Studying…. It sounds like another word for torture. Student life is the best phase of a person’s life. The one and only tough part about it is Studying. And, studying is what most of the student clan detests, unless you’re a nerd or bookworm. We just get distracted when we sit to study for many hours at a stretch. We start feeling sleepy enough to doze off the moment we open the book. And, yes, when we really get ourselves to sit to study seriously, are mind decides to waver and concentration goes for a toss. If we want to study effectively, we need to do certain things which will help us to study better. Following a few simple steps can help you study well and cope with last moment exam stress also with ease.

10.A good study spot

Make sure you don’t lie down on the bed with your book and then end up sleeping. You need to fix a study spot that makes you feel like studying. A clean study table and chair with the books you need at the moment, without much clutter around you, or a nice quiet corner in the house would be ideal. Sit is a place which is very quiet and there is less scope of distraction.

9.Meditation

Meditate a little before you get started. Meditation is the key to developing a strong sense of concentration. It helps to calm your mind. It helps to keep your mind blank and only concentrate at the task at hand. It helps in studying better by improving your concentration levels and helps you grasp the information that you are reading faster.

8.Keep your phone away

Your phone with  all those chatting apps and social media apps on it, is the biggest distraction around you. Make sure you keep it away for the number of hours you have decided to study in a day. Otherwise you will end up wasting all your time fidgeting with your phone rather than studying.

7.Understand what you read; Do not mug up

Mugging up and rote learning are very bad ways of studying. You really need to understand what you read. Mugging up doesn’t benefit in any way; neither does it increase your scope of knowledge nor does it help you recall or retain whatever you study for a long time. What you mug up is lost from your head faster than you would imagine. So, make it a point to understand what you study and in case you get stuck somewhere you could ask your teachers about it or you could simply search on the internet.

6.Regular Revision

If you read it just once and then give it a long break without revising the matter, it will all get washed off your head very soon. It is very important to keep revising so that you don’t lose touch with what you have studied. It also helps in developing the good habit of studying regularly.

5. Interlink and Associate

Make it a point to link whatever new you have learnt with certain previous knowledge you have on that subject already. It increases the capacity to retain information that way. Moreover, for remembering the information even better, you can associate it with things, images, videos or any real life situations happening around you like illustrations which help you explain concepts better and clearer.

4.Making Notes

While studying always make short notes of all the main points that you come across. Write the main keywords down. This helps you to stimulate your thoughts in case you forget. It helps you to remember the information on the basis of cues. Writing notes also has one more advantage. You tend to learn better when you learn by writing.

3.Group Study 

Group study can be more effective than what we presume it to be. When you seriously study together in groups and divide the matter between you and your friends, you end up studying faster and better. You can take two different sections to study and test each other on it so that you get to know how well you know the matter and at the same time while you test the other person you get acquainted with the other section of information. Research says that a person can study better through interaction with another person.

2.Underline

Underlining and highlighting helps in drawing your constant attention to some important points. As you see those main words very often, whenever you open the text book, it helps in making an imprint in your mind about all the important points you shouldn’t be missing.

1.Studying Techniques

There are various studying techniques like use of abbreviations and mnemonic devices, chunking and breaking down method etc. which help you study quickly yet effectively. You can recall the information easily if you use studying techniques like mnemonic devices and abbreviations. With the help of chunking you can group parts on information that relate to each other which will simplify learning. You could also learn by fixing a tune or rhythm to the matter. Don’t you remember how we still remember the ABCD tune we learnt as kids. The magic lies in learning through rhythm!