Is it possible to study successfully on one's own? Certainly. Being taught something by someone else is usually easiest way of learning but if, for whatever reason, that is not possible or just difficult, self tuition is a means to same end that can be made to work for you.

There are four principles which one needs to remember to be successful: STRATEGY, MOTIVATION, APPLICATION and PERSISTENCE. These, in fact, are not too different from requirements for success in any form of study. But their essentialities are all tightened up in achieving goals in self study.

SRATEGY A carefully devised strategy before considering anything else will pay great dividends later. So undertake it carefully at start.

One needs to be clear about ultimate objective. Ask yourself : where I want to finish up? What are essential stages in getting? How do I keep my options open in case I need to make a change of direction or objective later on?

Most strategies in education and training will involve sitting and passing examinations. Make sure at outset what exact requirements are. Approach organising body and get all information you can. The same advice really applies also to examinations run by any official body which will validate your qualifications.

Setting Your Pace This is where self-tuition student can score an advantage. You are not constrained by set progress of tuition classes. You can go faster or slower according to your own preferences and date examining body sets for its exams. But be honest with yourself in setting these time objectives.

Exam Strategy An examination system sets (usually) rigid frameworks within which you must operate. Try to make them work for you. For example, exams often have elements of predictability. The subject areas are fixed and syllabus is known in advance. The areas for exam questions can often be predicted from a study of past papers. Get hold of as many as you can and spend time studying them - just as important as studying your subject!

In modern society passing educational examinations becomes an increasingly important and essential means to a better job and improved living standards.

The structure and nature of all examinations are things we cannot change to suit ourselves. Hence we need to find ways of dealing effectively with them - ways of making their systems and requirements actually work for us.

There are ways of doing this and following can be successfully used by anyone studying for any examinations because exams usually have certain key common elements.

Check Out The Syllabus As an examinee, you have to abide by certain rules and constraints. The time length of exam, how many question you have to answer, and so forth.

But examiners also have to abide by certain rules - and they cannot change them (at least not without adequate notice) any more than you can! They have to publish a syllabus for every examination and they can only ask questions on what is contained within that syllabus. Once you know syllabus, you know where starting and finishing lines are and how far you have to run

Moreover, all parts of syllabus are not equal: some parts of it are more equal than others. Some topics will hardly ever be questioned while others will come up every year. Highlight syllabus using two colours: red, say, for those areas that come up very frequently; green for those which rarely come up. Do this only after a systematic inspection of past exam papers, as next section will explain.

Then use a third colour to highlight those (hopefully very few) parts of syllabus which you have really serious difficulty with. Providing these parts are not numerous, and depending on how often they come up, it may be possible to leave them on one side. But do use sense and judgement in doing this!

Whatever You Are Studying, First Study The Exam Papers Studying past examination papers is almost as crucial as studying subject you have chosen!