(This is an inflammatory post designed to relax myself.) I have to admit that I have awful studying habits. I'm always talking in class. I can doze off when I get too bored or too sleepy. I rarely scribble down notes that get put on the board. I am disruptive in class, making noises, continuously talking, always entertaining myself. Any ordinary teacher or lecturer would put me off as one of the slackers who never seem to pass examinations.
Am I a slacker? I probably am. I'm bored in more than 90% of classes I attend, not necessarily the fault of the lecturer. I'm fed up of going to lecturers day by day just to have the whole lot of facts fed into my ears. I'm often end up dazing myself into developing macroeconomics theories of such great scale, that I probably would be able to debate with my lecturer over such theories. When we're doing revision, I think about as far as the revision slides require while everyone is still at the top of the slide. It's my habit of moving ahead and thinking a question through about ten times before answering. I've been studying patterns of people who don't do well - they generally act the same as some achievers. They're bored, disruptive, appear to make little effort in their work and appear to never pay attention in class. It isn't until assignments and exmas that it is clear who is which. For the most part, the kind of people like me are the really strange ones. We act the same way as people who never do well, and somehow manage to come out with unexpectedly good marks.
I don't like studying in this kind of environment. I'm not truly learning anything, I'm just being pushed to the edge of frustration with these revision classes. I'm a last-minute person. I really can't get motivated until the very last few days before examinations. I've found that book reading is a lousy way to revise. I've been reading books ever since I've been able to read, and it's been nothing much to me. I have the odd habit of reading text books like they were story books. I also have the strange habit of reading dictionaries. It's been strange for me to pick up these weird habits.
I can tell you for a certainty that what high achievers say on TV can sometimes be absolute b.s. Most of them will say that they made brief notes and studied them - this works. Some will say that they started studying early - this will depend entirely on your own studying style. Some people can do this and no good will come out of it. I'll take this a working solution. But some of them say preposterous things: I study several hours a day. By myself. - this is definitely not something that works well with most people. What truly works is discussing studies with friends for at least 30 minutes each day. This sometimes happens in school, extra tuition classes and so on. Debating out economic theory, fighting out management theories, discussing the result of putting reactive metals in fire, methods of optimizing energy usage will actually make you think. Cycling heavy amount of thoughts in your brain keep you sharp and always on your feet.
Everyone has different studying habits. They will instinctively choose what is best for them in the situation. If you're not meant for academic subjects, you might want to pursue a more technical course. Sometimes, the abstract world of accounting sounds like a whole bunch of crap to you - you might prefer public relations, for example. Has it ever occured to you that there are people in this world who enjoy cleaning toilets? That the people who collect your garbage are actually more environmentally aware than you are? Some people are suited to different tasks. You might be strong in your sciences, but do you enjoy studying a subject you don't like, but are good at? Your passion might be for teaching, but you might be stuck in something unrelated!
Das ende, bis später.