So, this is my first
post on this blog and I have decided to start on an educative note. A lot of
teenagers in Nigeria right now have one examination or the other in front of
them, be it UTME or for those already in tertiary institutions, semester exams.
So, have you been reading hard or reading smart? I will be showing you certain
tips to upgrade your reading and catapult you into the stratosphere of success.
Follow me.
-Understand
Yourself and Develop Your Own Pattern
Well, this is the biggest
tip of them all. Many people underutilize their potential by either not
discovering their best reading pattern or adopting the wrong system.
Understanding yourself entails knowing such things as your reading speed and
speed of assimilation among others. Some people can read faster than others; as
such, they can start and finish reading what they need to cover within a short
span. However, a slow reading speed does not necessarily translate to a lower
level of intelligence. Some of the most brilliant people I know are slow
readers who only need to read a book once to understand it forever.
Also, some people only
read in total silence while others understand better with soft music playing in
the background, I read certain calculations better while listening to fast rap.
Some people (even some fast readers) like reading well ahead of examinations
while others only thrive under pressure. Quite a number of people don’t like
reading in libraries and I know a classmate who has to find space under a tree
before he can read. Just experiment with different styles and combinations and
find out what you are most comfortable with.
-Read
a little at a time
A lot of people leave a
lot of their work to be read until the last possible moment and end up needing
to read a lot at once to catch up. Other people set a particular time or day(s)
to read and then go about reading all they can lay their hands on. This works
for some people, however, the human body needs rest and does not function well
under stress or fatigue. Chances are when you read hard for 8 hours at a
stretch, you will understand much less than if you read for 8 hours in total
with breaks (of maybe half an hour) in between. The brain will have a chance to
get refreshed, relaxed and will be ready to take and process information at a
much faster rate.
-Avoid
panic-reading
Are you in a situation
where you have an exam or test and you still have a lot to cover? Well, everybody
has been in that situation before. A lot of people tend to go off their handles
and panic but let me tell you; worrying or panicking has never solved a problem
before. Calm down, pick out the most important aspects, read them thoroughly.
If after reading them, you still have time, go through the remaining materials.
Keep cool, don’t lose your head and you will be fine.
-Consult
wide
This tip is very important. It is the main
difference between average and A-students. This works well when you start
reading early for an examination. Go outside the basics given to you, read as
many textbooks as you can find, surf helpful websites, consult people ahead of
you and your teachers or lecturers and go through past questions. This gives
you an edge over those that have read only the basics; you will have a much
larger knowledge base to draw upon to prove your points or tackle a tough or
applied question. Wikipedia is
especially useful for more in-depth explanations.
-Check
pictures and pictorial representations
Learn to check diagrams
or other pictorial resources that explain a particularly knotty concept. Many a
times while I was in medical school, I have been saved the embarrassment of not
knowing how to explain my point by diagrams. Also, associating diagrams with
explanations spares you the time you would otherwise have used to revise. Come
revision time or shortly before entering the exam hall to take an examination,
a simple glance at the diagram will refresh your mind and send you on the way
to success.
-Encode
information in Mnemonics
A mnemonic is a device or prompt
assisting the memory (Microsoft Encarta
2009). If you have passed through secondary school within Nigeria, you surely
know of MR NIGER D. MR NIGER D is a most famous mnemonic that holds the characteristics
of living things. Think back to how easy it was to hold 8 characteristics with
that simple code. I want you to know that you can hold almost every list in
such a code. It makes work much easier and fun to recall and has no limit to
the number of individual entities it can hold. I have held as much as
thirty-five separate things in a mnemonic while schooling. Try holding things in funny or memorable
codes that can be easily remembered and take care to ensure you can recall what
each part of the mnemonic means. It is a cardinal sin if you remember the
mnemonic and not what it stands for.
A mnemonic
is not compulsorily a word, it can be a whole sentence or sometimes, a
collection of words that are just about pronounceable and can be recalled. Let
me refresh our minds with another famous information held in mnemonics all over
the world; the names of planets in the universe. When I was much younger, I
stored the names of the planets with “Mr Victor Emmanuel Must Just See Uncle
Now, Please”. Look around you, practice with mnemonics before the D-day and
watch how you waltz through any question that requires you to list.
-Jot
down
This is yet another
powerful but ignored reading tool. As a rule, always read with a jotting pad
and a pen in your hand. Regularly jot down salient and important points as you
read on. Allow your jottings to cover every section of the material you have just
read. Jotting keeps what you have just read fresh. The simple act of writing
down what you have just understood makes it very difficult for you to forget
it. It is also a very powerful revision tool. Running low on time and you want
to go through your materials once again? Just read your jottings; it takes less
time and covers the most important sections of the exams.
-Group
discussion
I discovered the power
of group discussions in my second semester in school and I never let it slip
through my hands again. Well, do you have some bulky material or handout to go
through before the exam period? Get three to four like-minded and serious
students like yourself. Divide the material into four or five parts as the case
may be and ask everybody to read a portion thoroughly, then, fix a time where
everyone explains his own part to the others while they jot down. Then, watch
the magic when you come to read the entire material on your own. Believe me,
nothing is more effective against bulky materials than group discussions.
However, group discussions need extra effort and dedication to work. Every
member must be equally determined and serious and it helps when you all pay
extra focus. Get good students into your group discussion and watch as your
grades take an upward trajectory.
-Steer
clear of stimulants
Well, being humans, we
love quick fixes and taking stimulatory substances to prepare for an exam is
just one of those fixes that work almost all the time but is quite dangerous
when they fail. People take different substances, most especially coffee
(Nescafe is quite common) to get their bodies into a sleep-denying state to
enable them cover as much ground as possible without feeling sleepy. This is
another effect of unpreparedness or panic-reading.
While they may work in
the short term, getting addicted to them can produce less-than-desirable short
and long-term effects. Let me share a personal experience. It was my second
year in school and I had this massive biochemistry examination the next day.
Well, I had almost finished reading but I was scared I wouldn’t be able to
finish revising. So, I succumbed to the pressures of my friends who urged me to
take a sachet of Nescafe to stay awake. Well, I did stay awake but I achieved
nothing as I wasn’t able to concentrate. I kept fidgeting until I had the good
sense to lie down to bed around 2 a.m till the effects wore out. I then woke up
around 6 a.m to rush my revision. Well, I didn’t get the grade I felt I should
have gotten and that episode taught me a lesson not to indulge in stimulatory
products to deprive my physical urges.
Nescafe and other such products mostly contain
caffeine as a major constituent. Accumulation of caffeine in the blood stream
as a result of habitual use can lead to an inability to sleep even when the
products are not taken. This comes with attending physical and mental issues.
So, we should be careful and shy away from overdependence on stimulatory substance.
-Watch
your diet and Exercise well
Eat well and eat right
before reading and during exams. Food provides nourishment, satisfaction and
energy to complete your reading task as reading is an energy-consuming process.
Eating the correct food also involves not eating food that produce such effects
as flatulence or persistent bowel movement and emptying. Eat a lot of vitamins,
fruits and vegetables. They keep the body sharp, prevent infections and provide
antioxidants that boost the immune system.
Exercise keeps the body
fit, sharpens the brain and increases concentrating ability. Exercise often to
upgrade your mental ability and keep your health at optimum level.
-Pray
Bonus tip; prayer is very important. Regardless of
your religion, speaking to God before anything is a vital component that
determines the success or failure of the enterprise. Prayer also puts you in a
mentally and psychologically-buoyant mood as you are expectant and hopeful that
your prayers have been answered. This adds a spring to your step and confidence
that the control of the situation is in the hands of He whom you serve. Let me
add this oft-repeated cliché; pray as if you haven’t read and read as if you
haven’t prayed.
So, guys, remember to read smart. Some read hard but
successful people don’t need to read hard, they just need to read well and read
smart. Cheers.
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