INTRODUCTION
Be ready to THINK, be ready to EXPAND your horizon and be ready to be CHALLENGED.
Studying in School is both the art and science of gaining knowledge, as by reading, investigation, or reflection, hence one needs to be guided on how to study.
To begin, let us take inspiration from the University logo. The meaning of the black adinkra symbol (which consists of horizontal and vertical stripes joined) which is located in the middle of the University logo is that: If you don’t know and you learn, you will know.
Frank Zappa, an American musician once said “the mind is like a parachute; it opens when it works’’. So, the first and the most important step towards opening your mind for studying is developing a READING CULTURE.
Developing a proper reading culture (for slow learners) is a FUNCTION OF ONE’S ABILITY TO SIT FOR A LONG TIME, so avoid these enemies of time: PROCRASTINATION, DISTRACTION, and EXCUSES. In fact, the only thing that should interfere with your learning is your education.
Frankly speaking, you don’t have to understand what you are reading for the first time, but you just have to keep reading over and over until reading becomes your habit, and this will transcend into studying.
Studying has to do with reading whiles taking SALIENT points into consideration. In fact, it’s not easy studying some courses for the first time but as you keep reading the meaning becomes clearer with time.
TECHNOLOGY AIDE LEARNING
The University has Wi-Fi freely available to every student on campus, so in case after several attempts to grasps a concept have failed, you can also watch lectures on YouTube or download a PDF from authentic websites and study alongside your lecture notes, you can even prepare your own notes out of your personal studies, honestly, it’s easier studying from your personal notes than lecture notes.
PLACE OF STUDYING
You can form or join a study group, and have meeting regularly at a desired place for this purpose. For private studies, you can go to the Library or find a quiet place.
THE LECTURE ROOM
The lecture room is where everything starts so make sure you sit not close to distractors such as intimate friends, preferably, sit in front (don’t ask me who should sit behind).
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
- Where necessary, write down the very words of the lecturer to serve as a guide for you when learning.
- Frequently, meditate upon what you have learnt. Seriously, meditation is a powerful way of getting things stick to your brains. Please meditation is not regurgitation (chew and poor)
- Painstakingly take good notes and most importantly learn ahead of lectures, this will enable you to ask good questions during lectures.
- In situations where you can’t make goods notes because the lecturer is moving very fast, immediately you get to your HOMESTEL or HOSTEL or APARTMENT, rewrite the points you jotted during the lectures neatly.
- NOTE, during exams time, it’s about REVISION not STUDYING.
- When learning, every page you will study, pause and ask yourself series of question that are likely to be asked by the lecturer from that page and provide answers to those questions by surfing the internet for answers, or seek assistances from friends and if possible, consult the lecturers themselves. As a guide you can use past questions and question solved during lectures to predict the type of questions the lecturer is likely to ask.
- For mathematical related problems, try working the example without looking at the solution, and you will find out the difficulties, this will enable you to understand how the difficulties are surmounted by going back a few pages or lines to find out the step you missed. After this, rework the example.
CAUTION
Avoid the mistake of answering exams questions in the exams hall. What I mean is that, before sitting for an exam, solve series of questions, so that answering a question in the exams room becomes normal to you. This will behead any exams pressure.
MY DISCOVERY
In all, one thing I have come to accept is that the best way to learn is to teach, honestly sometimes I learn by acting like I am teaching somebody.
PROFILE of AUTHOR
NAME: ABOAGYE Marcos
Awards:
- Best Graduating student in BTech Civil Engineering, Class of 2015-2017.
- Overall Best Graduating Student (Class of 2015-2017)-The Degree(BTech) category (CGPA= 4.83 /5.00), EEFICIENCY =96.6%
Email: Marcos.aboagye@ktu.edu.gh
Phone number: +233240171761
Publication: the Author has also published a transformational book which addresses over 30 controversial issues in Christianity entitled ‘THE GOSPEL (of Jesus Christ) DECODED’ which is freely available on: www.ktuinsider.com or you can download it from this link: https://www.ktuinsider.com/2018/10/18/the-gospel-decoded-a-book-by-aboagye-marcos-2018-overall-best-graduating-student-btech/
