Thursday, September 04, 2014

How to study right

This post is triggered by a facebook conversation where I had footinmmouthitis and mentioned that its not the duration of study but the technique that matters.

Which got the poster to ask more . And since Gallup says my responsibility strength is strong , I had to explain self.

How to Study Right - Getting more by spending least time at the Study desk.

This is a parent's guide and is based on what my aunt taught me and what was then used on other children of the family by yours truly. I have topped consistently, and so have my other students.

1. Everyday, from Class 1, have a study hour at home. An hour is one hour - 60 minutes. This is the time devoted everyday to studying. This is serious time. If you don't have enough homework to cover that hour, spend the time reading with the child, reading to the child, but it has to be pursuit of knowledge.

2. Some foundational skills are very very important. They have to be taught to the children at the right age, otherwise course correction is very difficult.

3. It is NOT your job to do the homework. It is the child's job, and you are helping them by investing time in that. Make that absolutely clear from nursery. Whenver ur child throws a tantrum abt homework, close the book and reiterate - this is NOT my homework. it is your homework. you are not doing me a favour by doing it. I am doing you a favour by investing time in it. If you make homework your business, you are doing the kid a big disservice because you are taking away the earliest opportunity of responsibility from them.

4. In Class 2, make reading a habit. Every single night. It doesn't matter that the child only sees the pictures and goes to sleep. it doesn't matter that the child hates it and whines. you read your book and let the child read theirs. just before sleeping. end of story.

5. In class 3, start the dictionary habit. The child makes a separate notebook called dictionary and learns 5 new words everyday and writes them down - alphabetically. then they take a quiz from a previous page  - guessing the meaning of words from an earlier page. This is a vital foundational skill and if the child does this till Class X, trust me they will need no prep in GMAT, CAT etc for vocab. That's why I call this a foundational skill. Vocab will help the child read more easily with age.

6. In Class 4, learn speed maths and mental maths.

7. In Class 5, learn memory techniques and start using them.

8. By class 7, you should know speed reading and should be speed reading as a matter of course.

9. During the study hour, do the following everyday:
     A. Start the hour with pranayama. This carries extra oxygen to the brain and prepares u for the time ahead.
     B. Revise everything that u studied at school.This is the time to use those memory techniques. Use whatever works for you - story building, mnemonics, Picture creation etc. Use the technique the first time, so that you never have to memorise or do rote learning.  Read the text chapter, understand the concept, and make notes that simplify the concept in your own words.
If you do this, you have achieved the following:
            B.1 You have understood the concept and therefore don't need to remember anything.
            B.2 When you sum it up in ur own words, you have revised and then written. This commits to brain like few other things do.
           B.3 because you have to read ur notes and not the whole book, u will be spending one tenth of time in the pre revision time.
   C.  After 25 minutes of study, take a 5-10 minute break. For younger children, this break can be used to run around. For older children, this time can be used to do pranayama or meditation.  Then study for another 25 minutes. Then break.
   D. If you have time left in that one hour, spend it revising something you have done earlier but not revised. But stick to one hour.

10. Find the study time that works best for you, and then study at that time. Not the time that other people tell you to.

 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

IMHO more important in our schooling is given on studying and marks... not on learning and developing logics and fundamentals...

Hopefully I can be the difference atleast in my son's case... :)

Time will tell though!

AA_Mom said...

Wonderful. I do follow this but there is room for improvement - Like no pranayam at the beginning and such. Loved your how to spend money post as well - it has stayed with me. Thanks a bunch nm.

Gentle Breeze said...

Hi..interesting thoughts on studying...
I also feel having a book culture in the family helps. My Dad was a voracious reader and subscribed to many magazines and purchased books - left me a eternal book worm. Vocab consequently, as you say, was a cinch. Never needed to think of grammar as the flow of words was seamless.
Another thing, I remember my dad forcing me up early morning in early 80s to listen to BBC Hindi news on radio and it did open my horizon. So much so by class VI, the first thing I read on reaching home after school was the newspaper - even before changing out of my school clothes. The result - GK was a breeze all through.
Cheers.. I did love your thoughts

How do we know said...

hi hitchie: yeah.. that's why.. my aunt used to say that rote learning will never take u far. when I entered higher education I realised how right she was.

hi AA_mom: u came thru nm's blog? glad to know this helped.

GB: Excellent ideas, both. :)

AA_Mom said...

oops I thought this is ~nm's blog as well

Anonymous said...

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