How to Study Effectively?

Here's a list of what I perceive as Steps to Effective Study;

General rules;  (Credits to Robin Sharma)

1. Plan goals
• Decide on what to cover for the day
• e.g. number of chapters to cover
2. Plan time
• Decide on when and how long to study
• e.g. 2 hours a day
3. Plan resources
• Make sure you have everything you need so there's no reason to do something else
• e.g. have all your study materials ready
• a glass of water to have no reason to be in the kitchen
• this also includes having resources to effective study such as a friend to tutor
4. Minimize distractions
• Select a study location with minimal distractions 
• e.g. avoid studying in front of the television or while watching movies, even listening to songs as it is proven that we are poor in multitasking 

Execution; 

1. Determine on what you need to study
• For me, I take the number of chapters I need to cover throughout the semester divided by 80% of the number of days I have left.
• E.g. I have 4 subjects with 10 chapters each and my finals is 100 days away. 
• The total number of chapters I'll need to cover is 40 chapters (4 subjects x 10 chapters)
• 80% of 100 days is 80days
• So I'll have to study at least 0.5 chapters daily (40 chapters/80days)
• Allocate some time each day to recap on what you have learnt previously     
2. Study using the 25/5 method. (Credits to Azilleo)
• Study for 25 minutes and take a 5 minutes break
• Do not do anything else besides studying during the 25 minutes
• After 25 minutes of studying, reward yourselves during the 5 minutes.
• it could be as simple as listening to a song
• After 4 sessions, 2 hours. Take a 30 minutes break then repeat.
• ***Get a timer or use an online timer*** Without a timer, you might get into the habit of taking breaks longer
3. Study consistently
•  The 'Forgetting Curve' should explain why. 
4. Study effectively (Active Learning/Engage with the material)
• Try to engage with the material as many ways as possible as each different way will allow you to retrieve the information in a different manner  
• This can be done by understanding the material well 
• be able to elaborate on it
• be able to differentiate between concepts 
• Relate it to personal experience or other things
• Use studying tools such as;
• Mnenomic
• Abbreviation
• Mind map
• etc
• Recall the material you have just studied (Testing effect )

Things that do not help learning ;     (Credits to Stephen Chew of Samford University)

1. Motivation
• "Don't wait. The timing will never be just right" Napoleon Hill
• "We procrastinate because we don't think the conditions are perfect for pro-activity" Vik Nithy
2. Amount of time spent learning passively
3. Memorization of isolated facts
• mere memorization will not help you to understand the material well enough 
4. Learning styles
• different materials require different learning styles
5. Multi-tasking 

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