TIPS TO DEVELOP GOOD STUDY HABITS

Tips to

Develop Good Study Habits

Developing good study habits is important to get good results in exams. Develop effective study habits and practice them till it becomes habitual. The following are some important suggestions:

1. Take responsibility of yourself

In order to succeed; you need to put in the required effort, time and patience. You need to make a few sacrifices and assume responsibility for your actions.

2. Know what is important to you
Don’t lets others dictate what is important and what's not for you. You should know your own values and priorities and act accordingly.

3. Discover when you study at your best:
Is it in the mornings or evenings etc. Discover key periods when you are most focused and productive so that you can use such periods for your most difficult study challenges.

4. Always try to do one thing at a time:
Give undivided attention to one thing at a time. Set a time period for one important task. During that time do only that without letting your attention wander to other things. When the time is up, leave that work even if it is not complete. You can go back to it later. But now for habit' leave it.

Doing one thing at a time can help you concentrate better on the important tasks and you tend to do the tasks better this way rather than trying to multitask.

5. Look for better alternatives to problems:
Suppose you have read some course material and do not understand it fully, don't just re-read it. Try something else - like consulting with your professor, discussing the subject with others, research on internet etc.

6. Continually challenge yourself:
Consistently challenge yourself to do better. Competing with yourself is and more productive than competing with others.

7. Study and work within a specific length of time everyday:
Set aside a specified time each day and stick to it. This can help in making you more self-disciplined and immensely help in your studies.

8. Be positive while studying and preparing for exams:
Being positive helps in avoiding stress and panic before exams.

9. Take an active role in studying:
Rather than just reading the book, try the following suggestions to make studies more interesting:

·         Use a highlighter to mark important points,

·         make notes of significant points in a notebook,

·         record questions about items you don't understand,

• try to predict what will be on the next page and connect what you're reading with other things you've read,

·         convert the sections or paragraph headlines into questions and compose their answers after reading the paragraph or section.

for example, if you are reading a section called "The Causes of the American Revolution," ask yourself, "What were the causes of the American Revolution?" Reading and answering questions aloud will help you understand and remember the material.

10. Read for fun and knowledge:
Many people may like reading but hate studying academic books. I am one of such people - I like reading books and browse information sites on internet but don’t like reading academic books. One way to deal with this problem is to pretend that you're just studying for knowledge and fun and not for exams. This helps in removing exam stress from our minds and making us feel relaxed so that we can concentrate on gaining knowledge from the text we are reading.