How to develop a liking for your studies and be a successful student

All students are not born with the same level of intelligence and diligence. In this respect students vastly differ from one another. A few remain glued to their text books and notes, while there are some who start studying seriously just 2/3 weeks before the examination. In between lies the vast majority of students who keep in touch with their studies as a routine affair without giving much thought to it, and somehow manage to get a presentable grade and pass out. The following is a very basic method to do well in studies. If a student is following any other methodology with success, he should NOT change it. There surely may be many other study methodologies which also work very well, or even better. A student must remember that success at school level determines how one will fare at the graduate level in college. The school level may be subdivided into three sections.

1. Junior school level Here the teacher plays the most important role which they do quite successfully. One will seldom find a kid who does not know how to count from 1 to 10, or who does not recognize the alphabets or colors correctly, or can't add 2 and 7. Here parents also play a major role.

2. Middle school level The middle school is the most important in a student's academic career. At this level his logical thinking starts growing and he either develops a liking for his studies, or does not, or remain somewhere in between. At this level the basic principles of Arithmetic, Geometry and Algebra are introduced. A student must know that Mathematics is the most important subject. It is very difficult to overcome any shortcoming, that remains at this level, in the high school level. A student must pay great attention to Mathematics at the middle school level. A student who gets a good grade in Mathematics seldom does badly in other subjects.

3. High school level A student's performance at the high school level depends upon what he has studied and learnt at the middle school level. If the foundation at the middle school level is good, a student will surely do well at the high school level. Most of the things, that are taught at the high school level, have their foundation laid at the middle school level. If a student does well at the high school level, he will surely do well in Graduate and Post-graduate level. RULE NUMBER 1 Liking or rather loving to study. What is the secret behind it ? Once a student starts liking and loving his studies, his job is almost half done. Students basically dislike studies because they don't find it interesting. They don't find studies interesting when they fail to grasp or understand the subject matter properly. Only then a student sets that subject aside. A STUDENT MUST NEVER SET ASIDE SOME SUBJECT MATTER HE HAS FAILED TO GRASP OR UNDERSTAND PROPERLY. A student must get all his doubts cleared, about any and every subject, anyhow, from his teachers, parents, or whoever. Once a student starts understanding his lessons well, he will surely develop a liking for his studies. That is sure. This liking-disliking aspect starts at the middle school level, starting most of the times with the subject Mathematics, and other science subjects.
So that is our RULE NUMBER 1. GETTING ALL DOUBTS CLEARED AT ONCE.

RULE NUMBER 2. In order to do well in examinations a student has to MEMORIZE his lessons well. THERE IS NO SHORT CUT METHOD FOR THIS. A student must work hard for this. Students tend to forget their lessons easily as they are playful. How to overcome that ? Here we will break up the subjects into three subdivisions.
1. Mathematics.
2. Other Science subjects, like Physics, Chemistry, Biology etc.
3. Remaining subjects English, History, Geography, etc.

1. For Mathematics, the only rule is, UNDERSTAND THOROUGHLY THE BASIC RULES AS TO HOW TO SOLVE A PROBLEM. He must fall back upon his teacher, or parent or whoever immediately, if he fails to understand the method properly. MEMORIZE THE METHOD. THEN, PRACTISE SOLVING SUMS AND PROBLEMS EVERY DAY, STARTING FROM DAY NUMBER 1. Solve a few sums and problems everyday, do it everyday. Take up sums and problems from various books and solve them. Try to move a bit ahead of your classroom lessons, if possible. This will help a lot during the examinations. This everyday-practice is necessary as Mathematics get erased from memory soon.

2. For other science subjects the rule is,

a) Understand the subject matter very thoroughly and clearly.

b) Take up a lesson. Break it up into manageable small parts(say two/three pages, max.five). By small parts it is meant that as much that can be completed in a session of two hours, plus-minus 30 minutes. Take up one such part and try to memorize it. Read it thoroughly, over and over again. At one point of time it will come to stay in memory. This is CALLED BUILDING UP A LAYER IN MEMORY.(BLM).

c) In the next session, when a student again takes up the same lesson, (within the next 2/3 days) he must try to recapitulate the previous session's part, and then take up a new part. One has to build up layers in his memory by recapitulating the lessons UNSEEN. Each time a student recapitulates a part, unseen, or partly seen and partly unseen, it builds up a layer in the memory (BLM). The more the number of layers, the more permanent it becomes in memory. One day it will surely become permanent. Next, a student should refresh the memory as and when he finds it necessary. This way he should complete each and every lesson. Before examination, say two months, a student should make a routine with date, time, and lesson/part of a lesson to be taken up on a particular date and time. He should strictly follow this routine.

3. For all other subjects also, he should do the same as stated in 2. (a), (b) and (c).

RULE NUMBER 3. STUDY EVERYDAY, MATHEMATICS, MOST CERTAINLY EVERY DAY. ON ANY PARTICULAR DAY, SOLVE MATHEMATICS (Sums and Problems) AFTER FINISHING STUDYING OTHER SUBJECT/SUBJECTS. He must not take up more than two/three subjects on a particular session. A student should not ignore any subject. He must try to develop a liking for ENGLISH as a subject. In his leisure hours, he must write essays sometimes, on various topics.

RULE NUMBER 4. At home, a student must review his progress himself by writing down his lessons from memory at times. This writing may not be possible for all the lessons of all subjects, that is true. He must do it as much as possible. Any part forgotten must immediately be refreshed in memory by opening the book and going through that portion. If a student finds it difficult to keep a particular lesson in memory, he should try to recapitulate it, as much as he can, from memory, at night in bed, before falling asleep.

RULE NUMBER 5. A student should study for six days a week. Relax on one day every week, if he feels confident that he can afford to do so. But once he starts liking his studies, he will find it difficult to stay away from books. A student must not think about all the subjects and the full study-load all at a time. Take one day at a time, or at the most 3 days at a time. A student must study at least six hours daily, broken up into two parts. Before examination it may have to be increased.

RULE NUMBER 6. A student must sleep well on the night before the examination. That will keep the nerves cool and active, and the memory fresh. Never stay awake on the night before the examination.

Knowledge brings happiness and a student must always have the courage to know.