It’s Not One Size Fits All
This method works for me, but it might not work for you. Everyone has their own way of studying, and it’s something you develop along the lengthy road of your educational career. I, for example, can’t do the last minute studying and expect good grades, but some are great at it. But I need the time to learn things, which involves repeatedly studying the same thing over and over again, over the span of months.
Prerequisite : Mindset
The most important and most overlooked aspect in studying is the mindset you’re in. If you’re not fully committed to the idea of studying and are not ready to put in the work, don’t even bother. You should develop the thought of, “Oh, I should probably start studying” by yourself and dedicate yourself, and I don’t mean spending 10 hours every day, but you must be ready to change some habits and create new ones. Remember there isn’t a shortcut or cheat sheet if you want to learn a subject, you must put in the time.
Studying
It’s hard going from doing leisure activities to studying all of a sudden, and it’s this transition that’s the single biggest reason people lay off studying. It’s because they can’t get into that mindset. I’ve struggled with it too, but what I do now is take it step-by-step. It takes me about 2-3 days of constantly trying to study to finally get into that zone.
What do I mean? Well, when I think I should start studying, I start doing this:
The first day, find my syllabus, read thorough it and try to get a basic understanding of the topics that I’m trying to learn. That’s it. It takes like 15 min and that’s all I do for the first day.
The second day, I find all my required notes for the first module/chapter of each of my subjects. Since most of my notes are on the web and not in my class notebook, I search up my subjects on both google and YouTube and find notes. If I find a good YouTube channel I save it for later, and if it’s a PDF or something, I download and keep it organized subject wise in a folder. That’s the end of day two.
The third day starts with me planning which subject to start with. I usually go for the easiest one since my focus on studying is still low. Then I start from the beginning and go through only the first module, so that I’m not overwhelmed. As I go through it, I keep searching and finding better or missing notes and save them. You might find it hard to study but don’t give up, since even the act of sitting down and reading your notes helps put you in that mindset.
Day 3 is repeated every day without any breaks until you finish the first module of every subject. Remember, the more days you skip in between, the less focus you’ll have the next day. So by the last subject which should be the hardest one, if you started with the easiest one, you will be in the zone and will have good concentration to help make the subject less of a problem. Also, you don’t have to 100% the module, as you’ll be studying this over and over again. Assuming you started early and have time to spare, this is when you take a break for however long you want, depending on whether your classes are ahead of you or not.
If you have more portions to cover, you start the 3 day routine after a break and start from the beginning and learn the first module again (which now might look familiar) and then go to the second module (then next time around, include the 3rd module, then 4th and so on). This repetition is crucial, as towards the end you’ll be very thorough with all the beginning modules, as you went through it many times, and you’ll only have to worry about the later ones.
You ease yourself in – Study hard for a few days – Take break – Repeat
This is essentially the core of this routine. The question of when to start and how much to study is totally subjective and depends on your skill, how much behind you are in class, how much time you have etc. Over time this repeating cycle becomes second nature and way less mechanical as it now seems.
Personally I didn’t even know I had a study routine until I started writing this post and started self reflecting. I don’t know when I started this, but it’s become a habit of mine and I rarely notice it now. Also, I haven’t ever written anything like this before, so I don’t know if this is dumb or useful, so let me know. Anyway thanks for reading 🙂
