Thursday, September 11, 2008

How to Improve Learning Skill?

Recall- by reciting.
Repetition helps retention of information. It hammers the material in your memory. After reading the material and making notes of the same, you need to speak out loudly, at least the points which you have jotted down so painstakingly. What happens now is that when you here the matter, you will learn it quickly. hearing after writing gives a double effect and it will be etched in your memory forever .
Revise- periodic revision helps you learn better.
The final and the most important step is to revise your material using fast revision technique. This makes sure that the matter goes to your permanent memory from temporary memory . Try out this fundamental technique of effective study on anything new you are going to study and see the difference.
Let’s grill you
Pick out the right choise:-
Making key :- Give (2) marks for each ’a’ answer and (1) mark for each ’b’ answer
1. When you read a passage that you do not find very interesting, you- a/b
a. read each and every word
b. just glance at it and move on.
2. While making notes, you- a/b
a. keep the course books and reference books open.
b. rely on your memory and finish the work quickly.
3. When you go to the library, you read a/b
a. books related to your course.
b. story books, magazines etc.
4.After making notes, you a/b
a. keep revising them at different intervals.
b. keep them aside till some later date.
5. When you try to learn a chapter, you a/b
a. read aloud.
b. read it silently for the fear of disturbing others.
Interpretation:-
• 7 and above : you are on your way to success. You have understood the SQ3R and you implement it successfully in your study schedule.
• 6 and below:- You need to improvise on your study techniques as they are not giving you the right output. You need to devote more time and efforts to your studies to achieve success in your exams.
JUST CHILL:- Challenge yours to a whole day without saying anything. Write list but do not contract anyone else verbally. Don’t even pick up phones or answer the doorbell. Soon you will realize how and what you think when normal modes of communication have been taken away from you.
SPEED READING AND WRITING (SR&W)
Shashank’s mother worked in an office. She came home late in the evening. After coming from school, Shashank would spend most of his time watching cartoons on TV. As he grew up, he switched to playing and writing skills were limited to his school work and doing home work. He was a bright child, so he managed to fare average in his exams, causing no worry to his parents . It so happended that his mother met with an accident and fractured her leg. She was forced to take leave for six weeks. It was during this perior she reallised how slow her son was in reading and writing. He just could not concentrate on his books for more than ten minutes. She gave all her time to him now and taught him the importance of speed reading and writing. After some practice, Shashank found his world when he stood first in his class test.
SPEED READING:- One of the best ways to save time is to do speed reading. When you read fast you get a rough idea of what you are reading. But how to read faster, you begin by using your finger, You need to train your eyes initially to follow your finger. Move your finger as your read. Do this for at least 10 minutes and then start increasing the speed of your finger. As you increase the speed further, soon there will be no need to take the finger from one end to the other. You will just be able to keep it in the centre of the lines. You will still be able to read faster. Remember, speed reading is not an alternative to normal reading, but it is actually an exercise to make normal reading more effective.
SPEED WRITING:- Most people hesitate to write, fearing that they may not be able
to do well. But the truth is that everyone can write well, provided one is aware of the simple techniques of writing.
• Relax while writing.
• Note down all the points which you would like to emphasize on rough paper.
• Mark them in your order of preference.
• Make the introduction attractive so as to arouse the interest of the reader.
• String common points into a paragraph and then proceed logically.
• Use simple words with short sentences.
• Your message should be clear, concise, convincing and interesting to the reader.
• The more you write, the faster and efficient you become in your writing skills.
LET’S GRILL YOU:-
A. Read this passage of 50 words using speed reading technique and check your speed.
Writing in itself is a technique which one learns only through practice. It involves knowledge of the language, good communication skills and the ability to think in terms of how others will interpret the words and expressions used. Observe the work of others. Adapt ideas to suit your own style.
 If you manage to read this passage in 5 seconds, then your average speed comes to 600wpm, which is a decent speed.
 If you take 10 seconds, then your speed is 300 wpm, which is less than average. You need to improve it.
 Reading this passage in less than 5 seconds puts you in the category of fast readers.
B. Write the above passage in your own words and style . you may improvise by using your own ideas. You may increase the word count up to 75 words.
JUST CHILL:- Don’t slump, Sit straight,
Give your internal organs room to spread and deserve. Your body will be able to detox effectively leaving you feeling healthy and refreshed.
FAST REVISION TECHNIQUE(FRT):-
You are pushing a car up aslope. You push it up to two thirds of the slope and then you pause to take rest with out applying any barkers, You take such s long break that you do not even realize that the car has rolled back to the starting point. As you go back to the starting point and push the car again, you will have to spend extra energy to take the starting point. As you go back to the starting point and push the car again, you will have to spend extra energy to take the car beyond that point.
If you continue that, it will require a Herculean effort to reach the top end of the slope! Do you get the point?!
Human mind has the tendency to lose information. It works on the simple principle of data in memory and recollection for the brain. Either use your memory or lose the data. If the information you have grasped has no immediate use, it will be lost from the current memory. This does not mean that it will be totally erased. In fact, the mind loses as much as 75% of the learnt matter by the following day if it is not revised.
97 pages:-
PRACTISE FOR PERFECTION:- Before writing the final exams, we all have to go through various practice session including tests and revisions. Taking practice tests lightly is a common mistake we all commit. Our attitude towards these tests is- ‘Why slog so hard, they are just class tests. They do not even count in our report cards.’ Apparently, the marks that you score in revision tests may not count in the final score but they do make a difference. They help you assess your abilities and hard work put in by you. Giving them your best shot is equally important because you will write the same answers in your final exams that you have revised or practiced in your practice tests, you tests. If you have been taking it easy in your tests. you will do the same in your examinations too.
Most of us are in the habit of taking tests lightly. But there are two major disasters that can occur because of such an attitude.
• First, you will never know your true potential because you will always tend to believe that you can do much better than this.
• Secondary, you will surely perform in the finals just the way you have been consistently doing in your tests.
• So the attitude of ‘saving your best for the last’ does not work here. You have simply not practiced to be the best. You see. There is no logic in just giving tests for the heck of it .Constant and dedicated practice is the will get achievers. Practice for perfection and you will get perfect results.
Remember, practice will make you perfect, provided that practice is perfect itself.
FOLLOW RESERVE HOUR TECHNIQUE:-
Whenever Sandhya made a timetable, she could not follow it Either her study hours would shrink by a quarter of an hour: or her sleeping time would stretch to another extra hour: or her leisure hour would seem endless. Even if she tried to follow it religiously, somehow it would not work out . Finally, She felt frustrated and dumped it.
Not only Sanddhya, many students face this problem. Sir Parkinson gave a very significant law about work- Work has a tendency to expand and occupy the available time. So, if you provide one hour for a job which would ordinarily take half an hour, you will end up using all the time for it.
Time has a very big disadvantage. It does not wait for anyone. If you been following a timetable in anyone. If you have noticed that as the daily routine, you would have noticed that as the activities of the go on, their preset time gets delayed. This affects loses its significance. To make it more clear to you have set your afternoon nap hours from 3-4 pm, and two hours after that , i.e., 4-6 pm has been allotted for playing. Since you overslept, you got up late and went to play at 5 pm instead of 4 pm which means you will return at7 pm instead of6 pm and start studies late. Since you need to accommodate your TV programmer which comes at a fixed hour , you cut down on your study hour. In fact, in such cases the least pleasurable activities get axed. So whenever you are short on time, the general tendency is to cut out the study part of it.
To handle this problem, a very simple technique has been evolved which can make a timetable more effective. It is called the Reserve Hour Technique. When you plan your day in the morning, you generally tend to allocate all the time by keeping one activity immediately after another, There are two ways to avoid this problem-
• Start each activity some time later than when it normally would, even if the previous activity takes up more time, you will be in a comfortable position.
• Leave at least one hour free in the day where you assign no task at all. This hour can be in the middle of the day or at the end, so that all the time lost during the day may be adjusted in this hour. Never commit the day. If the tasks overlap the allocated time, the reserve hour acts as a buffer and keeps your timetable intact. But on the other hand, if luckily your hour remains free, you can use it to do anything you want.
Now you see the importance of allotting this reserve hour. It is not only a real-sever, it is a life –saver too. It takes away the tension and stress of sticking strictly to schedules each day.
LET’S GRILL YOU:-
Given below is the format of two schedules where you have to allot the time and activities. Prepare one with reserve hour, and the other one by providing extra time to
each activity.

Schedule 1 Time Activity Reserve hour


Schedule 2 Time Extra time Activity




Try both the timetables for a week each, and find out which one suits you better.
Also check what you did in the reserve hour.
JUST CHILL;
Keep your metabolic rate from slumping into very low by eating five smaller meals spread energy throughout the day, and keep your mind fresh and alert.
USING REWARD PUNISHMENT SYSTEM:-
Yash to surf the internet for hours on end. When his mother raised an objection, he promised to complete his homework after surfing the net for an hour. But most of the time, this hour stretched to two hours and his studies would suffer. So his mother changed the order if his homework and surfing. Now Yash had to complete his homework first, then only he was allowed to surf the net.
Human mind works on a simple formula-the pain-pleasure formula. It seeks pleasure and avoids the pain. Our activities in a typical day comprise of a unique blend. Some of these activities like watching TV, taking to a friend on the phone or reading a book studies! Most of us have a pleasure and procrastinates pain. No wonder, most of our plans of time allocation run into trouble. We pick up the fun activities and indulge in them. The time taken by them expands and we find trouble in fitting the not-so-interesting activities in the remaining time slot. End result- all play and no work!
Delayed Gratification;- To combat this problem, use the Reward Punishment system which is also called Delayed Gratification. The logic is very simple. Just put the pleasurable tasks at the end while you complete the painful tasks, like study, before them. Suppose you want to watch TV for one hour. Then you will allow yourself to watch TV only after you study for one hour. The next hour of study will get you reward of surfing the internet and soon. That is how you will be able to achieve your targets.
In this whole system, you should keep one thing in mind, that it is you is going to benefit with this system, so it is your duty to make sure that you do not cheat on this system. It is most likely to happen when you are in the gratification stage. To be fair to yourself, it is important that you distribute the awards rationally- neither with extreme generosity nor with strictness.
Adjust the system to work for you. But make sure you delay gratification. The reward should come after the punishment.
Such is the law of nature. Remember , the fruits come only after the seeds and the work is done. So plan out your reward punishment system with delayed gratification for best results.