Holla!!! World Scholars Hub has brought you this relevant and helpful piece. We are glad to bring you this power-packed article born based on our quality research and proven facts, titled ‘ How To Study Fast and Effectively’.
We understand the challenges scholars face as pertains to their reading habits and believe me it’s normal. The article aims at improving your reading habit and will also teach you secret tips based on research on how you can study fast while still retaining most of what you have studied.
- You can get check out How a Student can Become Smarter.
Table of Contents
How To Study Fast and Effectively
You may be faced with an impromptu test or taken unawares by the forthcoming exams which may be a few hours or days ahead. Well, how do we go about it?
The only solution is to study fast in order to cover up most of what we have learned within the shortest possible time. Not just study fast, we mustn’t forget we also need to study effectively so that we don’t forget those things we’ve gone through during our studies. Unfortunately combining these two processes together at such a time seems impossible for the majority of scholars. It isn’t impossible though.
Just follow some tiny little neglected steps and you’ll get a good grasp of what you’re speedily studying for. Let’s get to know the steps on how to study fast and effectively.
Steps To Studying Fast and Effectively
We’re going to categorize steps on how to study fast and effectively into three; three steps: Before Studies, During Studies, and After Studies.
Before Studies
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Eat Properly
Eating properly doesn’t really mean eating too much. You need to eat decently and by that I mean the amount that wouldn’t get you dizzy.
You need food enough for your brain to withstand the exercise. The brain needs a lot of energy to function. Research has it that the brain consumes energy at a rate that is ten times that consumed by any other part of the body.
Reading involves several brain functions, including visual and auditory processes, phonemic awareness, fluency, comprehension, etc. It shows reading alone makes use of a larger percentage of the brain than many other activities. Therefore in order to read effectively, you need energy-giving food to keep your brain going.
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Take a Little Nap
If you’re just waking up from sleep, there isn’t any need to follow this step. Before studying it is necessary to prepare your brain for the bulk work ahead. You can do this by taking a little nap or engaging yourself in a little exercise like walking to let blood flow properly through the brain.
While naps do not necessarily make up for inadequate or poor quality nighttime sleep, a short nap of 10-20 minutes can help to improve mood, alertness, and performance. It keeps you in a sound mind for studies. A study carried out at NASA on sleepy military pilots and astronauts found that a 40-minute nap improved performance by 34% and alertness by 100%.
You’ll need a short nap before your studies to improve your alertness hence enhancing your reading efficiency and speed.
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Be Organized- Prepare a Schedule
You will need to be organized. Put all your reading materials together within the shortest possible time so you don’t get tensed up while looking for something.
Your mind needs to be relaxed to assimilate properly and fast whatever has been fed into it. Not being organized would leave you far from that. Being organized includes drafting a timetable for the courses you need to study, and allocating time to them while giving intervals of 5-10 minutes after every 30 minutes. It also entails making arrangements for the most suitable place for you to study i.e. a quiet environment.
During Studies
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Read In A Quiet Environment
To study effectively, you’ll need to be in an environment devoid of distractions and noise. being in a noiseless place keeps your focus on the reading material maintained.
It leaves the brain to assimilate most of the knowledge fed into it allowing it to view such information in any possible direction. A study environment free from noise and distractions promotes proper understanding of the course at hand in the shortest possible time. Hence it enhances efficiency during studies
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Take Short Breaks
Because the work at hand may seem too large to cover, scholars tend to study for about 2-3 hours in a go. It is in fact a bad study habit. Muddling up ideas and confusion combined with a sudden decrease in understanding levels are usually associated with this unhealthy habit which could even cause brain damage.
In a bid to grasp all, scholars abiding by this tend to lose everything. Intervals of about 7 minutes should be taken after every 30 minutes of studies so as to cool the brain, allowing oxygen to flow properly.
This method increases your understanding, concentration, and focus. The time spent should never be seen as a waste since it allows for maintained understanding over a long period of studies.
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Jot Down Important Points
Words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs you feel may be important should be noted in writing. As human beings, we are prone to forgetting a certain percentage of what we have studied or learned. Taking notes serves as a backup.
Ensure notes taken are done in your own understanding. These notes serve to trigger the memory into remembering what you previously studied in case there may be difficulty in recalling. A simple glimpse may be just enough. Also ensure that these notes are short, sort of a summary of the sentence. It could be a word or phrase.
After Studies
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Review
After you’ve carefully observed the rules before and during your studies, don’t forget to go through your work. You can do that over and over again to ensure it sticks properly to your memory. Cognitive research indicates that perpetual studies over a particular context enhance its sedimentation in memory over a very long period of time.
This further improves your understanding of the course and thus efficiency in your studies. Review doesn’t necessarily mean reread.
You can do that in a jiffy by going through the notes you’ve made.
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Sleep
This is the last and most important step. sleep is keen to good memory. Ensure you get a good rest after your studies. Doing this gives the brain time to relax and recollect all that has been done so far. It’s more like the time the brain uses to rearrange the various numerous information fed into it. It is therefore very necessary to have a very good rest after studies.
Except in extreme cases, it isn’t advisable to let your study period eat into your rest or relaxation period. All these stages aim at boosting understanding in the long run and improving reading speed and hence efficiency.
We’ve come to the end of this article on how to study fast and effectively. Kindly share tips that have worked for you to help others. Thank you!
