5 step plan that will definitely improve your efficiency when it comes to learning,

understanding and memorizing your subjects.

But first,

Whenever you select a topic or a subject. Ask yourself these three questions.

a. Why are you studying?

b. What are you studying?

c. How will you study it?

Whenever you sit down to study anything. Make it a habit to ask yourself these
questions. I’ll give an illustration before moving towards the 5 step plan.

Since I am in the commerce field, I’ll pick up a quick example. Say, I’m studying
aboutaudits. Before I proceed with the topic, I’ll quickly narrate the above three
questions.

a. Why am I studying? To learn something new or because the exam is tomorrow or

because I want to secure a national rank in this exam. Reason could be anything. It will
just help you keep your end goal in mind.

b. What am I studying? Audits. Assuming that I am reading about this topic for the first
time, I would speak out whatever I know about this topic, whether it is right or not. It
helps in two ways.

 It builds up curiosity about the topic.

 If what I assumed was later proved wrong, I’ll automatically make a mental note
about it which would help me remembering it in the long-term.
c. How will I study?

Now this is where the 5 step plan comes in.

Step 1] Understand how your memory works

You must have heard of the forgetting curve, or the stooping memory curve or some
other fancy name. Try this experiment sometime. Read a theory topic for a page or two
and move on. Try recalling the same and write down what comes to your mind after two
weeks. Now pick up a new topic of similar length and read it. Read it once more before
going to sleep. Revise it the next day quickly before you start your studies. Review it at
the end of the week. Now leave it. After another week repeat the exercise mentioned
earlier and write down all that you can think of. Then, compare the two and the results
will surprise you.

Although I had read about this in various articles before, I myself never used it earlier
because, let’s face it- it is just too much work. Then during my holidays I developed a
serious addiction to binge-watching TV series and, let’s face it- it is just too much fun.
During those two months I devoured most of the popular TV series and after the holidays
 when I was drawn back to studying, I noticed something different. I was able to recall
most of the dialogues, word to word of some TV series like Sherlock, Suits, GoT etc. yet
for other shows like House of Cards or Arrow, I wasn’t able to do the same. And that is
when it hit me. It was because I watched the earlier shows more than once, and a few
episodes which I liked, again and again- The Reichenbach Fall for example while I had
watched the later shows only once. And after that I developed this strategy for my
studies.

 Day 1- Quick revision of whatever I studied that day

 Day 2- Quick revision of what I studied the previous day before beginning new
topics
 Day 7- Revision of all the topics studied during the previous six days
 Day 14–15- Revision of all the topics studied during that period
 After that, mentioned in upcoming points.
Step 2] Understand how your attention span works

Ever wondered, “I have been studying for five continuous hours while he barely studies
and still gets a rank”. Yeah, we all have. Does he have a super-brain? Maybe. But one
thing is for sure. While you claimed to study for five straight hours, you got up eight
times for a pee break, stopped studying while replying to the text of your special
someone and dozed off for a solid half hour without even realizing it.

Hours put in- 5. Productivity- hardly 20%.

While I am not entirely sure about the authenticity of this graph (since your learning
efficiency cannot simply fall down to about fifty percent in just 3 minutes) but one thing
is for sure. Dragging a topic for more than an hour will impact your efficiency. So study
in bursts. Study for 50 minutes and take a ten minute break. Or study for 30 minutes
and take a 5 minute break before resuming. It will certainly impact your grasping power.

Step 3] The Test System

Ever wondered why your high grades in school suddenly took a massive hit as soon as
you appeared for a competitive exam? Most of the crowd which faces competitive exams
witness this very problem, be it CA or IIT entrance. The thing is, that in schools we were
assessed on a monthly or bi-monthly or quarterly basis. Our knowledge was tested in
chunks and the entire syllabus wasn’t covered. So by the time the annual exams arrived,
we had already studied for those particular topics or chapters twice or thrice before, and
recalling at the end isn’t that big a burden. But while appearing for competitive exams,
very few students test themselves on chunks of syllabus over a period of time and wait
for the burden to pile up until the very end, which worsens the situation.

Test yourself in the unit test pattern by conducting mock exams over a period of a week,
3–4 chapters per subject and look how easier your job will become. Plus, you are
constantly trained to sit for longer hours and gain familiarity with the exam room
environment. And also checking your own answers is always fun.

Step 4] The Reward System

 If you did a good deed, you deserve a reward. This system is highly effective in
eliminating procrastination, which is the lovable villain of every student’s life. If you are
sticking to your daily schedule, treat yourself with a chocolate everyday. If you meet your
target for fifteen days, give yourself a day off and watch as many episodes of Friends as
you can. If you clear your monthly unit tests with flying colors, you deserve a cake. After
every task you complete, reward yourself. The dopamine in your brain will start going
gaga over these acts and soon you will start… wait for it… craving to study so that you
can obliterate the next cake that comes your way.

Step 5] Miscellaneous

 Listen to a particular song every day before studying (avoid hard-rock or Taylor
Swift please) I listen to Roads Untravelled by Linkin Park and it bloody fires me up
every time.
 Scheduling is important. Smart scheduling is far more important. Planned studies
end well. Rash studies end unexpectedly. While scheduling subjects, don’t
overburden yourself with unrealistic goals. And when feeling the urge to
procrastinate, try the reward system.
 Meditate. Because no matter if you are trying to attempt a rope walk in between
mountains, or trying to secure a rank in the exams or plotting global domination.
Meditation always helps.
 Attempt practical subjects by hand. Try working out the solution first on your own
and then look it up.
 Rote learning is bad? No. Use it for mundane theory topics. But don’t use it
everywhere else, or bad things will happen to you when you sit to attempt your
papers.
 Understand the power of repetition. If you are an Indian, you must know about the
Hanuman Chalisa, if not, then- ‘Simon go back’. Anyways, most of the Hindu
population can easily recite this long poem even though they don’t understand the
language or the meaning of each of the stanza. Ask us to continue from somewhere
 in the middle of it and we might fail to remember the abc of Hanuman Chalisa. Yet
when we go with the flow from the very first stanza, we can recite it completely
within 5-minutes. How’s that possible? The art of repetition.
 Before leaving for the exam center, when you are all tensed. Open Youtube and
watch the endings of The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Listen to Hans
Zimmer or A.R.Rahman. It will make you feel good and your nerves impact your
performance in the exams.