In this pre-exam period for all students and especially those taking SC and HSC, this column offers practical advice on study and revision this week and next week.

ONE NIGHT YOU RESOLVE to start studying three hours daily. The next day, you get up at four o’clock and decide to prepare a time-table for study. You prepare an impressive time-table, and, going by it, open the book you planned to start on. You have hardly started on it, skimmed a few pages, when you look at your watch and realise your three hours have blitzed past you. So it’s tomorrow. This is what happens to most students.

But then how to study, when to study, how much to study, how to improve, and a host of other questions crop up. The key to better studies is – start from Day One. What is important is studying a minimum of four hours daily, irrespective of whether you study early morning or late at night.

Contrary to popular belief that one should study early in the morning, it is better to choose the time you feel most confortable with. Indeed there are morning people and evening people. What works well for one kind does not for the other.

If you are one of those who roam around during the day and study either early in the morning or late at night, saying you are disturbed by noise in the daytime, then think again. The best time to study is daytime. It saves your eyesight by allowing proper relaxation by night. Also, it is much better to study in daylight rather than artificial light. And, most importantly, you have to get used to working comfortably despite noise, for, in future, you will not have much control over noise at your workplace.

One good study technique is to relax for ten minutes after every hour of study. Experts call those ten minutes of relaxation, the “fixation” period. As the span of attention for college and school students is shorter, they may take relaxation breaks every 45 minutes or so. Relaxation here does not mean listening to music or watching television. It only means not loading your brain with more information, and instead freewheeling effortlessly, trying to recall what you have studied in the past hour.

Ability to concentrate is habit, and so is lack of concentration. Many students face a problem when they get up from their seat. They fail to concentrate while sitting on the chair, so they get up. They find that getting up does not help and soon get trapped in a vicious circle.

They only way to tackle this is with the “Come what may” technique. Decide to stick to the chair whether you can concentrate or no and, within three weeks or so, you will develop the habit of studying with concentration. The number of hours for which you manage to do so can be increased gradually from half an hour to up to five hours.

Everyone has a weak subject, which brings down the overall percentage even though marks are good in other subjects. The best way to deal with the weak subject is to pretend, really pretend, that it is in fact your favourite subject. This technique has been called the “as if” method, for you act as if, say, biology, were your favourite subject and not one at which you are weak. Pretend love for and interest in your weakest subject, study it regularly, go around telling people it is your favourite subject and, in five weeks or so, if you really pretend, it will in fact become your favourite subject. You will notice that your marks in the subject improve.

Here is a common complaint many students make. “Two months before the exams, food does not taste good, and I turn religious and superstitious. “A month later, I become dead serious and unable to enjoy jokes. Twenty days left before the exams, and journeys from table to toilet become more frequent. Fifteen days to the exams and my hands begin to tremble. And the week before exams brings no sleep at all. And, if indeed I sleep, my sleep is infested with bad dreams.”

And the nightmares students see, too, are related to examinations. Demonic invigilators who hand out wrong question papers, an answer sheet that remains blank no matter how much you write on it, pens that become unwieldy, such is the stuff of frightened students’ dreams. These and other symptoms of what is called “exam fever” are not so difficult to cope with. In fact, students who have suffered such symptoms should start preparing for exams, and for the “fever”, at least five to six months in advance.

During this period, follow this routine every day. It will take you about 20 minutes, but will be very helpful in controlling tension, the root cause of all those symptoms described above. Sit in a relaxed position on a chair, feet touching the floor, back erect, and hands placed comfortably on your thighs.

With eyes closed, visualise that it is five months before exams and you are preparing for exams. Then four months left and you have finished one fourth of the syllabus, three months for exams, and you have finished half your syllabus, two months to go and you have done three-fourths of your syllabus, one month left and you have finished all your syllabus, a fortnight to go and you have finished revision.

Then visualise yourself a day before exams, eagerly awaiting the question paper for you know you are fully prepared. Last of all, visualise yourself at your seat in the examination hall. You are comfortable and at ease. The question paper arrives and you find that you know the answers to all the questions asked. You answer well and leave the hall feeling good about yourself.

Follow this routine daily for five months or so, and you will subconsciously prepare well for the examination. You may also find yourself studying more efficiently. Remember that time is an important factor for the success of all these techniques.

<B>Sales & Marketing Manager & Trainer

by Sandhya LUCHOOMUN BOYGAH*</B>