How to Study Effectively

This is a big question that a lots of students ask. It depends on you whether you'll take 6 hours for 1 topic or 1 hour for the same. However you can reduce that 6 hours to 1 hour, if you study effectively. You can make a hard thing simple, if you study effectively. You can reduce the stress of studies, if you study effectively. But the question is "how to study effectively"??

Here are some of the points that I've listed down through which you can study effectively.

Study with full concentration and focus
This is the key point. What you study, for how much time you study, study with full concentration. Otherwise it would be of no use even if you study the same topic throughout the year!! You won't remember anything each time. Forget about rest of the things while studying. Don't think what your mother is preparing for dinner or which game you are going to show to your friends the other day. Forget about your girlfriend/boyfriend/crush, friends and mobile phones; switch your mobile phones off, along with that side of your brain which deviates your mind. Just study with full concentration. Don't let any other thought come in your mind. Otherwise you won't be able to grasp properly.

Proper dedication is needed
You can't concentrate if you are not properly dedicated. To concentrate you need a free mind plus dedication. You should be dedicated. You should think that "I have to study so-and-so topic before dinner", and you should try to complete your set target. You should think that "I need to achieve so-and-so marks in the next exam", and work hard for the same. You should be dedicated towards your work and studies, you should have a mentality that "I have to study, and if I do some small sacrifices for studies then that's not a problem". That's dedication. So, it's an important factor.

Motivation
Now, what makes you dedicated?? It's motivation that makes you dedicated. Put someone as your action figure or you can say, role model. For example, put Amitabh Bachchan as your action figure. See how hard he works. If he is successful, then it's his hard work that's responsible for the same. So, get motivation from him and work hard the same way he does. You'll never get anything in your life without hardwork and motivation. You can choose any of your favorite person, not necessarily some movie star or sport person but you mom and dad can also be your motivation; that depends person to person.

The above three are the basic things and are inter-related. You need to have these three things for a better grasping power. Now the things through which you can make your studies more interesting and effective are as follow:

Organized REGULAR studies and organized environment
Try to have a time table for your studies so that you won't miss any subject anyday. Studying every subject is necessary. That depends how much time you should spend for one subject. For example, if your Science is good and Maths is weak, then spend more time in Maths than in Science; like, 3 hours for maths and 1 hour for science. And concentrate at a single subject at a time. Don't mess up with other subjects in between.

Working on a regular basis is very important. Studying for first three days regularly then if you skip studying even for one day then whole your work will go in vein. You're whole programme will get disturbed and you'll find it very hard to get back on track. So, work regularly. And also, be regular at your school and college. Try not to miss any class.

Now, the other thing is, it's better if you study at table but if not available then no need to worry, just create a small corner for yourself at your home for studies. And keep your table/wherever you study, neat and clean. Clean environment brings positive feelings, so make sure to have a light environment with less amount of things around. Try to find a quite place for your studies, at your home or outside home, doesn't matters.

Organise your study materials. Store your books, note books, pen, pencil, colors etc in an organized way. If you do work on sheets like binder paper or A4 sized paper, then maintain a binder file or a folder to store them so that it won't move around your nose. Put tags so that you won't need to search every single page mixed with other. Keep all the pages of a single subject under the same tag.

Make notes; Write and rewrite
Make notes, Notes are important. After studying a whole chapter make notes, note down every single important thing. This will help you revise quickly. You don't need to read the whole chapter again from the text books or reference books. Just write down every important thing at a same place and revise it. You can learn and remember a lots of things while making notes. Keep a rough notebook with you during class and write down the things discussed in the class room in short in that notebook. When you return home, write down the same things discussed in the classroom again in a fair note book neatly and in complete sentences. That will be your revision, so that will get imprinted in your mind.

Keep everything simple and tidy
Try to make your notes as simple as you can. Write it in a simple language because sometimes we forget some topics/words/phrases given in the book language, sometimes a complex term/sentences is/are given to explain a simple thing (in short, sometimes bookish language is hard to understand). So, you should note down the meaning nearby about any such words or phrases.

And the other important thing is, keep your notes neat and clean. Use colorful pens to highlight important points and try to write in good handwriting. This will provoke your interest to read it.

Acronymic sentences
Include acronyms or form your own acronym to remember a long term in a shorter way. For example, you can remember the nine planet like this (note the initials of each word, this is the way I remember them till today), My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets for Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto (dwarf planet). This will help you to remember the sequence of the planets in the correct order. So, you can make as many as acronymic sentences to make your studies easier to remember for a longer time. You can also make acronymic sentences to remember the periodic table in chemistry.

Flash cards
Make some short points in a card or a paper for quick revisions. For example, write down all the maths formulae in a paper and carry it with you. Revise it before exam. Add formulae in it whenever you learn a new formula. Similarly you can write down the dates of the events in History. This will help you for the quick revision before exam and will help you refresh all the things again.

Use of diagrams, graphs and charts
Always try to remember the things using a diagram, graph or pie chart. For example, if you want to remember the organs of human body then rather than craming the sentences, learn a labelled diagram of human body. Similarly, to remember the statistics, learn the graphs and pie charts etc instead learning from sentences. You can also improve by making the diagrams and pie charts colorful for highlightings.

Watch and listen
We can remember a lots of things if we watch and listen. Always listen to what your teacher is saying in the class room. Try to find out the CDs and video of the subjective topics and listen to them. Such videos contains very good explanations with good colorful pictures and examples from daily life, which automatically helps you remember things. You can also suggest your teacher to use such videos or diagramatic charts in the class rooms.

Investigate and question
Read things from books and think. When you face any difficulty try to find out easier explanation in different books and the notes provided by your teacher. If still you face doubts then ask your elders and teachers. Never feel shy to ask a question because if you don't then the thing will remain a mystery to you. So, each time you face difficulty, note it down and the next time when you visit school ask to your teacher.

Help and resources
Always take help from reference books. I don't mean to copy down the thing but to take help and learn that you don't understand from the book. Reference books can also teach you how to write and present answers. So, you can keep reference books with you at home. And no matter if you can't afford the costly reference books. Every school has libraries, you can simply issue a book from there and utilize it. If you have internet connection at home then nothing is better than that. You can find a lots of simple explanations, a lots of experts and teacher are there online who share the subjective knowledge online in simple language with diagrams. You can consider that. The other way you can take help is appointing a tutor for you weak subjects. It's up to you whether you want to go for tuitions at some AC institute or at some home, doesn't matters. The only thing that matters is that you should clear your doubts there. And I think you should only take help from a tutor to understand and learn, and not to make your home work done.

Never miss your home work
You learn a lot while doing your home work and I think it is the most important thing in learning. So, never miss your home work. Home work actually makes you realize how much you know and how much you need to learn. So, to know yourself and your level you need to do home work.

Challenging work first
Do the challenging task first when you start doing home work or casual studies. That is because your mind is fresh when you start studying. So, you would be able to concentrate properly and you will remember what you've studied for a longer time plus you will understand the thing easily and quickly with fresh mind.

Study in small duration of time and stretch in break
Study for small durations. The remembering and concentrating power of human brain decreases after 40 min, the graph goes down in every 40 minutes. So, take break while studying. For example, study for 1 hour and then take a break. Walk inside your house, or go out to your garden or veranda and watch the clouds, trees, birds, plants and don't forget to stretch your body. That will remove all your restlessness and you'll be able to feel fresh and concentrate again. In this way you can study for a longer time without losing concentration and grasping power. But don't go in front of TV, and don't use social networking sites, and forget about the mobile phones, that will completely drive your mind away.

Listen to music
This one is optional. You can listen to music during break and during writing works, but only if you can concentrate in that way. Some people feel very comfortable while listening to music. They can concentrate very well. But it's not same for everybody. If you can't concentrate in that way then don't try this.

Group studies
Studying in a group is another good idea. A "group" means, a group of 4-5 students and not a group of 20 students. But you should follow some policies while studying in group; for example, you'll only talk about studies and not about any TV serials or the thing you've shopped. Otherwise it'll be of no use and will only help you wasting your time. Try it and if you find that it's effective then continue but if everytime you think that it's not working then don't continue group studies.

Revision
This is a very important factor for effective studies. Everytime when you start studying, revise what you've read the previous day. This is because on the next day of learning, you only remember 16% of the previously studied part. So, do revise the topics again and again so as to imprint those topics in your mind.

Know your bio-clock
Every human has their own different bio-clock. A bio-clock means, for example, you put alarm to get up at 5:00 am in the morning. After a few days you automatically get up at 5:00 am, without the help of an alarm. Your body automatically set its bio-clock at 5:00 am to get you up. Similarly, you have your own bio-clock for studies, i.e, that time you'll automatically feel to study. It's not necessary that every person will have the same bio-clock for studies. If I take my own example, then, I feel to study after 7:00pm in the evening and early morning. But many of my friends used to ask me, "how do you study early morning, I can't concentrate early morning". So, try to track the time when you automatically feel to study.

Health
At last, but not the least, take care of your health. Take proper diet and keep yourself hydrated. Health is wealth. You need to be healthy to be regular in your studies. Take bath everyday to wash away your restlessness and germs. I would also advise to take bath after coming from school or college or from the play field. The water actually washes all your restlessness and body pain with the water. So that will make you feel fresh throughout the day.