Here’s a description of how I did intensive study.

I first started by doing pass year questions. This helps me to know how far off the mark I am. It also scares me when i realise how little I actually know. When doing the questions I will not refer to notes or textbook. I just try with what I know. Even if it’s very wrong. Because we tend to remember our mistakes. After I correct my paper (a river of red), I’ll go through each question, study the notes that pertain to that question and do the question over again. If I still don’t quite understand, I’ll keep studying and trying until I do. (refer tip #6 and #8)

There came a point when I realised that I just didn’t know enough to do the questions, so I decided to study everything from the beginning. As I went through the textbooks, I began to spot those parts which can be turned in to exam questions. Began to take interest in all the list of things that should be memorised.

I started doing 45 minutes straight study (which includes trying questions, tip #4) followed by 10 minutes rest. I have read a study about rock music, rock music promotes memory, while classical music increases IQ. So I’ll just listen to 2 praise song while not thinking about anything. Then it’s back to study.

As time goes on, I managed to do 2-3 hours of non-stop study sessions. Again I stress that it is not the number of hours but rather the quality of study that matter (tip #3). During breaks, I’ll either spend time with God (affirms my purpose and draws encouragement, tip #1) or just play guitar.

Tip #9 Refrain From Television And Computer Games!
Over time, I watched less and less TV and was not online that often. I really suggest against watching TV and playing games on the computer while doing intensive studying. This is because it’ll dull your mind from being able to read and adsorbing efficiently.

Television shows and computer games are made to GRAB your attention while books wait for you to dig into them for the good stuff in it. If you keep watching television and play computer games, you get too used to having the information present itself instead of researching the information in books.

Tip #10 Maintain Your Health
So that’s how I do my intensive study. But all work and no play makes jack a dull boy. So I make sure I exercise. In fact I force myself to exercise. It’s good for your body and increases alertness. After all, your brain is part of your body. If your body fails, so will your brain.

Tip #11 Use Your Diet As An Advantage!!
Bananas are high in potassium which is essential for your brain to think. Take them as snacks. It’ll provide the mental stamina/alertness for you to continue studying.

Stay away from coffee. Caffeine will keep your body awake, not your mind. You’ll end up having your brain spent while your body is wide awake, that will cause you to have difficulty in resting which will destroy the study routine you’re in. Plus, caffeine losses its effect after your body gets used to it. So drink it only WHEN you need it.

Chilli was reported to be able to keep you alert. You can try that too.

Tip #12 Know Your Limit
You may study better at night. But it’s a trade off if you go on too long. You have to work with your body and your body has a set routine given by God. You work in the day, sleep at night. I really recommend you stop studying by 12am so that you can sleep by 1 am. It takes my brain 1 hour to brake until it goes to rest.

As you’re more and more into intensive study your brain will be more and more focused and alert. So you may not ACTUALLY feel tired. But just because you don’t feel tired, doesn’t mean your body isn’t tired. Know your limits, get enough sleep (at least 8 hours).

That’s all from me. All the best!!

Tip #6 Refer Refer Refer
When you’re studying something like Biology for example, when you come across DNA, don’t just remember Bio -> DNA. Look deeper and you’ll realise that this is actually a mix of chemistry and biology. Another example is when you’re studying Physics and you see Boyle’s Law, refer to Practical Chemistry’s Boyle’s Law also. Check the emphasis. When you start to merge information, you don’t have to remember two sets of Boyle’s Law when it’s the same. You’ll have less to remember and still be able to apply the concept.

Another example is when ever you see the book referring to a previous concept, for example when deriving a formula involving the motion of a ball rolling down a gradient. You’ll need to know linear and rotational motion’s formula. So refer to those concepts AGAIN as revision.

Tip #7 Practice Practice Practice
It’s not about knowing, it’s how you can apply the concepts. Doing exercises with books that give detailed answers are good. Regardless of whether you know how to do the question just try it. If you’re wrong, you’ll remember it better. If you get a question wrong, go and check in your notes the concepts involve and find out what you have misunderstood or overlooked. After you have found your mistake, re-study that sub-topic. And if you still can’t grasp it, back track and start from that chapter. If you still don’t seem to fully understand. Back track to previous chapters. Best to get your foundation right. Then keep on doing exercises.

Tip #8 Timing your final dash
Now we will discuss intensive study. We all have a learning curve to overcome. Two things to consider, how long does it take for you to overcome that learning curve? And how long before you peak (saturate) and cannot study on anymore? This is very important for your final dash towards exams. If you start too early, you may run out of steam and mess up. Start too late and you don’t have enough time to finish studying. It’s like running, runners dash in the last part of the race, when they start dashing is totally dependent on the runner. Each runner has his own speed and stamina. I started 2 months before STPM. I am most comfortable starting 3 months, it takes half a month to a month for me to settle into intensive study.

Considering that the next 30-40 years of your life pivots on the last 3-6 months before exams, I think it is an understatement to say that intensive study is a good idea.>

I will cover the aspects of intensive study in the next post.

As I have mentioned before there are two parts in studying: learning part and practice part. For this post I will discuss the quality of the study.

How do you make sure that every second you put into studying isn’t a waste of time?

Tip #3 Concentrate!
One thing that a lot of people tell me about studying is that it’s boring. Then they say despite spending hours in front of the book, they get bad grades. I’m wondering what were they doing in front of the book. Were they concentrating hard or were they letting their minds run free now and then?

Now let’s be honest, none of us can simply say: “Oh, let’s study for 4 hours straight!” and do it. Yes, you can try, most likely after the first 15 minutes you’ll just be staring at the book thinking: “This feels like forever!!”

The difference between a guy who takes one hour to fully understand a chapter and another that needs 8 hours is concentration. What do I mean by concentration? When you study, you study. You think of NOTHING ELSE OTHER THAN THE SUBJECT MATTER AT HAND.

So tip #4 Start small
Depending on how bad is your concentration level, you may want to start from between 20-30 minutes of study before you take a break. My suggestion is that you take a timer set it at 20 minutes and start studying. Every time you’re tempted to stop, just tell yourself: “It’s only 20 minutes come on.” No looking at the timer or clock (remove the clock in your study area if you need to), because you’re suppose to be thinking about what you’re reading and not waiting for time to past.

Once time is up, take a 5 minute break. Then go back to studying. As time goes on, you’ll realise that you can concentrate longer and you can push the timer up to 40 or 50 minutes.

Tip #5 Challenge Yourself
As hard as it is, try to enjoy the subject take interest in it. Don’t just think that it’s time to take a break just because you’ve been studying for 45 minutes already. If you’re smack in the middle of a paragraph, finish it. If you think you can still continue or that you have a little left, go ahead. You may find yourself so caught up that you can study for 3 hours straight. That’s when you don’t have to study hard, because you are focused in your study.

Use your mind to study smart not hard

Tip #2 Know How Your Brain Works
After you’ve figured out why you study, you have to figure out how you study. This is the planning part. In this part you have to decide where you would be studying (bedroom, study room, on the top of the car). And also how you’ll spend time studying.

A brief list of different kinds of students:

1. Those can understand concepts just by reading notes
2. Those that have to read notes first and then do exercises to understand a concept
3. Those that have to do exercises first and then read notes to understand a concept

Also, what is your learning curve? Here are some questions to help you:

1. Are you a fast/okay/slow learner?
2. When studying, do you aim to master / understand / know the concept?
3. After studying, do you remember completely / generally / partially / vaguely?

For fast learners:
Don’t spend too much time on theory, practice! Since you’re so fast, spend time to master the concept. And if your memory is not very good, practice and do drills.

For okay learners:
Takes a bit more time to learn, but make sure that you really master the subject matter or not it’s just too much time wasted. It’s a bit tricky because you have to balance between studying and practicing.

For slow learners:
Figuring things out on your own is best only when you have time. If you don’t have time, ask ask ask and ask. But don’t just ask and forget, ask and go home and understand. Try to master the subjects, but it’s ok if you can’t. Do lot’s of exercises.

You’ll notice there are basically 2 components to studying: Theory and Practice. You need to find your perfect balance, so trial and error.

For me, I’m the kind of guy who’d be doing questions first before I study. More on this method next time.

“Learning something is good. Learning how to learn, now that’s even better.”

With STPM results out, some (if not all) of you who are in exam years are starting to shudder at the thought of exams actually coming to pass. I have shared with few people how I studied, as I think that my style is just to erm… radical (for lack of a better word). But I’ll share some tips that I think are universal. I will give a tip and share how I went about it. So here goes:

Tip #1 – Purpose
Purpose is what drives you. It is what gets us started. Ask your self these two questions:

1. Do I want to study at all?
2. Who/What/Why am I studying for?

For me I didn’t want to study, who does? But when I thought of why/who/what I’m studying for, I changed my mine. I was in Pre-U last year and I quote Puan Woon’s words:

“The whole point of doing Pre-U is to go on to University, so you might as well do your best or why try in the first place?”

Which is true. I also thought of my family and my responsibility to love them by not burdening them with results that could have been better if I tried. I also thought about God, how I’d be cheating Him by saying that I’m just not that smart when I didn’t even try. I also thought about my future, I can’t depend on my parents forever and I need those ceeking-ceeking’s to survive, marry and etc. Basically your life is not your own, it’s your family’s, friends’ and even your future spouse’s and her/his family’s. So what ever you do, affects everyone. So choose wisely.

Studying for the sake of studying?
Might as well don’t you’re wasting your time. Go work.

Not trying because you just don’t think you’re the studying type/smart enough.
That’s the crappiest attitude one can have. It’s bad enough you don’t use what you have, it’s worst when you insult yourself by not giving yourself a chance.

You may think purpose is just some rubbish people use during pep-talks but the truth is, it is the thing you need most when you’re exhausted and don’t know why you even try so hard. From how I studied, God was the one that kept me going to actually sit down and study, if it weren’t for Him, I’d be drowned in boredom. Glory to God!

“Doing something without purpose is like playing football without goal posts.”