How to study smart, not hard.

How to study smart, not hard.

Hi all..................................!

All of you must have seen so many boring articles under this title “How to study smart, not hard” (not all of them were boring, but still). And you always wanted to know what the most effective way is to study but didn’t get the right answer maybe (so, I suppose you are still wondering). You must be thinking why I am going to write another boring article under this title. Listen, dear reader, I am no expert, so I am going to write what I have learnt from my personal experience. So, I guess my experience will help you in some or other way.

What does smart study mean, studying on your smartphone? No. Let’s take the example of two students. One of them is a book worm and studied for the whole academic year yet failed. The other one is careless and he somehow managed to study the last night before exams and got an A+. Ouch!! How did this happen?

The book worm did not use the right way to store information in his brain, the later mentioned did and passed with flying colors.

Well, the method that is used worldwide to “brain-store information” is rote-learning. Rote-learning is like your parrot Charlie trying to copy you, but he does not understand a word you speak. Same is the case with you. Don’t mind but try to recall the essay that you had rote-learnt in your high school and you got an A for it in the exams. Now think of all the color names that you learnt at pre-school. You still remember almost all those things that you learnt at pre-school.

I am not saying that your teachers didn’t teach you perfectly at you high school, or your ability to acquire knowledge reduced by the time you reached there. You are the same person; the thing is that two very different techniques were used at both of the times.

How?

Our brain is like a bookshelf (I am a book lover, what else type of example do you expect from me? haha) The thing is as your book shelf needs to be arranged every now and then, or else you would get lost in the pile of books trying to get your desired book. Same is the case with your brain and all the information stored in it.

I agree rote learning works for most of the students, but it never worked for me. Rote- learning may help you get an A and at the end of the day, a degree with an awesome CGPA. But the problem is, after one or two months of the exams, you won’t be able to remember a word that became the reason for your A grade.

The main objective behind getting the degree was to learn something that may help you in your future life, which was not accomplished.

The negative point for rote-learning is that it takes a lot of time. And if you are a student of English literature for instance and you have a lot of reading to do in a very short span of time, it is not going to work.

Try to use the Brain’s language

Your brain works like a drive which has a vast storage space, but if you don’t store information in a correct way, everything will be messed up.

The technique of Mnemonics is the best to learn things faster and have them stored in your brain for a longer period. Mnemonics is a device which aids your memory to learn things in a fun way.

Don’t worry because of its scientific looking name, it is a pretty simple technique. Remember, when you were not able to memorize which month of the year contains 31, 30 or 29 days? And your teacher told you to knuckle memorize the names of all twelve months. Every knuckle presented 31 days and all months with less than 30 days lied between the knuckles.

An alphabet song is used to help child learn alphabets.

“Richard of York Gave Battle In Vain”, the first letter of each word in the fore-mentioned sentence is an initial for a color; every color that is found in the rainbow. Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.

These were some of the examples of mnemonics and you can always make your own mnemonic’s device to memorize something faster.

Imagination is one’s power

Once Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge”.

You must be thinking Why?

He answered your “why” too.

Because “Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world”.

Imagination is your power because everything you read forms a vivid image in your brain. Yet again let me criticize rote-learning as it does not create any illustrations in your brain because you are just repeating words and your brain is wandering somewhere else.

source: giphy.com

So, whenever you read something, always try to see and listen to what your brain has to offer you. Even if there is not a story, make it and visualize it in your head. Trust me you are not going to forget it in a short time.

Be logical

One of my students said to me after Bachelor of Arts’ result was announced, “I wrote a lot in my English’s paper and stapled so many sheets, yet I got less marks”.

This is the mistake that so many students make. Dear students, examiner is not going to count your clipped sheets to give you high marks.

You don’t have any need to torture yourself to fill up more and more sheets. Write what have been asked by the examiner, you don’t need to tell each and everything that you have studied throughout your academic year.  

Try to be specific in academic writing. A concise yet short answer would be enough as compared to a long-winded answer.

I hope my self-made guide about “how to study smart, not hard” will really help you. Comment if you like it.