Day: December 7, 2018

Posted in Motivation for Students

Be the smartest hard worker

Posted on by Tirthankar Roy

I have always had people around me talking about there being no alternative to HARD WORK. But I personally believe there is actually a better way. And that’s SMART WORK. I think you all readers know about this. But I still want to mention this because I believe that hard work won’t reap any results unless we know what we are working on and what sort of efficiency that work actually demands from us. With SMART WORK, we can increase our efficiency and thus reach our goals in a much better and easier way.

But SMART WORK for a short period of time will only give us limited success. Think of someone who is hardworking as well as a smart worker. Think about the level of success he can achieve. Isn’t it mouth watering to think of such high success? It is for me, and I am sure for many of you as well. So go out there, do what you love, love what you do and work HARD but don’t forget to be SMART.

Cheers!!

Posted in Tips and Techniques

Top 3 techniques to concentrate better in your studies before exam

Posted on by Tirthankar Roy

In order to talk about techniques to concentrate on studies, first it is essential to categorise students into 2 broad groups. The first group consists of students who study throughout the year/semester and hence it is easier for them to maintain concentration on their studies as they have been in practice all the time. The second category consists of students who pass their time without studying the whole year and just 10-15 days before the exam, they realise that it is high-time for them to start studying. And this is when they buckle under pressure and fail to concentrate on their studies. So the techniques that I am going to share here will be especially for those who have not been in the practice or studying for some time and all of a sudden have to concentrate really hard for their upcoming examinations. 

So here I have 3 techniques that will actually help both the categories. The first two are specially for the 2nd category students and the third one is for both. So let’s get to those.

Number 1:

The first technique is to start studying slowly. What I mean by this is that when you start studying after a long time, your brain finds it really difficult to focus on the topic. So if you try to hurry yourself into the subject, you will not be able to understand anything. It will be just a waste of time. So at the very beginning you need to tell yourself that you have a lot of time. It doesn’t matter if it’s just a week away from your exams. You need to feed your brain with the information that you have a lot of time. This helps to calm down your brain which will help it to focus better. Then start studying at a slow pace, word by word, trying to understand what the topic means. As you go slow, the brain starts to get acquainted with what you are trying to do and you will see that you are understanding the topic. After about an hour of this, you will automatically feel that you are reading faster but with equal amount of understanding. It is really important to start slow, to give your brain the chance to get a feel of what is going on, as you have started to do this after a bit of a gap. After about 2-3 hours, you will find your speed has increased to what is most compatible for you and you are back on track. 

Number 2:

The second method is an alternative of the first. There are situations when even after trying to read slowly you find your brain is extremely cluttered due to any sort of distraction in your life. In that case, follow this. When you start reading, imagine that there are students sitting in front of you and you have to explain them that topic. So you play the role of a teacher. So read every para and explain it to your virtual students. What is does is, you are now forced to understand the concept with full authority in order to teach someone that. So you go on understanding and you keep on teaching. After a while you will realise that you don’t need to play the role anymore and you are automatically synced with the subject and it’s easier for your to understand what you are reading. Slowly your speed will increase, and again, you are back on track. 

Number 3:

The third technique is the famous Pomodoro technique. I would suggest students of category 2 to first follow either of the two and once you have established your concentration and speed of reading, then follow this. For category 1 students, you can jump right into this. What you do here is take small breaks between your study. As for example, the most compatible one for me was to select a 1 hour session of study and in that, I would study 50 minutes and take 10 minutes of break. And make sure that you set yourself a target to complete in those 50 minutes. This will help you to focus better and also increase your speed. You can do one additional trick here. Set a reward for yourself that you will get only when you finish the target in the 50 minutes and enjoy the reward in the next 10 minutes. This will help to keep your brain enthusiastic and active. You find that you speed and quality of study has increased dramatically along with the quantity. 

Try these out and I am sure if you follow these correctly, you will be benefited.

Cheers!!

Posted in Tips and Techniques

Exam Hack: How to prepare 1 day before the exam

Posted on by Tirthankar Roy

First things first. In this article you will find the tricks and techniques that you need to follow in order to complete most part of the syllabus. I will be assuming that you have not studied anything in the entire semester or year and here you are, hitting your head on the wall, with no idea what to do. Don’t worry, I have been in the same situation, and fortunately for me, I have got things worked out. I will share those with you today.

Let’s get to work…Source: irishtimes.com

Requirements:

  1. The whole syllabus: Keep this with you no matter what, and yeah, get a print out of it. NOT to be kept in front as a PDF. You will need this to be marked later.
  2. Gather the previous years’ question papers. 3-4 years will do the job. The PDF version will work, as you just need to go through them.
  3. The notes you need to study. If you cant get hold of everything then search it on Google and keep it bookmarked.
  4. A pen and a notebook. Well you know why you will need them. If not, the go join the kindergarten again!

So now that you have these things ready with you, lets get to the steps.

Step 1:

Take you syllabus and go through it. Just simply do it. Once done, you now have a clear idea of what you are going to face. 

Important: This is the most underrated step that most students don’t follow. Make sure you don’t miss out on this. Go through the whole syllabus thoroughly. It will only take 10-15 minutes of your time.

Step 2:

Gather all the question  papers and again go through them. Now when you have an idea which part of the syllabus is more common in the previous questions, you target those parts of the syllabus.

Small trick: Remember I told you to keep the syllabus printed? Now, take a pen or pencil and mark all the important parts in the syllabus. This will help you stay focused and keep you away from getting panicked.

Step 3:

Now that you have all the parts that you need to cover in front of you, you need to do the real thing now… STUDY.

So, before you head off to your notes, make sure to do this:

Go over to YouTube and find short 3-4 minute videos about the topic that you are going to start. Watch those videos. This will allow you to have a basic idea of the subject. This will help you to understand the notes at a much higher rate. And this is really important. I have experienced a time benefit of 30-45 minutes if when I watch a video on the topic before I start reading the notes.

Step 4:

READ. STUDY.

After you have seen the video, go ahead and study.

KEEP YOURSELF AWAY FROM ALL DISTRACTIONS !!!!!

This is extremely important because you have just 1 day to cover the syllabus. No bullshitting now. Keep your social media interactions out of the way for today. Be serious now, because you haven’t been the whole year. 

IT’S PRIME TIME.

Additional study trick: To study faster, follow the POMODORO technique.

I have explained more about this technique in my other blog: Top 3 techniques to concentrate better in your studies before exam

This technique involves studying for a long time and then taking short breaks. Let me give you the format that I use which has helped me a lot. I study for 50 minutes and take 10 minutes break. But the most important part is setting targets for those 50 minutes. When you set targets, you are more focused on your job and you get things done faster. And in those 10 minutes, give yourself some treat. Have something good. Make it a reward for studying hard for those 50 minutes. This will help keep you going for the longer time period.

Step 5:

Whatever you study, write everything in bullets. You don’t have time to make your own notes now. So write everything in bullets. Just the important stuff.

By doing this, you have two benefits:

  1. You get a better chance of remembering the stuff because writing something makes you remember it more than just reading.
  2. If you get some time to revise, you can revise it very quickly just before going for the exam. Even if you have reached the exam hall and you suddenly remember that you missed out on revising something, you can do that real quick before the exam starts and write the answers accordingly.

Additional tips:

  1. Don’t get panicked. You have a lot of time. One day is more than sufficient for you to get 70-80% of marks (provided, you have attended the classes sincerely). I myself managed to get 8.0 SGPA following these steps, but I had attended my classes seriously. So, I had that to my advantage. And if you are thinking you just need to pass, then that is super easy. Just follow the steps, you should be easily getting the pass mark. 
  2. Make sure you are hydrated and have stuff to eat. This will help keep your mind feed on the nutrition to keep working.
  3. Don’t spend a sleepless night before the exam. I have seen people having brain fades during exams just because they didn’t sleep the last night. Make sure you get at least 3-4 hours of sleep. 

So, that is all about the tricks that you need to follow to prepare for your exams. 

All the best. But make sure you study consistently from the next year.

Cheers!!