How can we make learning effective?

How can we make learning effective?

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Students tend to study the entire academic year to perform well in the final examination. Yet few students fail to achieve their desired goals due to various reasons and few learn for very little time and obtain high grades. But have you ever wondered if studying and learning are entirely different concepts? Learning is the process of understanding and gaining knowledge while studying refers to reading and memorizing the facts. Hence the students who learn excel better than the students who study. In this article let us highlight the effective ways of learning.

Set up the study environment

Our minds are influenced by the environment we live in. The study space must be organised in such a way that it must comprise all the basic study materials related to the subject. The study environment must not have the materials that create a distraction such as electronic gadgets, mobile phones, comic books etc. Creating a particular space just for studying, like a desk in the study room or a table in any part of the house will build the positive vibes to study and stay focused. One can minimise distractions by studying in calm places. While studying the necessary books, formula charts must always be on the desk. Extra books like reference books, general knowledge questions books can also be kept for a better study process.

Spaced practice

Grasping the entire syllabus at once just the day before the examination is not a wise habit. One has to distribute the syllabus or split up the syllabus into smaller portions and then learn. After covering a few portions of the syllabus one can practice a few questions of the previously finished concepts so that the student will understand how much knowledge he has retained and how much more effort needs to be carried out.

Multiple learning tools

Multiple tools to learn will enhance the brain to store information about that subject easily and one can easily interconnect the concepts which make the learning process easy. This trains our brain to collect information in various ways. One can learn by different methods like by reading textbooks, watching a video, attending a seminar, using various reference books. This helps the brain to grasp more information and by utilisation of variant tools of learning the information and then the students understand in a better way.

Practice tests

The practise test is one of the best ways of learning.  Instead of restudying the concepts one can take a practice test of that topic and recall the information that is studied. One can solve few maths questions of the chapters that are covered and test his score. This gives a hint to the students whether to continue with the syllabus that has been learnt earlier or move on to further chapters. One will understand where one has to pay attention. Practice tests also help in the quick revision of the chapters.

Repeated Revision

Revision does not mean only the day before the examination. Revision must be done repeatedly so that the concepts are revised before forgetting. Revising the topics done a fortnight ago helps in better understanding and retaining in the minds of students. Revising repeatedly and frequently helps the students to understand and engrave the concepts in their minds easily. Frequent revisions also save an ample amount of time during the exam preparation. Studying does not lead to higher grades but learning does. One must certainly understand the difference between studying and learning. Both of these processes come one after the other. One must use effective ways of learning to achieve higher goals and score well. The proper learning techniques must be inculcated for better performance in academics as well as in competitive examination.

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