Revealing Efficient Self-Directed Study Methods

The content I will be posting today is about how to maximize the efficiency of studying. I have prepared content on study methods on how to cultivate study habits for students who seem to have little interest in studying, and how to study to increase the amount of study.

Self-directed learning methods to increase efficiency can vary depending on the student’s level. Today, I will explain how students, who are still at the beginner/intermediate level of study rather than the top tier, should study. I have divided students into beginner/intermediate/advanced levels based on personal criteria, and I will look at which students belong to each group.

• Beginner: Hasn’t really studied much. A student who cannot concentrate for long when trying to study.

• Intermediate: Maintains middle to high grades in school. Parents find it somewhat disappointing. A student who has the will to study and is studying, but is in the middle to upper ranks in school.

 • Advanced: Maintains high grades in school. A student who is well-regarded for studying in school while aiming for top universities. Students can be divided in this way, and today I will post mainly for beginner/intermediate students.

Statistics Showing Students’ Time Allocation Typically, students are said to spend more than 6 hours a week on activities, and I will find out what activities are taking up the proportion.

This chart is It is a chart that shows what activities students do a lot, and in order of spending a lot of time Sports —> Religious activities ----> Art/Sports lessons —> Volunteer activities.

This chart is It is a chart that finds out where students spend their time, and in order to socialize with Friends -----> Sports ----> Working —> Studying/ Homework. If only Asians are considered, Studying/Homework would be the first, but the statistics are based on all races, so Studying/ Homework is not high in the rankings.

However, in the graph examined by race, Asians were the race that spent the most time on Homework. What can be seen from various statistics is that students do not have much time to study because they are doing various activities. The most important thing in such tight time management is to study efficiently!

• Students with a beginner level of study

Students who are still at the beginner level of study usually plan by quantity when setting standards because they have never studied hard or for a long time. For example, if you decide to study about 20 pages and start, but quickly lose focus due to SNS or Snapchat, etc., there are countless cases where you do not study. In the whole context, it corresponds to only the yellow square, which is 20 pages, but because you do not know the front part, you cannot understand the overall context, etc. You cannot finish the planned 20 pages. One of the reasons for failure is that the plan was set in quantity. If you set standards based on quantity, it is difficult to achieve and you will give up quickly! For example, the reason why you can’t eat as much as you think at a buffet is because you get tired visually and lose your appetite. Similarly, if you set a study plan by quantity, you will end up postponing and giving up because you worry about the quantity.

• Students with an intermediate level of study

Now, I will tell you about the appropriate study method for students who have intermediate study habits. Intermediate students, as I mentioned earlier, maintain middle to high grades in school, but parents find them somewhat disappointing. As the grade goes up, leadership is gained, and while taking AP or IB, there are many assignments, and EC activities must be consistently done, so a somewhat burdensome situation may arise. In this case, students choose to reduce sleep. As time becomes increasingly scarce, choosing to reduce sleep becomes an option, and while some students can withstand it even if they reduce sleep, many students fall into depression to the point where they can no longer proceed with their studies. Reducing sleep is a very dangerous situation psychologically and physically, so you need to cultivate EFFICINECY!, efficiency for sleep. It is important to plan to study efficiently and sleep well. Then, how should we achieve efficiency? It is to cultivate concentration.

The way to pursue concentration and efficiency is to use a stopwatch. Students actually do not have much time to study, and if you assume that the study time is 5 hours, the actual time students concentrate is less than 2.5 hours, which is not even half. Even if you sit down to study, you cannot concentrate for about 2 hours. If you can spend this time sleeping, the student’s physical and mental health will be maintained as the sleep time increases. Using a stopwatch allows you to record all the time a student spends and discover how efficiently the student used the time.

I recommend you to try to keep recording study time with a stopwatch for about a month. If you do it consistently for about 30 days, you will find yourself studying quite efficiently for a considerable time. Using a stopwatch and focusing on efficiency for about a month, you will find out how many hours you studied in a day, how much you studied, and because the amount of study comes out, you can predict your capacity performance. When planning a study, you can divide students into those who say they will study from what time to what time and those who say they will study for how many hours. Either you have a study volume only for time or you plan and have time.

The situation like the left side where time is set has the disadvantage that it can be twisted when unexpected things happen. No matter which way you study, it is okay, but what you should remember here is that if the planned time has passed, you should move on to the next. It is important to strictly move on to other subjects as time passes rather than the back plan collapsing.

Application of Specific Study Method If you assume that you are studying APUSH with the study method explained above, you should not think that you only need to study 3.4 pages a day by calculating 300/90 in a situation where there is about 90 days left until the exam and there is a study volume of 300 pages. This is because you need about 15-20 days to review the entire AP study. And in the remaining period, you need to practice the mock test while reviewing the whole for about 2 weeks, so the calculation that you have to study by dividing 300 pages in the remaining 70-75 days comes out, In the end, it concludes that it would be good to study about 5 pages a day. Even if you study for 30 minutes a day at this rate, it is very effective even if it looks short.

I would like to tell you not to skip this part and try it. At the end of the study, the process of withdrawing your knowledge, that is, explaining to others, I urge you to keep it in your head for a long time.

Today, I talked to students who are still at the beginner/intermediate level of study. When planning a study, it is important to plan by time, not quantity, and to find out how much you can concentrate to find out where your ability is, and then plan accurately. Another tip is that it is not a good method to concentrate on one subject and not touch other subjects, and it is important to improve the learning ability to study all subjects a little every day.

Thank you.