that your brain will remember it.

If you start to cram the night before, you are putting your brain at a big drawback.

You're increasing your physical and mental stress, and you're not giving yourself time to review the material several times. By cutting back on your sleep, you're not giving your brain a chance to put the information you've been studying into the hard drive storage of your brain.

By starting your studies early, and reviewing what you've learned, you have a much better chance of remembering and understanding what you need to know when you face a big exam.

Source: http://www.pearlword.com/2017/02/ways-to-improve-your-study-habits-and-recall-better.html

Visit http://www.pearlword.com for more

Nice post

okay

Found this very helpful. Thanks alot

Nice writeup.The intellectually ones should please take note.God bless OP.

Nice write-up

Nice write up! From what I read here, repititive reading, rest, good nutrition and self motivation are the key.

We need more of this for our scholars!

Man know thyself....
No rules for success
Find what works for u nd improve on it.
What works for mr A might not work for mr B

Great!

Interesting read.

nice post op but i havent read it... good job

thanks alot
kudos

I'm not surprised on the low views and comments despite being created since May.

Nice one OP. Practice they say makes perfect. Repeatedly reading a piece and linking it with something tangible helps it's retention. Since you used biology, a student can create his/her flow chart of say photosynthesis and of course utilise his/her creative ability in imagining that process with trees and plants outside. Such ability to see relationships between what is being studied and a process in life is a positive reinforcement.

Reading is hard and requires discipline especially for secondary school and undergrad students. However it becomes fun when one has gained a mastery of acquiring it's knowledge.

Writing/making notes also help. This is one passive way of reinforcement. Having studied a section, trying to sensibly recall and legibly and decently put down what has just been studied will definitely help retention. Also, after having covered a text, one can attempt to answer questions in an exam mode. Timing ones response helps to build speed and accuracy, two important requirements from every examination.

Furthermore, as one builds capacity in learning, a time comes when one is able to preempt what can be examined and not examined. However, this skill comes with much experience gained from exercising the brain in historical decision making with regards to such. Though not to be depended upon, it helps in facilitating better time allocation especially when time becomes an issue during the preparation stage.

Lastly, considering the possibility that electricity is still a luxury for we Nigerians, those fortunate enough to use candles in reading can set targets with such. As an undergrad whenever I bought candles I had a number of pages that must be completed before the candle burnt out. This was necessary to rein in my thoughts which could run wild during those nights. However, great care must be taken to ensure safety.

Reading some one says is a life long process. It helps longevity and opens up the brain to so many other possibilities. A time comes when you realise that schooling isn't to put a label of a course on you but to teach you the rudiments of independent and critical thinking which can be applied to any discipline.

Thanks once again for this post OP.

thanks, going to try it out.

Look at how people neglected this beautiful thread.
If it was a thread showing in the bathroom.

Thanks OP. I think this may help me because I'm becoming indolent towards reading these days.

I've had the experience of failure back then in school until I started to study early. You know more than you think you do, read as if your exam is tomorrow. It works like magic, God bless the OP.

op just describe me,its long sha but positive info nice one...

This is what I call very rich content. Pls I'll like to have your number if thats ok

No Outline

nice one

studying is not easy, it requires hard work. Brain tasking is more difficult than manual labour, though mental work seems more relaxing physically, it is energy sapping.

Sheer laziness is the "witchcraft" that keep people off their books until it's getting late, this is also carried over to other areas of life.

One of my suggestions to self-studying is through video. Reading prints sometimes is more work. But when you watch videos of the subject matter (lots littered all over), albeit casually, and repeatedly, it eventually sinks. Your lazy part convinces you that you are having leisure, while in essence you are learning. Try this method and see the wonders.
This internet generation is so fortunate, I just pray many of them take advantage of the numerous resources available to them.

Very useful information

Thumbup op. This is a good writeup

ruffhandu:
studying is not easy, it requires hard work. Brain tasking is more difficult than manual labour, though mental work seems more relaxing physically, it is energy sapping.

Sheer laziness is the "witchcraft" that keep people off their books until it's getting late, this is also carried over to other areas of life.

One of my suggestions to self-studying is through video. Reading prints sometimes is more work. But when you watch videos of the subject matter (lots littered all over), albeit casually, and repeatedly, it eventually sinks. Your lazy part convinces you that you are having leisure, while in essence you are learning. Try this method and see the wonders.
This internet generation is so fortunate, I just pray many of them take advantage of the numerous resources available to them.

The use of video is so true,


I learn 65% of my courses with the help of YouTube video. learning has been made really easy in our generation with the aid of gadgets and internet.

Thanks OP. Really impressive write-up.
A personal touch is also required wherein one learns what suits one's study pattern best and like someone rightly mentioned YouTube is extremely helpful in present day studying. I for example became proficient in a lot of Microsoft office applications through YouTube and it's helped me tremendously professionally.

These are the kind of posts we need on front page not cleavage /braless/BBN inmate photoshoot/Davido/man dies on top sister-in-law/Tonto Dike steps out in Ankara bumshort crap.

What a nice write-up OP..
It seems like you're just referring to me, because i'm guilty of most of the problems you have outlined.. Thanks for this educating article..

Thanks

Thanks for the thoughtfulness invested in writing this piece of reminder... Try looking into this text for omitted words. Nonetheless, a good write-up it is.

Meel:


The use of video is so true,


I learn 65% of my courses with the help of YouTube video. learning has been made really easy in our generation with the aid of gadgets and internet.

I am a chief beneficiary my brother.