I was sharing with my students a few days ago regarding the number of hours we should spend studying. She was complaining that there's barely 2 weeks left to the start of the O'levels, and she haven't got the time to memorise the chunks of texts necessary to do well in her subjects. It's just too many and too short a time, she lamented. So I asked her how many hours did she study per day?
Guess what she said.
Guess what she said.
She said about 4 to 6 hours.
Okay, that's for non-school days, which means that on school days, it'll be even lesser. That's not going to be good. I shared with her my experience in clocking 12 to 13 hours per day. Why would someone want to do that? It's because I'm desperate enough to want to do very well for my exams, that's why. How does one study 12 hours per day?
8am to 12pm - Study
12pm to 1pm - Lunch plus break
1 pm to 6 pm - Study
6 to 7 pm - Break
7 to 8 pm - Dinner plus break
8 to 11 pm - Study
Okay, that's for non-school days, which means that on school days, it'll be even lesser. That's not going to be good. I shared with her my experience in clocking 12 to 13 hours per day. Why would someone want to do that? It's because I'm desperate enough to want to do very well for my exams, that's why. How does one study 12 hours per day?
8am to 12pm - Study
12pm to 1pm - Lunch plus break
1 pm to 6 pm - Study
6 to 7 pm - Break
7 to 8 pm - Dinner plus break
8 to 11 pm - Study
Insane? It's not a choice if you have not time. The good thing is that you don't have to do this for a year. You don't even have to do this for a month. You just have to do an intense 1 week and you'll have clocked 84 hours worth of studying time. Compared to a person who only studies 6 hours per day, every 2 week of studying 6 hours a day is equivalent to studying 12 hours per day. That's how you double your study hours and squeeze in the necessary hours to do the necessary thing.
How does one do that kind of intense hours? Be desperate enough to want to give the best in your exams. That's how.
But quantity isn't the only factor here. Quality counts too. If you study by walking around, 'multi-tasking' by watching youtube, listening to music and studying all at the same time, your quality of study might not be as good. Studying in such a diffused manner for 1 hour might really be studying really focused for 30 mins. That's how a lot of wastage is done. So when someone says that they've spent the entire day studying, I can't help but ask what they mean by studying. Is it really study study or not?
So to those having their national exams in 2 weeks time, don't give up hope. There's plenty of time if you know how to add more hours to your daily studying time and also improve the quality of each studying hour. Play around with these two factors, and see how you can maximise whatever time is remaining in the most efficient manner.
How does one do that kind of intense hours? Be desperate enough to want to give the best in your exams. That's how.
But quantity isn't the only factor here. Quality counts too. If you study by walking around, 'multi-tasking' by watching youtube, listening to music and studying all at the same time, your quality of study might not be as good. Studying in such a diffused manner for 1 hour might really be studying really focused for 30 mins. That's how a lot of wastage is done. So when someone says that they've spent the entire day studying, I can't help but ask what they mean by studying. Is it really study study or not?
So to those having their national exams in 2 weeks time, don't give up hope. There's plenty of time if you know how to add more hours to your daily studying time and also improve the quality of each studying hour. Play around with these two factors, and see how you can maximise whatever time is remaining in the most efficient manner.
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