Study

A lot of people of late have been asking me, how should you study? What are the different ways to study so that we remember? And so on. I am no expert to reply to this question, but yes, I think I can contribute a little bit so that the person who has these questions feels better.

I will be dealing with the questions as they strike me, and may be if we have some query we can clear them and discuss so that we get different opinions and may be even device new mechanisms to study!!!

I have concentrated more on the students who are studying for their graduation. May be some of the methods and queries that we see may be common to a lot of other students, in such a case just go ahead and pick up the technique, if you feel it’s worth it.

You may find me idealistic in some of the answers but, that's the way I have preferred doing things. I am open to criticism; I like people being critical about what they read or learn or anything.

AND LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST, there is bound to be difference of opinions, just post your views on the topics what you think is a good way forward? May be you have a better technique to remember or recall and things like that, just share it so that it’s of some use to other as well.

Let us begin with understanding what study is first?

Study is application of the mind to the acquisition of knowledge, as by reading, investigation, or reflection. This is a time consuming process, requiring a lot of patience and effort to attain knowledge.

The knowledge that you obtain would be in deep understanding of the subject of interest. It's only through study that we understand the minute details that are missed out when we just browse through the topic that we "intend to study". These minute details when understood completely, gives a competitive edge over those who have not "studied" the particular subject.

It is study of the subject that is the marking difference between the Master and a novice. A novice to start off with a lot of committed study of the subject develops into a master of the subject.

Study need not be always mental; it is a combination of mental and physical activities. The theory learnt would involve a majority of mental effort, but it's through the physical examination i.e., through practical experience that we understand this better, "to understand" is component of study. That is why we have "practical sessions in labs" during college days.

The scope of study essentially involves understanding of the subject, practical and theoretical parts just form a path to achieve better knowledge of the subject.

So the basic purpose of study turns out to be mastery of a particular field of interest.

Now the next question is why should I study something?

Well not every thing is to be studied in detail, you can just be happy by knowing what the topic means!!

But what interests us we have to study it in detail, else we are just like an encyclopedia reference (not detailed, just a glimpse of the topic), so can you tell some one how it actually works, what it actually is? Can you reply to any query in that regard based on just this minimal knowledge? This will lead us to a position where we are in a situation - "Jack of many, King of None!!!"

We seem to know a lot of things, but don't understand all of them. This is what generally happens when we go to an interview. Let me take up the example of a campus interview: Invariably we are asked the question - "Which is your favourite subject?" and then the interviewers start off asking questions on it. The Idea behind this is simple - if you like a subject, you would definitely learn the subject well (This is intern a reflection on the interest you have). They then evaluate you based on their understanding, how well you know the subject - this is just to know how thorough you are on the subject that you like - reason, if you have shown this interest and understood some subject really well then if you are given a handsome pay and incentives you would definitely learn what they want you to, and perform well in it. This is so simple isn't it?

So it’s important that we "study" at least one subject well, if we do learn more than one subject well, then it’s an added advantage.

If we study some subject thoroughly, it reflects on our understanding of other subjects as well. If we are a master of some subject, its easy to understand another just by mapping one to another, an example may be - understanding equations in algebra helps understand matrix related problems, this is with maths... but will definitely hold true with other subjects as well I am very sure. So, EASE OF REMEMBERING is another factor why was need to study.

What is it, which makes study different form a "go-through" or a "browse"?

Well as I see it, it’s the understanding of the subject. While a "go-through" or a "browse" will just keep things in memory for a short term and then forget it, without understanding the essence of what was read, heard or seen.

I know that its difficult to study, its so easy to get behind marks but always remember ... what is understood becomes ours for life, what is just kept in mind with say the intention of an exam, or something will not remain with us though out, and needs constant rehearsal.

To understand we have to spend time with the subject that we wish to master, to study. With time, the time spent to study a subject goes on reducing.

Time wise it can be said that "studying" in the long run is faster and more rewarding than just a "browse".

I attempt to study, but I can’t recall a thing when I am asked about it. What should I do?

Well, study can be done only if we work on any subject in our mind, so we have to retain and get the association right.

Retention of what we study is very important, without that it’s like we have no data to study when we have time. To retain data, we have to have the art of association (actually this is a study technique that we will look into some time later). This association is what gets the continuity of thought. This guides us how one of the topics is related to the next topic, how one sentence is linked to the next and so on.

The flow that is seen is what helps us retain the subject related information in our brain. When we associate a line of information with the next, we derive a sort of flow in the thought process that helps us recall. Just by thinking "how this sentence leads to the very next sentence?" we can associate and there by remember the topic. So all we have to do is just read, and then take some time to understand the particular sentence, and then read the next sentence, associate the two of them so as to form a chain, which can be pulled out by holding one end.

While trying to think of the various associations that are needed to get to the flow, you can actually use your own experiences so that you can remember them better. You can also think of the associations that are funny, or those which rake up a lot of emotions, these associations tend to stay with us for a longer time in memory.

How should I study? Is there any particular method?

Well to frankly say there is no particular method, I have used a few of them, I think this will help in studying a subject. I discuss in here two different techniques:

1. The first technique is what most of them can easily follow. It’s what is called "repetition". This is a very time consuming process, but very easy to follow. This can be done my even a dull head who doesn't even have a bit of imagination. All we have to have is abundant time at our disposal. Just sit in front of the material, and repeat what is to be learnt, after a lot of effort it automatically gives a flash of understanding and then we have to look at all things again with that as our torch light. This is one of the crude ways to study, but is very time consuming.

2. The second method needs nothing but a bit of imagination, i.e. I mean the capacity to visualize things. All we have to do is just read a sentence, and let the mind think freely on this particular sentence. Let it imagine and get as many Ideas as possible (In turn the mind gets happy because, we are giving it sufficient work that it like - imagining). Now read the second sentence and so the same imagination exercise. Once this is done, think about the two sentences in tandem; try associating the two sentences (again an imagination exercise.) Keep doing this exercise, from the first line of the paragraph to the last line of the paragraph. Once a paragraph is complete, go to the next, once 2 paragraphs are complete, associate one paragraph with another. This will give the flow of the content in the topic chosen. Try it out and see how long you remember what you have learnt (you are sure to be amazed at your capacity!!!)

Well this just did not end the study, now we have most of what we learnt in our brain and this is the most important part. Once we have all this data into brain, we have to keep thinking about it when we are free, this will help us understand better, and once we get that understanding we have studied the subject. The more you think, the more diverse the meaning of what we have studied is going to be; this makes us more studied... and eventually the masters of a subject.

Once we are masters of a subject, we can easily understand other subject just but drawing parallelism between the subjects in case we feel so, else we can use the above technique to study them.

Hey what do you think is the essence of the above method that you have told? If I know what I have to do it would be helpful as I can device my own method for it?

The basic essence of the methods that I mentioned above is "observation", through repeatedly letting the mind ponder over and think about some thing that it just read helps us observe the subtle and an hidden information that will not be available on just reading through. This is important in order to improve the understanding of the subject that is under study. Observe every single thing that you can, the more you observe, the more you understand what is being talked off - what is that that each of the author thinks is important, what does he emphasise, what is that which will give me a better analogy of what I learn. All this is possible only if we observe and then try looking at the subject of study.

Oh All that's fine, but I don't get time to do anything? how can I give so much of time to master a subject?

Well, friend I think 24 hours in a day is all each of us have to do all our activities. We have our own priorities in life no doubt, but as a student its our first priority to study and make a mark for our self. I personally think as a student study has to be our first priority, all other things can hold back (some 20 yrs down the line we should not feel sad for not having studied something which might be needed).

The basic reason why we always complain about shortage of time is our bad time management. All of us have the same 24 hrs but some can do much more than others in the same time frame.

Most of the time we waste our time because we don't know what the next job that we want to do is? We waste a lot of time thinking what to do next, this is to be avoided, and then we will be managing our time better.

How do I manage Time?

Managing time is simple as far as I think; we have to follow the following steps to manage time:

1. Identify what are those things in which you waste a lot of time.

2. Think if I have to do some work, what would be the shortest time that I can give to this, in case we fail to finish it on time what would be the longest time frame?

3. Now list down the things that are static (routine) for the day, and ones that are dynamic (ones which change day to day based on sudden priority works, we can at least make a guess rt!!)

4. Think which of these things can be clubbed to gather in one go? (Say once we go out of the house for getting some books just check to see if you need a pen as well). Avoid repetition of work.

5. Now to the most important part of time management, decide how much time we should give for each of the subject that you want to study? Say you decide to give 30 min to each subject and you have 5 subjects, so we have to find a slot to fit in this 2 and half hours. May not be in one continuous stretch, but may be with time gaps in between. But the basic point is you should do this regularly.

6. Once this much is decided, we can plan a time schedule that, which gives us the time for all that we want to do within the day. Now that we have the schedule we just have to follow it, that's all we have to do to manage our time.

If you have a calendar based reference to what you would like to do, what are your engagements for the next 6 months? And so on... it will help do the time management even better.

Well this should help us do off our problems with time management, but still I personally feel we can improve up on this, when we have scheduled a job to be done and that is postponed or is completed much before time we have to put some things else in the place so as to use that time and may be if we feel relax later on!!!.

I have studied as much as I can, but I get nervous when I get to the time I have to perform - Exams. What do you think is going wrong here?

I think this is a problem with the confidence of facing an examination. As the saying goes - "The proof of a pudding is in eating it." Any amount of information that is there in the mind will be evaluated only on the way its been presented.
1. First of all we have to isolate the reason(s) for the lack of confidence. For this we have to look at our-self and analyse where we might be missing the crux... that is making us feel lower in confidence?
2. To improve confidence it is important that we practise really well, practice facing the opposition that we might be exposed to, i.e. answer more question papers, and answer the questions which in the increasing order of difficulty as you may think to be.
3. Also self suggestion techniques, like speaking to your self about your strength will help a lot, suggesting your self by saying "I am confident of performing well" will also help.
4. Getting to revise very often will help out, the frequency of revision may keep on increasing. say initially you start of revising every alternate day then once in 3 days then once in 5 days and then 7 days, fortnight and so on...

Is there any suggestion that you would like to give while we are about to write exams?

Definitely there are some things to be kept in mind while writing an exam. The most common mistake that we do it - once we get the paper we just have a quick glance at the questions and immediately start writing it, this is a wrong thing to do. Once you are in the examination hall and you have received the paper, we have a few things to note:
1. Read through all the questions completely and realize which questions you would like to answer as you think they might be easy.
2. Once you select the questions you want to answer, read them again and look at what the paper expects you to write.
3. Once you know what is being requested for, note down the point in the corner of the answer sheet, else you may forget what is to be written, or you may realize a few points while writing the answers.
4. Once you have written the points, think of organizing them in a very presentable manner, point wise presentation is preferred over paragraph presentation. While presenting ensure you write down the points as much as possible in the order of importance that you would like to associate.

There are so many things to remember, can you suggest a few things to aid the process of remembering?

As already discussed while mentioning about how to study? I have made a mention of the link based system of studying. This alone should go a long way in helping remember things. To assist this method further:
1. you can make small set of notes, as summary of all the topics, the main points under each topic etc. This will help save a lot of time towards the end of the academic calendar.
2. If you have a lot of diagrams to refer to, then it will be better to make the diagram on a sheet of paper and stick it over the wall so that it keeps reminding u about the functionality.
3. Make comparative notes, this will help remember with much more ease... a typical example would be the comparison of the various hydrocarbons in organic chemistry... you can compare the method of generation, the chemical reactions and things like it. If you have a sheet ready like it, you can stick it out and keep comparing with it.
4. And try associating things that you want to remember with some thing out of proportion, something that is exaggerating something really funny, this will help you remember things for a long time.