Bits of Life

IX. Traffic Can Make Grades Terrific: Practical Studying Tips - p1/2

It is graduation season again. Learners and parents alike are proudly celebrating their success, mostly those who have medals of excellence hanging over their necks. Not that graduating with honors is a requirement to be successful, but when paired with the right character, it really does bring you to higher heights.

But not everyone is as privileged as the others. I mean, some learners have responsibilities they cannot afford to skip so they skip their studies instead. I remember one of my college students telling me that she would always come to school late because she has to make sure to bring their goat to a hill for the grass and their chickens are fed in the morning. She wouldn't have that much time to review lessons after school as well because she has to do more chores once at home.

That was an opportunity for me to use the first three to five minutes of their classes with me pointing out some simple steps in order to graduate in college. These are the same tips I followed when I was still schooling and I had the opportunity to share them to my schoolmates when our local organization at the university invited me as a resource speaker for an alternative class while in my senior year.

I can still remember how I made my schooling easy and I'd like to use this write up as an avenue to share them again for those who are moving up to another year level at school - elementary, highschool, college and post-graduate studies students are welcome to use these tips. A disclaimer: Not everything will fit everyone, you just have to pick those which suits you or you just have to adjust to the advice if you can - I am not insisting, though.

(1) Use the Human Alarm Clock
For sure you have heard of strategic alarm clock positioning. This is putting your alarm clock (phone mostly) at your bedside strategically - not too near to put it off as soon as it sounds, nor too far for you not to hear it when it does.

My alarm clock would always be on my study table across the bed. It means, when it sounds to wake me up, I have to literally get up to put it off. Then I would make up my bed right away.

But there are days I know I wouldn't be able to get up as soon as the alarm sounds. We just know for ourselves that it is impossible to be faithful to alarms when we have a very long day, right? So I would courteously ask people at home/boarding house (people whom I know usually wakes up early) to forcefully wake me up at a certain hour. During college, my board mates would wake up at 3AM to study and if my alarm is set at 4AM, I would ask them the night before (or leave a note somewhere conspicuous) to knock on my door so I can join the study party. It sometimes came to a point that I gave them permission to sprinkle water on my face if I got too lazy to answer their wake up call.

(2) Do Not Snooze Your Alarm
Most people believe that snoozing the alarm clock is a backup plan when in fact it only delays your schedule. If you know you are not eager to wake up at 5AM, do not set the alarm at 5AM then set another by 5:05, then another at 5:10, and the last one at 5:15. What good will it do to disturb your sleep every five minutes? It will only distract your sleep quality and eventually ruin your day. Only set the alarm on the time you should really be getting up - and really get up when the alarm sounds.

(3) Make Use of Your Time Commuting
Calculate your travel time from home to school - including probable but unanticipated traffic. Calculate back how much time you need to prepare before you set off for school. That makes you know the most ideal time you should be getting up and time you should be going. If you are not driving, use your travel time skimming over your notes. I found this helpful when I was not living near the university yet and had to travel for two hours from home to school and another two hours going home from school. Imagine making use of that four hours of being idle on the jeepney or bus or your family car?

(4) Simplify the Words
There are words in your textbooks which you may not be familiar with. In my case, I look up synonyms and replace them with an equivalent word that I am more familiar with. The normal brain will actually have a difficult time remembering a word that does not make any sense - so feed it with something that does. When I was schooling I had an extra pocket book with me everywhere - a dictionary/thesaurus. Today, you don't even need to have one if your phone can access the internet.

(5) Color Your Boring Notes
Those color markers are not there for aesthetics - although they can be, it's up to you. Make use of the color markers to find important parts from your textbooks only. When you have read your books and have already understood your lessons, you only have to highlight those words which you need. I knew some people who highlighted almost the entire book. So how are they going to easily find the important words now if every text is in color green? It will only make them read the whole thing again. A waste of time.

What are important words? They can be the words being defined (term) or the shortest and most sensible definition of the term or terms you need to remember. Can you highlight both? Sure. When I was studying I highlighted terms and definitions and underlined the "terms" to make it more distinctive.

It's also helpful to have organized notebooks. Dedicate one notebook per course/subject as much as possible. Refrain from putting different lessons from different subjects in a single notebook. A scattered notebook makes a scattered mind. If it's not possible to dedicate one notebook per subject, make sure to divide your notebook properly so you can locate your lessons easier.

When I was studying for my master's degree, I only had one notebook for two courses. It made me have more lessons available for review everywhere but lesser stuff to carry.

I still have more simple steps and tips to share, but I will leave the others maybe for the next chapter. What I can assure you is that these steps made my school life simpler and made me enjoy more things aside from studying. Modesty aside, when I was Top 1 for two consecutive semesters in college (BS in Accountancy), the secretary was shocked that it was me whose name was posted for the whole school to see because she thought I was just a happy go lucky student. And for sure, I was.