Exam season is near and all it leads to is stress. However, if you study effectively in these days, nothing can stop you from scoring high and gaining all the applause.
Here, in this blog you will find some extremely useful study tips to follow and practice for smart studying. Be it your class tests, board exams or any competitive exam, these tips are always going to enhance your quality of preparation.
What is a good study plan?
Any plan that is in consonance with your personality and pace of learning, and makes you feel comfortable in studying, is the best study plan for you. No matter what others say. If toppers say that they get up everyday at 4 AM to study but you never feel comfortable in studying early in the morning, boycott toppers. If studying at night makes you more productive, do that.
Do not follow anyone’s advice blindly. Introspect and look for your comfortable plan of studying.
- Don’t Fix your Study Hours
Instead, fix study targets. Determine what topics and chapters of which subject you will study in a day. More preferably, write down your study targets for the next 10-15 days. If achieved, reward yourself with something you like.
Do not fix unreasonable targets. Your targets must be in consonance with your pace of learning. If you can read only one topic per day, start with it. Do not overburden yourself with 5 topics.
Fixing targets has the following advantages over fixing hours of study-
- It brings clarity as to how much syllabus you are going to cover. It makes you aware of your pace of study which helps a lot in covering the syllabus on time.
- Fixing hours of study may or may not make you completely focused on what you are learning. You will most probably check the time again and again. However, if you pledge on completing certain topics or chapters, you will focus not on time but completely on what you are studying.
- Revise
Seems very traditional. Everyone out there has been emphasising upon multiple revisions of your syllabus because it is important! Studying without revising won’t help you because the human mind isn’t designed to remember everything. Proper periodical revision of the concepts is very necessary to retain your knowledge.
It is advisable that you revise whatever you have studied in three rounds. One, within 24 hours. Second, within a week and third within a month. This will brush up the concepts and generate more clarity on that topic.
Multiple revisions also boost up your confidence for exams.
- Solve Sample Question Papers
Solving sample Question papers is one of the most important things you need to do before your exams, especially if you are preparing for your boards or competitive examinations.
This will have the following benefits:
- You will get an idea of the type and pattern of questions asked in that particular examination.
- For subjective exams, you will get the idea of your writing speed.
- It will boost your confidence level by multiple times, as you would have solved many sample questions by the time of your exam.
- Make notes
Preparing short notes can actually save a lot of time during your exam days. No one has the time and will to read the whole book just before exams.
While you are studying a particular topic, sum it down in short points in your own words. These notes can be very conveniently referred to while revision sessions and right before the exams.
Also, writing things down in your own words will make your mind focused and consequently you will remember the concept for a long time. The concentration may get diffracted while reading but while writing, your focus is gathered at one place.
- Refer to online sources for clarity
If you are facing problems in understanding a particular concept, search for it on YouTube. You will get hundreds of videos for every single topic. Gone are the days when we used to wait for our classes to get our doubts solved. You can learn anything and everything from online platforms for free.
- Take breaks, be calm
This is probably the most important tip discussed here. Give yourself enough breaks and sleep. Do not overwhelm your body and mind with excessive study and tension. Avoid studying continuously for more than 2 hours. Keep taking breaks of 5-10 mins. Give special attention to your health. You cannot afford to get sick before your exams.
Do not take stress. You have a fairly good chance of performing good in your exams by using your rational mind, free of stress. On the other hand, a mind full of tension will only make you mark the incorrect answers even if you know the correct ones.
- Avoid distractions
Social media apps are one of the biggest addiction and source of distraction among the youngsters. If these are taking a lot of your time too, try to avoid them. Turn off notifications, hide them in different folders, or simply delete them.
Identify and control your distractions at least for your exam period. Track your day to determine what activities are eating up a large chunk of your time, and avoid them to focus effectively on your studies.
All the best!
