Sunday, July 8, 2012

Studying - Suggestions for students hoping to learn

Start early; sometimes it's useful to know a little about the subject even before you go for the first class. This allows me to feel confident that I will be able to understand the subject matter.

Revise what I learnt in the last class little before or on the day I go for the next one. This allows me to understand what's being taught now; this ability to understand current subject matter in turn allows me to re-enforce what was already taught.

Read from good reference books on the subject everything that seems interesting to me. I do this not when I'm in a room forced to study for the upcoming exam because when I'm focused on studying for an exam, I'm less open to exploring things that do not pertain to the near-term goal of getting good marks. Instead, I've found it useful to read reference books while traveling in a bus or train. This way I think that since I'm making good use of time that I would have otherwise wasted, I can explore anything in the book I want.

If the subject I'm reading can be easily applied and has some experimental component (like programming) I sit and write some programs that excite me.

Eventually, a little before the exam (maybe a week, or a few days) I study for it in a more focused way. 

At the end I solve previous year papers. This helps consolidate and apply all the information I've accumulated from different sources.