SMART STUDYING

by Dennis M. Arroyo

 

Smart studying is vastly different from the kicks nerds get from the library. Smart studying doesn’t mean more time devoted to books – the opposite is true: efficiency reduces work hours. If you have noticed, the top performers in class not only reap dazzling grades but are also immersed in numerous pursuits. In contrast, those who haven’t organized themselves “study” too much without excelling.

 

Why study?

            Let’s start from the very beginning: motivation. Why are you burning the midnight oil in the first place? Most would answer, “To get high (decent) grades.” That should be clarified. Grades do not really measure intelligence. They gauge what you put into the course, your effort and efficiency. The disciplined average-I.Q. student quite often outplaces the lazy genius.

            Grades should not be your main driving force. It is best to look at the larger picture, and that calls to mind the old fable of the stone cutters: A visitor to a city found three men cutting stone and asked them what they were doing. The first said, “I’m obviously cutting stone.” The second replied: “I’m making a living for my family.” The third declared with enthusiasm, “I’m building a cathedral.”

            It’s clear who among the three reaped joy and success from an otherwise tedious job. So take the view that “I’m not merely dissecting a cat. I need the practice to become an excellent heart surgeon.” “I’m not merely joining a panel discussion; I’m preparing to be a topnotch human rights lawyer.”

 

Set Daily Sked

            Now the details. It’s absolutely important to follow some set daily schedule; otherwise you fritter away valuable time on nagging decisions. (“Do I clean the bathroom now or finish my homework?”) The wasted minutes would then pile up, and that’s a lot of time.

            The schedule should have much regularity, so your activities become a matter of habit. (The slot 10 – 10:30 is reserved for calling up friends. Basketball time is 4-5.) Get others to respect your schedule. For example say at the start of a meeting that you will have to leave by 6:00 pm. That actually speeds up discussions.

            Put variety in your schedule. If not, you’ll end up bored. That is, don’t block four hours on a single subject or activity. It’s best to cut up the time into shorter slots. Further, take breaks between the said slots to recharge your batteries. (Play a record or something.)

 

No To All Work

Never, never leave out leisure activities if you want to maximize output. All work and no play is for nerds and mental cases. If possible, study should cease by 9 p.m. A high degree of efficiency can ensure this.

Your schedule should also include “catch-all” sessions. This is time reserved for completing the unfinished early work of other slots. You need this to be human. For example, what if friends suddenly invite you to a movie when you’re supposed to be doing a physics paper? Go along, but move the physics work to the said catch-all slot.

 

Reward yourself

            Practice the principle of reinforcement. In other words learn to reward yourself bit by bit. Say, for a very creditable exam, treat yourself to a new t-shirt or cassette tape.

 

How to take notes

            Skill in taking notes is imperative for academic success. One tip is to use a mechanical pencil—this allows you to make erasures and revisions while remaining neat. Why mechanical? The ordinary pencils require too much time-consuming sharpening.

            It is best to leave a wide margin on the left side. This space is needed for comments clarifying specific points in the lecture. For instance, you may be confused by the term “liquidity” as used by the professor. Looking it up after class, you can scribble on the space “the contraction of the money supply through the rise of interest rates.”

            The margin is likewise helpful for condensing the lecture into keywords or concepts. In fact, if you master the art, you will not have to read all your notes for review. Just breeze through the margin.

            Try to make notes in outline form. Watch out for phrases in the lecture like “the point is,” or “what is important is that…” These carry the meat of the discussion. Using your own symbols (underlining, check marks, stars), highlight the significant concepts.

            If you missed or didn’t understand a point in the lecture, don’t dwell on it. Leave some spaces in your notes for a later explanation, as well as a (?) on the line to indicate confusion. If you remained stumped by the missing link, you may end up neglecting the rest of the lecture. It also doesn’t hurt to ask your teacher to clear up matters.

            Remember, too, that it’s more prudent to take excessive notes than to be lacking in notes. After all, the surplus can be erased easily, while a vacuum will be harder to fill.

 

A Matter of Technique

            Doing the required readings is a matter of technique, not martyrdom. The first thing to do is to read the introduction, the conclusion, the summary, and the headings. In fact, if these are illuminative enough, there may be no need to actually plod through the entire reading. As a minimum, this step gives you an overview of the text and shoots up comprehension.

            On the first reading, enclose the significant portions of the text in braces (like these). You thus end up bracing in less than a fourth of the assignment. On second reading, go through the braced section only, and from these, underline the key sentences.

            Finally, read these key sentences and summarize the reading on an index card. When exam time comes, don’t bother to go through the whole reading (like your pathetic insomniac classmates). Just brush through your index cards. You will be amazed at the amount of time you save. By breezing through your stack of cards, you can cover in one day what would normally take two weeks,

 

Divide your work

            Another way to cut down on study time is to divide the work. Cooperate with your classmates. Let each be in charge of summarizing a reading or two, then have all these gists xeroxed.

 

Jog memory

            Memorization is, sadly, part of the student’s cross. Try to minimize memorization and maximize understanding. See how all the facts fit together, and consequently, each recalled bit will lead to all the rest. It is much more difficult to remember items if they don’t fall into some framework.

            There are times when rote memorization really can’t be avoided. Hence, it would help to dramatize things. Like, did you know that Aguinaldo’s “insurgency” was at least ten times the

size of the NPA? Did you know that the peso is the world’s largest nickel? Did you know that the Thais were never colonized? (The word Thailand means land of the free.) Did you know that Costa Rica has no armed forces?

            There are standard memory techniques, of course. An old one is to list down the important ideas, reduce them to key words, get the first letters of each of these words, and form an acronym.

            Math subjects, for some reason, are a cause of frequent falls from academic grace. Years of difficulty have finally yielded this conclusion: there is no substitute for practice.

            Even if you fully comprehend the concepts involved, you still must go through a few exercises to get the hang of it. In fact, teachers who demand daily homework are doing you a favor. Trigonometry will thus become as easy as pi.

            An added tip: teachers often get their test questions from the textbook. Hence, those who regularly practice with the textbook already possess an advantage.

 

Don’t cram

            What student hasn’t passed through scores of exams? And yet it’s strange that many keep making the same mistake of cramming till they explode with tension. It’s a familiar scene: zombies with eye bags to their cheeks, unleashing primal screams in the dorm, staying awake long after the burglars have slept.

            The whole cramming business doesn’t make sense. It’s like a marathon runner who wastes the first few hours of the race taking a nap, then makes up for it by sprinting like mad. It’s far saner to study casually every day and still enjoy movies during exam week. Total effort is conserved.

 

Time of testing

            Always wear a watch while taking a test. In the initial minutes, skim through the questions to get a general feel of the matter. Then budget your time. For example, if the exam lasts two hours, and there are four essay questions, don’t spend more than 30 minutes on each problem.

            You would do well to answer the easy questions first, then work your way to the tougher ones. This gives you a warm-up session and the security of quick points on reserve. It would be fatal to consume half the exam time on one difficult problem. Skip the higher hurdles, then return to them later.

            When handling essay questions, prepare a brief outline before you begin to write. Contrary to popular belief, the outline saves much more time than it uses up. It also gives order to the essay, a quality sought by teachers.

            Regarding objective problems, you may cough up answers which are doubtful in their accuracy. When in doubt, leave a mark beside these questions. That will enable you to return to them more rapidly.

 

Education, not academics

            A final word on extra curriculars. The goal of efficient studying should be the availability of huge blocks of time for other pursuits. Rather pathetic is the nerd fossilizing in the library.

            It is indecent to be locked in the classroom and glued to books while the issues of the day rage outside. It is inhuman to devote one’s energies solely to grades while killings multiply, while poverty and injustice fester, while global warhawks impose their weapons on the nation. The times demand social involvement.

            As the classic saying goes, “Don’t let your academics interfere with your education.”

 

An excerpt from How to Cut Study Time and Get Away With It, Sunday Inquirer, June 12, 1988