STUDY APPROACH

For students, pupils, and even those of us who are already out of school, the need to study effectively from time to time cannot be overemphasized. Studying exposes and sharpens your mind in such a way that you become a totally new person, seeing things from totally different perspectives. It makes you aware of the various mistakes you make in life out of sheer ignorance. It gives you a steep edge on others in any competition, be it a job, or admission into any institution. It makes you stop thinking in the box. It makes you to begin to see yourself in a more respectable light, boosts your self esteem, and recreates your life, so that it becomes a lot more “worth living”.
Now, if one can achieve the almost utopian things mentioned above, through effective study habits then, such habits are worth inculcating, don’t you think? If you care to find out some guidelines which will help you acquire healthy, effective and enjoyable study habits, you are just on the right page!

Clear Your mind

When you get a book you want to study, as usual, there are bound to be cobwebs of thoughts floating in your mind indiscriminately. You might notice that if you go on reading in that state, after reading the first few sentences, you catch yourself thinking about something else, and then you jolt back to reality, and drag your attention down to the written text, right? You are not alone in that and that doesn’t mean you cant study either. Its just a most natural phenomenon which can be cured a lot more easily than a light headache.
Now, when you want to study and your mind seems to have been invaded by all sorts of thoughts, all you need to do is to relax, take deep breaths, set your books aside, and focus on those thoughts for at least ten minutes. By the time you are down to the 5^th minute, you’ll realize you don’t have these thoughts anymore, but you must continue to force yourself to think upon them till the very 10^th minute. When you’ve done this, your mind becomes pretty washed up and acute. Reading and assimilating becomes a whole lot more possible!

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Enjoy the Process:

reading should not be seen as a duty. It should be inculcated as a habit- just like smoking. Its something you ought to get addicted to. You should always try to look forward to the new things you are about to learn and try to implement them in your life. It might even be advisable to obliterate your study time table. The main thing is to ensure that you are always happy, whenever your nose is peering at a book.
Don’t rush anything. And don’t tell yourself that you must cover this or that for the day. Eat as much as you can and at intervals, go through the same process of thinking fixatedly on other things so as to cleanse your mind from at intervals.

Read books you can understand:

Honestly, there is no book out there you can’t understand sooner or later, but till sooner or later, you must start with the simple ones and they will lead you to the big ones. Having a nine year old read “The sixth and seventh books of Moses” is like quelling the child’s love for books. The same thing applies to all and sundry.
Always locate and start with the simplest books, or chapters of a book. They are bound to give you tips which would help you understand the more calculus parts. One of the best ways to cultivate an effective reading habit is to start reading short novels. With time, you’ll find yourself reading really big ones. And in a matter of months, you’d be surprised to find pretty eclectic materials in your hands.
Cultivating this habit is going to get better with time. The more books you read, the more developed and receptive your brain becomes.

Always have vivid pictures of what you are reading:

Don’t just see what’s written in a book as things that happen in other planets but rather, see them as things that happen right next to you. When you are a science student who is preparing for an examination, and you are studying evaporation as a topic, instead of trying to assimilate the words with which one can express what happens during evaporation; picture and assimilate what happens during evaporation. If you are reading a novel, you should not only use the wealth of description therein to create mental pictures of what you are reading; you should also relate them to what you see in real life situations.
A person who reads a lot usually associates each character in any work he reads with a person he knows in person.
Your brain is a lot more receptive to pictures, than to words I tell you. For instance, you’ve often met many people whose names you’ve forgotten, but can you really forget their faces? I don’t think so!

A Pen and book should never be found missing in your hands:

While combing a book, its always essential that you jot down the core information you come across. This is because you are quite likely to forget what you are reading but would remember all, once you go through the fundamental issues raised in the book.
While reading a novel, always jot down new words whose meanings you must endevour to find out later. WHle studying a textbook on science, always jot down formulas and scientific names, and those other things you know, you are likely to forget. While reading arts or history, pen down every date you come across.
This helps you store away the information you can’t really picture in your mind. For instance, when I say that Nnamdi Azikiwe died in 1994, how the hell does one picture that without creating a whole movie?

To actualize your vision, you must be given to revision;

Honestly, even if its just one paragraph you study in a month, intense revision habits will indelibly burn that thing into your mind. Hence, its advisable that you revisit every thing you read in a week, at the end of that week.
Of course, you need not start reading the book all over again. You remember your old Jotter? Simply pick it up and go through it. You’ll discover that you’ve forgotten certain things therein as you skim through it, but don’t bother. It happens to everyone. Simply re-assimilate as much as you can and move on to new topics

Implement what you read in your life:

This is the greatest difference between a habitual reader, and an unserious one. Implementing whatever it is you’ve read indelibly inscribes that thing on your mind and seriously speaking , forgetting such becomes out of the question.
Once you’ve read how to make a battery, assemble the necessary equipments and make a battery. Once you’ve read about seducing someone, get your fine hat, and get down to business. Once you’ve read about studying like you are doing now, get yourself a book, and start giving it a look!
Deciding to become an avid reader today, or improving your study habits will change your life in and out. And am not speculating. There is a wealth of information out there, looking for people who will harness it, utilize it, and develop it. Why not decide to become a reader today? It only starts with picking up a book you know?