How to study Smarter and not harder!!

Have you ever thought why do some students always have top grades while other struggle continuously? What do these students actually do that make them so different from others?Do they have some special studying techniques or a routine they follow religiously and they achieve such results?

The answer to all these questions in most cases would be that students have devised a smarter way to study. And so,you can also follow these steps and start doing smart work than hard work!

Create an Ideal and effective environment to study: The environment you choose to study influences your ability to focus,concentrate and to remember. A noisy, cluttered and disruptive environment stops you from being focused.Always an ideal environment proves beneficial and helps you to stay motivated,focused and inspired.Hence choosing the right environment is the first step towards effective studying. Therefore studying at a library, or close yourself in one of the rooms with no external disturbances etc. can be a huge step towards making your studying effective.

Set studying Goals which are SMART: Setting up smart and clear goals is necessary while studying smarter!Goals will give you a direction to study and of course give you a start in studying as to which topic needs to be picked up first for example the difficult and lengthy topics should be covered first.Goals should always be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timed. This can be further explained by doing the following steps:

Specific- You should be very specific in what you want to achieve. For e.g. if you have decided to study today, be specific in what subject and what area of that subject you want to cover. Unless you have the specifics in mind, you will never be able to cover anything substantial in the time given.

Measurable – Once you have agreed on the subject and chapter, you should try and measure if you have been able to actually study the subject. Therefore at the end of the topic set yourself some test or a mock or any practice questions given to you so that you know that the time spent has actually given you the results or not.

Achievable – Many students fail to acknowledge this very important point that without the targets being achievable you are only setting yourself for failure. Hence ensure that the subject or chapter selected can be done in the time allocated or it is doable by you. For e.g. if the chapter is slightly more difficult, then considering some help from your tutor or friend should be considered before the subject picked up as you may end up frustrated and even intimidated, eventually resulting in not covering that chapter which probably is the most important from exam perspective.

Relevant – Keep the goals relevant to your study needs. Therefore prioritise what you have to cover and then take a call on which area needs to be covered first. You shouldn’t be covering topics that are not relevant to your exams, focus your energy on the ones that are.

Timed – Above all, everything that you do should be timed so that you don’t lose out on this extremely important factor. In the absence of time management, it is possible you end up not doing everything that you were supposed to, eventually resulting in lower marks. Therefore create a timetable and set deadlines for yourself.

Once you have done the above things, the chances are much higher for you to improve your performance and be able to achieve a lot more than you did previously. At the end please do not forget that taking rest while doing all of your studies is of utmost importance. You do not want to miss out on your studies because you overburdened yourself or feel tired on the actual exam day. Eat well, sleep well and most likely your exams would also go well!