When it comes to studying, as individuals, we all have different ways and methods of studying. What works for me might not work for you, and what works for you might not work for me. In college, I see people who have made it a habit of reading every night before they go to sleep, and that way they don't forget what they have read. Even if it takes months before exams are scheduled, they'd still remember all that they have read, and there are students who cannot do that; students who forget easily can't adapt a method like that.
designed in canva.
We have individuals who read or study to know, and we have individuals who just study to pass. You cannot expect both individuals to follow the same pattern of studies; one will have to outdo the other. There are individuals and students who cram as well; as individuals, we all just adopt ways and methods that work perfectly for us, and then we go by them. I have a coursemate in school who cannot participate in group reading, so he reads alone. We also have people who cannot read in noisy environments, and there are people out there too who can only read when there is music. We are all not the same; whatever works for you, just go with it.
There are students who claim that the environment is what influences their learning capabilities, and the environment must be serene to facilitate learning, so they only study in the school library. There are some who find it very boring to study in the school library and don't even go there unless the need for it arises, so one's study technique completely depends on the individual. Expecting everyone to follow the same study technique will only leave you disappointed; everyone just goes with what works for them. Below are a few methods of study I have adopted, and they have made studying easy for me.
One of our study nights.
One thing I am really proud of as a student is the type of friends I associate with. When it is a few weeks before exams, we all come out to support each other. I hated going to night class, but they changed that about me. We study together, and a day or two before the exams, we ask each other questions, and that way we get to assimilate better. Sometimes we even photocopy a past question and share it amongst ourselves. Everyone focuses on their own paper while attempting the question given; we make it look like it's an exam already, and if you fail any of the questions, anyone who understands them better will do a thorough breakdown for you.
Study groups help make studying easy. I wonder how individuals who study alone cope. For me, I will choose studying in groups with like-minded people over studying alone.
My engineering mathematics lecturer will always say that after you learn this and go home without revising it, the day you try to read it, you are starting from the root, as you won't even understand what happened or how we arrived at the answer. That is how I adopted this method: after paying attention in class, I try to go through everything that was done for the day for at least 30 minutes in my quiet time. That way, I get to assimilate and understand it better, and reading it later on won't be difficult.
This works for courses or subjects that are not mathematics-related; here, you just pick out the main points from the big, bulky book and jot them down on a small piece of paper. I believe there are students like me who are discouraged by the size of the book they are about to read, so making the piece smaller helps us overcome the discouragement that comes with the size of the book.
For me, you get to assimilate faster and better when you are taught by your fellow student. You get the chance to ask the silliest questions you dare not ask the lecturer. So in any course I don't understand, I draw close to the person who understands it better and humble myself while they teach me in a way I can understand.
We all have different ways of studying that work for us; as long as it works for you, don't wait for other people's validation; just go with it.
This is my entry for day 28 of the InLeo monthly prompt. You can join by clicking the above link.
Thanks for reading my post. Your comments will be appreciated.
