What’s wrong here?

Having a test on Monday, Jonathan finished all his written homework on Friday and spent the best part of the weekend studying the topics he had for the test.  He got his file and sat on his bed reading the notes.  He read the notes three times and felt very well prepared for the test.

He was disappointed to only obtain a 50% in the test when his friend Karl who had gone out on both Sunday and Saturday evening and only studied for 5 hours got over 70%...Is Karl more ‘intelligent’ than Jonathan? 

Probably not, possibly it was all in the different study techniques the boys used.

Study Tips

• If possible study in a room on your own.

• In bed you may read a story but you do NOT study.  First of all in bed you may not concentrate, even become sleepy.

• Before studying take all the things you may need to your desk (eg. Files, hw copybooks, calculator, textbook, English dictionary, rough papers, pens etc).  Very often once you’ve settled down you will not get up to look up a difficult word or a difficult topic in your text book, if your text book is in your desk you are more likely to refer to it.

• Take away hindrances: switch off your mobile if your friends SMS every few minutes.  Turn off your computer and do not download stuff or chat on IRC while studying.  You end up chatting much more than you study... And definitely both your TV and radio should be off.

  • On the other hand, if you are studying in a noisy environment you may find that headphones and a CD may help….that is, only if you do not end up listening to the music rather than studying!!!!