How about Lectures. Do you say let us bunk class, as such I do not understand any thing in class. But before that study habits of toppers in your college, do they always bunk classes. You will get surprised… are not you????

The key to do well in examinations and interviews is to stay with teacher always and each time. You may do well in examinations by mugging up chapters but thorough understanding will come through regular classes only. You will be rewarded sooner than later.

I understand everything but do not retain anything! Is your memory trained?

Understand and follow Memory Principles Why certain things go in memory forever while others are hard to remember?

Memory Principles:

Selectivity: You cannot memorize every thing in your textbooks. Use chapter subheadings, end of chapter questions and graphs and charts to help choose what is most important.

Distributed Practice: Recognize that you can concentrate on difficult subjects for short periods so breakdown topic in small portions and concentrate on one at one time. Move on to next only after you are comfortable with previous one.

Mental Visualization: You remember and understand things best when you see them. So try to picture things in your mind that you need to remember. Be quick to make a note somewhere to revise.

Interest: You always understand and remember things in which you are interested. Before studying a subject try to invoke your interest in that subject. Use power of autosuggestion for that if possible. It will run for sure what it requires is a little patience.

Association: Try to connect information, which you are learning with what you already know and try to establish a connection. At exam time you will be able to use connection and retrieve required information.

Consolidation: It takes time for information to sink in and be secured in long-term memory. So take good notes and review these often. Also plan gaps between two different topics lest these get mixed up.

Recitation: You can learn difficult concepts in any subject you can remember them more clearly if you explain ideas aloud I your own words.

Meaningful Organization: It is easy to remember is material is arranged in logical groupings and category wise. Try to break up things and arrange these in various categorical blocks.

Intent to Remember: Half time you just listen/ study with a mental set up of not remembering it. Make up your mind and fix up your attitude for what is coming. Remember you can do a thing only if you want to do it.

Key to Memory improvement is timely revision

Regular revision improves your memory and gives you a better understanding of subject. You should aim to do such general revision in week 5 and week 8 of each semester. Remember revision involves attempting questions, writing out definitions, proofs, drawing diagrams etc. and not just reading your notes over and over again. At least 3 weeks before exams start, draw up an exam timetable and revision plan and stick to it. A good starting point is to summarize notes you have on each topic. You should try to reduce your notes to key words and phrases. This will form basis of your revision notes. You can reduce your notes further so that information fits on one side of an A4 page or an index card. Use diagrammatical notes if you memories material more easily in a visual form.

Use your original revision notes to check where there are gaps in your notes. Check your answers by using original notes. Fill in forgotten facts with another color pen. Repeat process until all gaps have disappeared.

It’s quality of your revision that’s important not quantity!! Don’t kid yourself that if you are reading something you are revising it- you need to be actively reading in order for your study time to be constructive.

Keep a record of your productivity, not just how long your revision sessions last.

Revision Strategies

Plan your revision: Make a revision timetable at start of your revision period and keep it up to date. Never forget that a plan should be flexible and should be revised periodically as your work progresses. You will remember far more if you make your revision an active learning process.

Do not plan to study one subject for a long period. Break your study into periods of between 40 and 60 minutes depending on your concentration stretch. Allow for short breaks in your revision - have a snack, walk around for five minutes etc.

Try using Mnemonics. This is way of remembering by using abbreviations, words or phrases. For each course sort out your lecture notes, handouts and other material. Use all relevant material available for making notes but be careful WHEN YOU SET OUT FOR REVISION YOU SHOULD RESTRICCT YOUR SELF TO YOUR NOTES ONLY.

Arrange and cross-link: your knowledge in each course. It helps to make "concept diagrams" where you link together groups of separate topics in a course.

Check format of each examination: It will give you a fair idea of examination you will be taking. How many questions must you answer? How long will you have? How many choices you will be having and which are chapters which require more attention and what is that which can be left conveniently. Look at past examination papers: You should use these as a guide to material you need to know.

Create a revision group: You can form a group with friends taking same course(s). Meet regularly to discuss questions and topics. However you should be careful in choosing its members. They should not be wasting your time and their standards should be compatible with those of yours neither too high nor too low.

Put together notes on questions and issues that you cannot jointly answer: Take these with you when you seek advice from tutors and lecturers.

Try writing: Always try to write down salient points about a question with out referring your notes. It will show your real preparation other wise it may happen that by looking at a question you may feel that you know all about it but when it comes to writing you may fail miserably.

Continued... For consultation and advise please mail me at aknigin@yahoo.com

Planning A Calendar: Studying according to a calendar plan is most important and also most difficult thing to do. Don't study more than two subjects in a day, other wise you are going to mix up things for similar courses that you don't spend a lot of time switching between subjects. If you lose a day due to any unforeseen circumstances just pick up from place you had left previous day. Don't move your entire schedule forward. Remember to leave little margins of time for such days during your planning of calendar.

Prepare From Old Question Papers: Just reading from your text-books is never enough - very little of it actually sinks in. You need to sweat it out with pen and paper, trying to actually solve problems from your books and old test papers. Go over as many different problems as you can.

Don't Give Up: Don't leave a problem till you are convinced that you can solve it by yourself. Depending on explanation given by your teacher or book is only a temporary solution. You need to solve problem yourself to make sure that it doesn't leave you puzzled in examination hall.

Recreation: It is important to remain fresh so that material that you are studying gets absorbed by your mind. If mind is already tired it will not be in a condition to do so. If you feel yourself mentally tired, take a break. Taking a short walk in park or your lawn may be good idea. It refreshes mind as well as body. Chatting to family or taking your pet out for a stroll or taking a small nap are other healthy options. You can try a quick shower for that added freshness.

Revision Plan: Work out a smart revision plan as discussed already all have limited hours in a day, same books, similar sources of guidance and similar circumstances. To crack competition, we need to have an edge over others. Revising is a very effective way for that. Concentration: Concentration is one’s ability to fix his thought upon one thing at a time. Mostly during studies our mind drifts to several unrelated things and at end we may find you wasting lot of time. The key is to put your 100% in task that you are currently doing. Studying actively will help to a great extent in this regard. We will discuss separately in one of chapters.

Using planned Intervals to Enhance memory: A lengthy learning session results in unnecessary stress for your memory. It is very necessary that you take a break after say every 50 minutes. The break could be of 10-15 minutes. Just remember a break is for your mind so be careful not to load it with additional information through watching TV or doing a puzzle. Complete rest of mind and body is required before one starts learning again.

Use Memory Route: To reduce revision time, we need to condense whole theory of 5 to 10 pages into, may be, one diagram. By doing so, only a glance will be sufficient to make you recall whole theory. You should make an attempt to make memory routes for whatever you read so that it comes handy later. acronym is a technique used to further condense theory into just a few words to enhance memory power.

Do not discuss subject with your classmates just before exams: it is likely that you will discover what you haven’t studied. It will make you nervous and loose confidence.

Answering Techniques

The commonest fault in any written work is a failure to keep to point and not to answer question Completely. When you write an answer you are engaged in an assessment of what is relevant. What does examiner expect as an answer.? Most people do not think about this seriously enough and believe that more verbiage is better than less - opposite is case. The shorter a piece of written work is, more critical thought has been applied to writing it and sharper it is. Moreover examiner or tutor can read it more easily and with less effort. Here are some points to remember ·Do you write for yourself ? your script must be legible to be understood. ·As you plan and draft your answer, think about what you should leave out as much as what you should put in. ·Make things visible for him. Draw a diagram if possible. ·Use key words always and every time. Any examiner is looking for these key words always and your marks depend on that to quite an extent. Do not forget to underline these. ·Use mathematical equations/ formulas to support your answer if possible. ·Give space between answers to different questions/ sections. ·Do not make your mistakes conspicuous by trying to hide it.

·Write what he wants you to write and not what you want to write. You only get credit and marks for what is asked.W ·Work out a overall time plan and review it at regular interval. ·Attempt question you know well first and limit your time for that failing which you will be tempted to write all you know about irrespective of fact that it is not asked. ·Be sure that you are writing right thing in beginning. Read question twice before you jump to answer that ·Attempt number of questions stipulated even if you do not know it fully. Remember no body wants to fail you. ·Do not write stories. Write point wise. ·If possible, make points as headings and underline these.

·Plan a margin of 10% time for final revision and changes if any.

·Do not appeal for more marks in text any where, it will result only in you getting less marks.

·Try to answer all parts of a question in same order. It is very irritating to find different parts at different places and not even marked properly at times.

End of Article. For consultation and advise please contact at my E-Mail aknigin@yahoo.com