When you are going to study then make sure your fully committed to it. Avoid any aggressive thoughts, behavior and all distractions in your environment, like phone calls, TV or radio programs. Make sure you settle down to study in a quiet, comfortable and well-lit atmosphere. Take a few deep breaths; drink one or two glasses of water before you commence your studies. This will help you relax and feel motivated to study more. Ask yourself questions like why are we studying this subject, chapter or topic. What is so important or relevant in this topic, which we must know or discover for ourselves? What is the most challenging or difficult part in it and what information is new for us?
Give at least one hour to the subject at hand and always remember to take breaks of 2 mins. or so after every half hour of studying. This will enhance your retention of the subject. If you can study in a group of students then by all means do it. Interaction with fellow students will improve your grasp on the subject.
When studying always use pencil and paper to write down notes, meanings of terms, new or difficult words and sections which need explanation from your tutor. Instead of just reading quietly in your mind, read aloud slowly, talk to a fellow student to explain what you've just read or write down about what you have learnt or discovered recently. Discuss it with your parents, friends and teachers whenever possible. This alone will open more insights to the subject. When you find a section too difficult to understand properly then try to find out the dictionary meaning of the words which seem new or strange to you and discover exactly what the author meant by using these terms or words. Then try to put the meaning of those words in context of the sentence(s) and paragraph. The section will become much easier to follow now. Always write down meanings of new words, scientific terms etc. and recite them aloud a few times so that they are easily memorized.
A great tip for increasing your retention of the subject is to write down the important points of the chapter or topic you've studied in your own words.Do this after one or two hours of your study session.
Interestingly, we remember better after 10 minutes of completing our studies. This is because our brain needs some time to organize and interpret the new information.
Also try using your imagination to a great extent. Suppose, you are reading geography and come to a topic about volcanoes. Try to imagine in full detail, in gigantic proportions and in real life action about the volcano and how it may look like when active or dormant. This will put a mental image of the subject or topic firmly in your memory. If you haven't seen the object in real life or books or magazines then do try to find out online as the online articles often contain images, which will aid your learning.
Lastly, after studying a chapter or topic write down a brief summary about what you have learnt or understood. Do this after one or two hours of your study session.
Always answer questions in writing whenever you find subjective questions. In case of objective type of questions mark your answers and then always check with your textbook or your teachers.
Show your homework and the difficult topics you have encountered to your teacher for clarification and correction.
Another point to emphasise is that we should spend a good amount of time in revising. This is because we tend to forget 30-40% of the material we have studied within 24 hours. After 7-8 days we are able to retain only 20% of the matter which we have studied.
So we should revise the whole days classwork thoroughly after coming home and then repeat the same feat before starting school the next day.
Revise the whole week's classwork once in the weekend.The same applies for revising the whole month's classwork and homework.
After following this kind of systematic revision you will never be stressed about any upcoming test since you will be far better prepared than most other students in your class.
You might wonder how can you spend so much time in revising when there are so many new topics to be covered. There is a great solution for your problem. You can use mind maps or concept maps for writing notes and you must use memory systems to enhance your memor of the old topics or chapters which you may have studied.
