Studying anything, whether it is a book or a lecture note is tough, energy consuming, and, sometimes for a lot of us, it is boring. But we need to study to succeed in our academic careers. What if there is a way to study smart, not hard? Well, there is; this article provides you with four tips for smart study.
1. Examine the topics in your study material
The first step process for smart study begins with examining the topics of your reading materials. By examining the topics in your reading materials, I mean you read, scrutinize, and analyze them. The aim is to have a feel of the general theme of your study material. And that’s a good starter guide for your study session.
2. Summarize the core ideas in each topic
Now that you’ve analyzed the theme and direction of your book or any other material of your study in the table of content or course outline section, the next big step you need to take is to summarize each section.
Read each section. Understand its main argument. And summarize the main points of the arguments of each topic.
I suggest you summarize the main points by writing them down on paper. It’s more effective than copy-pasting them in Word using your Smartphone or computer, for example. When you summarize the main points of each topic, you’re limiting the amount of information you’ll digest, which will help you stay focus on the most important points of your study material.
3. Read to understand. Don’t cram
Many students have the habit of trying to cram the entire text of their study material. Well, this process is not just difficult, time-consuming, and laborious; it is ineffective as well. It is difficult to retain the information you have crammed, and that is dangerous for your study.
To study smarter, you need to understand your material, not cram them. This is easier to retain and use them not just to perfectly answer your exam questions, but to also apply them in your real-life situations.
4. Relate what you have learned with real-life situations
The smart study is all about applying your knowledge in real-life. When you relate what you have learned during your study session, you increase your retention rate by 70 percent. So, how do you do that? Here is an example:
Suppose you’re studying a course on animal kingdoms. The course content discusses all the dangers in the wild and the heroism of lions in the jungle. You can relate this with human beings in the real world.
Try to make an analogy of smart entrepreneurs as the Lions in the worldly jungle. Compare how their talents, confidence, and hard work is contrasted with other preys in their world, see how the powerful entrepreneurs dominate their industry with their creativity, and, like lions, keep intimidating the unproductive people in the society.
This analogy can stay in your brain for a long period of time and can help you remember your animal kingdom content when you’re asking about it in the exams.
