Study smart, not hard!

Have you ever noticed that among our batch-mates, there are many who study a lot (day & night), throughout the semester, but still do not perform as they are expected to be (keeping in mind the hard work they do). And then there are those students who study very little (only 1-2 hours a day) and perform much better in the exams, and sometimes even excel the entire class. Well, this is one of the most common experiences we all have felt sometime in the college. And if you have not, you might belong to the second category.

You might have seen many of your friends struggling hard with studies, staying at libraries for the entire day and trying to grasp from those thick reference books suggested by your teachers. Issuing 4-5 books and then studying from them throughout the academic session. Some of them cannot even spend 1 hour with their friends because they do not have it. 

I have seen some of my friends doing so. And the problem doesn't end here. After all this hard work, if they do not perform well enough in exams (as much as they expect from themselves), then theirs nothing more demotivating about it. For those of you, who cannot connect, it feels like you have been wasting time in studying so hard, rather you could have enjoyed like others. But, that's also not possible. Why?

Because you know that if you start enjoying like others, you might even drop from your current grades. And this leads to more depression. 

Now, let us look at the second type of students. They enjoy their campus life, spend time with friends and have private time for themselves as well. And all they do is study for a few hours once a day and still score better than many of us in the exams.

The big question is: How do they do it?

I myself study for only 2 hours daily but still I have performed (mostly) above average in my subjects. The strategy is called "Smart studying".

In this blog, I am going to discuss the concept of smart studying. But, before that we need to focus on a few key points that would assist you in studying smartly. 

• Before using any strategy, one needs to plan and prepare. For studying smartly, one needs to prepare him/herself. Preparation involves looking at the course plan and analyzing the amount of the course in your head. Taking a quick glance over the pages of the books just once might help you realize the amount of time you will need to give. Remember! just take an overview of the book (I repeat! do not start reading blindly). 
• So, now as you have an idea about how much course to cover, you can allot yourselves time according to that. If the lesson is too long (taking 3-4 hours), then you can include 10-15 min of break in between once or twice. But, when you are studying, try to study continuously so as to maintain the flow. Study for only 2 hours, but without any distraction in between. Because then you can have the entire day to enjoy or talk to your friends.
• One of the hidden concepts in Smart Study is that one should try to understand things and not memorize them. Memorizing should be the last option as it takes lot of time and is really unreliable in exams. 
• The best strategy to study which I feel is by making notes while reading the books and lectures. When you make notes, you read the material, interpret it and then try to write it in your own understanding. This way when you are revising for exams, you don not need to read the entire book again. If it is a fact, you can copy it down. But always try to make your notes according to your understanding.You can put in comments, pictures and points in between so as to help you while revising. 
• If making notes feels like too much of time taking, try to highlight the important stuff in the book itself. By highlighting, I do not mean to paint the entire page. Just the keywords, their meanings and examples related to help you understand.  
• Another important point is always try to connect the material. Its not necessary that what you are taught in one subject should always be connected with that subject only. Stuff studied in physics can always be connected with that in maths. Chemistry can always be connected with our daily products we use. 
• Always try to separate the gist of the content given in least words possible so that it gets easier to remember. Try to convert one page of book into a small paragraph of few lines.

Apart from these techniques, one should always first analyze that what kind of a learner he/she is.

There are basically four types of learners:

1. Visual learners
2. Auditory learners
3. Emotional learners
4. Kinesthetic learners

Now, I am gonna explain each of them and tell you strategies to be adapted specific to each type.

1. Visual Learners: They are those who learn fast when they can actually see whats happening. Videos, pictures and animations can help them a lot in understanding. And in this era of Internet, each of these are easily accessible.

2. Auditory Learners: These people always learn faster when they hear it. Such people should focus more in the lectures. Also, instead of making notes in written form, they can make their notes in the recorded form with addition of comments and then listen them later.

3. Emotional Learners: They always learn better when they can feel what is going on. They can use various aids like learning a concept by attaching it to some real life experience.

4. Kinesthetic Learners: They are the people who learn more efficiently when they can actually do what they are studying. Such people can always use laboratories and experimentation to understand things. 

So, now all you need to do is know which type of learner you are and implement these strategies.

I hope I can help some of you and you might try these for better learning. Remember, you can always go back to your old methods of learning, but at least try these once. 

Thank You for reading.