How to study - Effective study

Desire for learning.

The first thing study demands from you, is your interest in it, your willingness or more exactly your thirst for learning. It is the desire or love of student for study which enables him to sit to study for hours and learn more and more. You should have the desire to learn. Desire to learn enables you to sacrifice for study and manage time for study. It enables you to study anywhere, any time. It creates a sense of responsibility in you about study, a sign of success. It puts you in sense of competition to learn more and more. It make you generate new ideas and techniques for study, how to study effectively, how to concentrate, how to manage time for study. In short, it makes study your habit.
If you don’t have the desire or the thirst for learning, you study just to pass the exam, such study is no use because you take it as a burden on you. With such study you can just pass the exam with low grades or sometime you even fail. Aim of study is to get distinction in exam with high grades, which is only possible if you have the love or thirst to learn.
Some students have this quality as in-born quality. Others adopt it by practice. (see “How to develop interest”) 

Purpose of reading – what we read for

Reading is not only to utter the words of a lesson. Running on sentences uttering the words only and not picking what it says, is just wastage of time. There is purpose behind reading. The purpose of reading is to assimilate what we read which mean to learn and understand so that we can use it ourselves. Reading is a brain-using activity. Reading means to get the main idea which is presented by author in the lesson. Read every sentence with attention and pick up from it what the author has explained in it. While reading a lesson, use your brain work on the idea you get from lesson and make a sketch of it in your mind for reproducing it in exam.
           How to enhance your picking power? Think that every information or idea in every sentence or paragraph is nourishment for your mind and you have to read to get the nourishment for your mind. If you want to study effectively, take this thought to heart. You should also use a high-lighter to highlight important part of your lesson, a sentence or paragraph.  You may have to read a lesson three or four times. You may revise it many times to gain full command on it. Once you are done with reading, close your book and write down on paper what you have picked up from reading. Doing so you will observe how much your reading was effective.
          Some subjects contain more data. Like a science subject may contain scientific laws, principles, formulae, Proforma, and diagrams etc. It may seem a bit difficult to understand them. But never decide at first glance that it is difficult. Always think that it is easy and think that you are already acquainted with it. Thinking so make it is easier for you to understand them. Give it a read. Such subject may need more time reading than the other easy one like literature subject. Similarly never skip a paragraph of lesson or whole lesson thinking it is difficult.
                   Different types of subjects require different types of mental approach while you read them. Suppose you are reading a science subject think scientifically, it helps you learn easily. If you read a book of business matters, think business mindfully, it helps you learn easily.

Concentration.

When you sit to study, throw off your mind all the irrelevant thoughts which are likely to interrupt the process of your learning. If you are studying as well as thinking about a movie, you watched the last night, you can’t study properly. Similarly, if you are studying as well as using cell phone for texting to friends, you can’t study properly. When you study, think only about what you study, your mind should not accommodate any other thought, which put hindrance in the process of your learning. You should be totally focused on your study and cut off from environment while you study. No other thing or thought may interrupt your study. To study with full heed, you should study in surrounding with less distraction. Similarly you should study one subject at one time. 
Concentration power can be enhanced by certain exercises as well.

      Memorizing.

      Memorizing is a part of study. By memorizing, I never mean cramming. Cramming should always be avoided because it puts end to creativity. We study different types of subjects containing different type of data. We learn it and we need to have sketch of that learning in our mind for reproducing it in exam in our own words. In a subject, there may be some information which needs to be learnt as well as memorized. Like in Biology there are many biological terms which are derived from other languages, or name of medicines, such name should be memorized. Suppose you are studying chemical process in your book of chemistry. This chemical process comprises of 10 phases, each phase has its scientific name. You study the process and understand it but you have to memorize the scientific name of each phase involved in the process as well as the sequence of phases. If you are writing the whole process in exam and you understand all the process but you don’t know the correct names (usually scientific terms) of each phase or the correct sequence of phases then obviously the checker will give you less marks.
(see “how to improve you memory”)

Making and Asking Good Questions.

        A successful student has the habit of making good questions and asking good questions. When you study a topic, try to produce good questions in it and try to find their answers, either yourself or with the help of teacher. Producing questions in your lesson and finding their answers, eliminate ambiguity or uncertainty in your learning.

            Here is an example.. A student was studying about the chemical structure of atom, he read the sentence “protons reside in the nucleus of atom” he started thinking in his mind “proton have positive charge, bodies having same charge repel each other, then how protons reside in same place, why they don’t repel each other?” He made a question “How protons (having same charge) reside in one place, why they don’t repel each other? He will definitely use his brain to find its answer or ask teacher for it. By making such question you achieve perfection in your learning.            

Learning from discussions.

           Discussion with others on what you learn makes your learning more effective. When you study a topic and you discuss it with your classmate or a friend, you learn more, because you use your learning in terms of words. When ideas are exchanged on a topic, you come to know if there is some weakness in your learning and you try to improve.  Different questions are raised in discussion which built your concepts and you full command over a subject.  (see “Importance of group discussion about study topics”)

Learning from Practical work.

        Books are main sources of learning. Learning is flourished when you use it practically. Especially, science subjects contain data which need to be worked on practically. You study about many scientific devices and learn how to work on them. But when you go to laboratory and use it practically, you learn with perfection. Using your learning in practical, increases your confidence in your learning. Suppose an accountancy student study “how to make bank statement”, he learns it from book but if he goes bank and see how bank statement is made practically, he comes to know many more things related to it which he might have not learnt from book only. So always try to use your learning practically for getting perfection.