When you need to study - whether revising for an exam or trying to learn something new - you need to make sure that you have set yourself up right to get the most out of your available time.
The tips below will help you organise yourself, focusing on those areas that are most important and making sure you get the maximum return for your efforts.
Conditions of Study
Study where it is quiet. At school it may be the library or the study hall; at home it may be your bedroom or a corner of a room away from the ordinary noise of the family.
Study in a well light place. Indirect or diffused lighting that provides a uniform light over the entire work surface is easier on your eyes. Natural daylight is best but usually this must be supplemented with some type of artificial light.
Study where the temperature is comfortable. If the room is too hot, you are likely to go to sleep. If it is too cold you will be distracted from the material that you are studying.
Study in a straight-backed chair at a desk or a table. Lying in bed or sitting in a very soft chair can cause too much relaxation for proper learning.
Be sure that your eyesight is good. If you have headaches or your eyes smart and burn after reading a few minutes, have an eye examination. Your eyes should be checked regularly once every two years.
Physical conditions should be satisfactory. Conditions of fatigue, illness, hunger or thirst can keep you from doing a good job of studying. They can also be used as excuses for not studying or for delaying your studying.
How to Study a Textbook
Before you open your textbook to study, be sure that you have the assignment down correctly. Write it out in detail and if you are still not sure, ask the teacher to explain it further.
Read the preface, the introduction and the table of contents. Look at the table of contents and see how your assignment ties in with past lessons and future lessons.
Scan the chapter rapidly at first, just noting the highlights. Make check marks by new words so that they may be looked up later.
Read the summary and questions at the end of the chapter.
Read the chapter and do the following:
a. List all the new words you come across and look them up in a dictionary writing down the definitions and synonyms for them. Reread the sentences using the words in context.
b. New words, definitions, important details and technical terms should be put on flash cards, where they can be studied when you have a few minutes between classes or any other convenient time.
c. Take each main idea and turn it into a question. Divide your notebook page into two parts and write the question on the left side.
d. When you have finished with the second reading, close your book and answer the questions in your notebook, placing the answers immediately opposite the questions. Answer in your owns words; do not use the author's exact words unless you have been told to do so.
e. After you have provided your answers, open the book and correct incomplete or inaccurate answers.
f. To review, cover the answers and say the material aloud to yourself. This will use another sense and strengthen the learning.
g. To strengthen your memory, review frequently; distributed review is very important to remembering.
h. When you think that you really know the material, stop for a few minutes, then spend ten or fifteen minutes more on the material. This can increase your memory of the material remarkably.
If your reading is exceptionally heavy and you have a very short time in which to cover a large amount of material, read the main subjects in the chapter very rapidly as they are outlined in the table of contents; then read through the chapter very rapidly; skim it; read the main points only- the paragraph topic sentences and section headings. Try to tie these materials to the information you obtained from the table of contents.
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Plants are shaped by cultivation and men by education. .. We are born weak, we need strength; we are born totally unprovided, we need aid; we are born stupid, we need judgment. Everything we do not have at our birth and which we need when we are grown is given us by education.
(Jean Jacques Rousseau, Emile, On Philosophy of Education)
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