Dynamic Memory Success in Exams with Better Marks

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QUALITIES OF A GOOD STUDENT

Today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders and the qualities of the student clearly determine their future and carrier path. So, who is a good student? What are the qualities of a good student? Historically, the term ‘student’ is referred to anyone who learns something. However, the recent definition of a student is anyone who attends school, college, or university.

What makes a student stand out from the rest? The four As: attitude, academic skills, awareness, and accomplishment, certainly play a vital part in it, and a student who has all these traits will be very likely to earn As:

Attitude is primarily a genuine desire to learn, and the willingness to do hard intellectual work to achieve understanding. It is also shown by the way you apply yourself even to those subjects in which you have little interest, and how much you achieve even when a professor’s style isn’t to your liking.

Academic skills include ability to read with comprehension, intelligent use of resources (including library), logical and mathematical skills, efficient study habits, and the ability to communicate clearly and fluently -speaking and writing.

Awareness of what’s going on in the world around you, and the habit of intelligently relating it to your academic courses. For example, when taking a course in political science, you should relate what you are learning in class to what’s happening on the national and world political scenario. When taking a science course, you should relate scientific principles to phenomena you observe in everyday life, and go out of your way to find applications and examples of science in the real world.

Accomplishment is demonstrated by successful application of understanding. The evidence of that is:

Correct and confident application of what you’ve learned to new problems and challenges.

Clear and effective communication of your under-standing through speaking and writing.

Possession of a wealth of information, skills and understanding sufficient to allow you to continue your education outside the classroom, throughout your life.

OTHER QUALITIES OF A PERFECT STUDENT

Ability: A good student has the ability to apply the results of his or her learning in a creative way and achieve the goals.

Self-Discipline: Discipline in managing the time is an important factor that every good student must possess. Often, delaying the tasks, such as writing assignments, reading text books, etc. may negatively impact the ability of a student to achieve the goals.

Understanding rather than memorizing concepts: A lot of surveys suggest that students must understand the concepts rather than just memorizing them. The memorized facts and theories will stay in students’ memory until they leave school, college, or university. Once out of school, the students will totally forget the core concepts that they have learned. Therefore, it is essential to a good student to understand the concepts. Beside above mentioned qualities, a perfect student should have the following qualities:

Initiative. In short, doing things without being told. The student doesn’t wait for assignments to read ahead in the textbook, or to seek out and study related books to gain understanding. The good student does more problems or exercises than assigned, and does them even when none are assigned. The good student working in the laboratory does not merely follow instructions (though that is an important skill) but looks for opportunities to discover new things, try new things, or find better methods. When an opportunity arises to do a project outside the class, the good student jumps at the chance and doesn’t even ask whether it will earn extra credit.

Breadth of interests. College provides a great opportunity to broaden your interests and explore new things. You may never again have such a convenient and comprehensive library, such diverse and inexpensive cultural events and academic activities. Much of education can occur outside the class, if you seek it. But if you confine yourself to the things you’ve always done, avoiding anything new and unfamiliar, you will have squandered a valuable opportunity.

An open mind is a mind receptive to examination of new ideas and facts. I laving an open mind does not mean that one jumps on the bandwagon of every new fad. A better characterization of an open mind is one which is willing to analyze new ideas dispassionately and rationally, weighing them objectively against established knowledge and the facts at hand.

A critical habit of mind. Education is more than the acquisition of information. It includes the ability to acquire new information, to critically evaluate that information, and to correctly and effectively use it. With so many sources of information at our disposal in this computer age, we are awash with information, and in danger of information overload. But much of the information is fraudulent, worthless, incomplete, or just plain wrong. It has always been so. Probably 95% of the books in any library could be destroyed without harming human knowledge. But it’s not easy to determine which books are worth keeping. We are virtually assaulted by folks trying to sell us something (with impressive claims of its value), to persuade us to accept some political or social idea, to convert us to another religion or philosophy, or to convince us of the value of some medical panacea. One of the values of a good education is the ability to see through false and unfounded claims and outright deceptions. By this criterion, education has largely been a failure, for many people who have college degrees are still suckers for the snake-oil and perpetual-motion-machine peddlers.

Perceptiveness. The more you learn, the more perceptive you become. You can, as necessary, ‘read between the lines.’ You no longer need everything spelled out; you can till in missing details. You aren’t dependent on being shown; you can puzzle things out for yourself. You perceive quickly what a writer or speaker means, without misinterpreting. You learn to seek the intended meaning of what you read or hear rather than trying to impose your own preconceived meaning. You can see through complexity to the heart of a matter. You are able to distinguish the important from the trivial in a serious discussion.

Objectivity. Most of us begin our education with an ‘egocentric’ view, expecting everything to have some relevance to our needs or desires. We even impose such interpretations on things we learn, and avoid learning some things because they don’t seem important at the time. Education can broaden that view, encouraging us to set our egos aside and objectively evaluate facts and interpretations. We find out that mere unsupported personal opinions have no value in an academic discussion. We learn to recognize the validity of facts and ideas that we may not like. We learn that other people and other cultures interpret things differently, and that fact is not a-priori evidence that they are wrong. We learn that the world does not revolve around us, and the universe cares not a bit whether we exist, or what we do. Education can give us humility.

Humility. However much one learns, one must realize there’s a lot more to be learned, and that some of what one ‘knows’ may turn out to be wrong. For this reason intellectual arrogance is unbecoming an educated person. Knowing lots of things is good, but knowing the limitations of one’s knowledge is essential to using it properly. Many of the classic errors of history were made by people over- confidently going beyond what they knew and understood.

Inborn abilities, talents mean a lot when you want to study and get knowledge or profession. But inborn talents can not guarantee that one will become a really good or let alone perfect student. Nothing can be achieved without taking efforts, without thoughtful and thorough approach to what you are doing. You need to be self- disciplined and must know how to balance between studying and rest in order to make your studying process most efficient and fruit- bearing. Anyone who wants to become a good student should know that he may face a lot of difficulties. Not always we learn something new easily, because it requires time, patience and diligence. However, if you are sure about your purpose, you should concentrate and work hard for achieving best results.

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MANAGE TIME

You are a student and trying your best to cope up with time pressure, there is one important thing you should always remember—work smarter and not harder.

Managing time is a skill which can be mastered by thinking and acting smartly. Many times students put in great efforts in improving their time management skills, but at the end they realize that no matter how much effort they put. They always end up defeated in attaining the goals they set. This is the result of working hard on managing their time.

What do you mean by being smart in time management? You do not have to increase your efforts. You only have to focus twice as hard the first time so you do not need a second or third attempt. If you can avoid multiple attempts, you save a lot of time and your schedule remains on track too.

You just have to be ahead of your plans and double the efforts needed. This is how smart time management works. If students learn how to make this work, they will be able to keep up and survive the demanding academic life that they are facing.

COMMON MISTAKES IN TIME MANAGMENT

Often, students encounter some mistakes in their overall time management skills that can hinder or even stop them from making their way smoothly towards the attainment of goals.

Starting the day without an action plan: The most important thing in time management is doing things right and not doing it fast. The latter just results in spoiling your valuable time. It is best to have a specific goal for the day. What do you want to accomplish? How will you go about accomplishing those things?

Begin doing when the day begins. So you can attain your tasks by the end of the day.

No stability in life: It is said that life is comprised of seven important areas. These are family, health, intellectual, financial, professional, social and spiritual. As a student, you cannot spend equal amount of time to all these things. There may be some areas where you need to focus more on a certain day and other areas for a different day.

All these areas are related to each other. One cannot work properly without being dependent on some. That is why you need to balance your time in different areas to be more stable and at peace.

It may seem difficult initially to adjust your time in all the areas of your life. But you can attend to all areas if you plan your time properly.

Untidy and chaotic study area: Ever noticed that when there are a lot of things around you, you get distracted easily? Not only you lose your concentration and your mind starts drifting away from work, you lose the enthusiasm and feel sad while studying.

Compare this to a clean and arranged area. You will not feel buried among the mess and can focus on the task at hand.

This is the same reason that office workers are effective. You do not see any mess lying around their work place much. They maintain a clean and cluster free environment. So it will be easy to move around without any distractions. This same principle should be applied to your study area.

Not enough sleep: According to studies, almost 75% of students constantly complain of being tired easily. Some even get tired even before the day is finished. It is not that they lack any sleep. A few are even disciplined enough to get the 8-10 hours sleep that is needed. What is lacking in them is quantity and quality sleep.

It seems that students are so stressed throughout the day; that they find it difficult to get a full night’s sleep after studying hard.

Try to put away all your worries and problems when you go to bed. Remember, when you tackle one thing at a time, you will be at your best. Think only about sleep when you sleep. You will notice that you can sleep easily. In the morning, you will feel refreshed and ready to tackle the day with a clear and focused mind.

Lot of times stress causes you not to sleep and follow your time calendar. If you were not stressful, you could have worked as per schedule. Sometimes speculations of problems also cause stress. In such scenario, think and list down all your worries and concerns that cause stress. You will find things are not as stressful as you thought they are.

As a student, you have an advantage of early learning when you try to master time management skills. You can