How do you know what study habits are good for you? Some can stay up until midnight to study while some fall to sleep right after dinner. Some like to wake up early in the morning to study. You have to find the best time to study so that you can study efficiently. 

Time You Need To Study Everyday

Some people need to read chapter once and they understand and remember everything, while some people need to read carefully and multiple times to understand same thing. So it is important to determine time you need revise everything you learned in class that day.

Make a Schedule

Make a schedule to revise everything you learned in a class for that particular day. If you like to study early in the morning, go to bed early and wake up in the morning to study. Determine how much time you will need for each class. For example if you had three classes for different subjects, determine how much time you need to study for each subject. If you can’t finish everything in the morning before school, make a habit of studying one chapter in the evening after school. If you don’t understand something, don’t ignore it; ask your parents or teachers.

You will definitely find some subjects hard to study. For example in Chemistry you have to remember certain equations or formulas. If you are not good are remembering things, right it down without looking at your book once you are done studying. If you do few times like that, it will be easier for you to remember. You can do same thing for all hard to remember things. Study it and then write it down in notebook in your own words. That will help you to understand things clearly.

Revise

You can’t just keep studying new things everyday and forget old one. So when you don’t have classes or when you have a holiday, schedule a revision. Just read the chapters you have studied since day one of the class and revise everything. Revisions keep your fundamentals clear and will help you correlating different chapters and topics with each other. If you revise old stuff regularly, you won’t have to study everything on the day of exam.

Take Breaks

Don’t study for long hours at a time. Study for about an hour and then take 10 minutes break. Do whatever you like during break, check emails, eat, drink or sleep. In that way you will keep your mind fresh while studying. If you study continuously without taking breaks, it is likely that your mind will wander around the subject you are studying.

Ask Questions
It is always good idea to ask questions if you don’t understand something. It’s a good idea to ask the question right when you have problem in the class. In that way you won’t have problem understanding rest of the chapter. Sometimes particular fundamental is so important for the rest of the chapter that everything goes above your head. So don’t afraid to ask questions thinking it’s just a stupid question.

Kids are very different from each other. Some are street smart and not book smart. Other ones are book smart and not street smart. And some are very active on both sides. I have seen kids who require more attention from their parents and teachers compared to others. Some kids are very smart and need very little explaining. 

But I have seen some very smart kids underperform because they don’t get enough attention or explaining in their study or homework. And where I am going with this is fundamentals. 

My parents were primary school teachers and they always helped me with my study after school. My fundamentals were very clear on each subject and they taught me until I was in 7^th grade. They helped me with my homework and also learning the topics that I didn’t really understand in class. They had fixed schedule for my homework and study and they made me stick to it. After 7^th grade I was on my own. That is when I realized the importance of my parent’s teaching style. They cleared my fundamentals on every subject and after that I never had any problems with my study. Math was my favorite subject. And I always got an A in math classes. I graduated in Chemical Engineering with GPA of 3.76. Any math related subject I took, I got an A. 

So in a nutshell, what I want to say is, give enough attention to your children’s education in their early career. Help them in their homework and explain them topics learned at school in detail if you can. Of course kids want to spend more time playing than studying but make a balanced schedule and stick to it. I know how hard is for parents to take time out everyday but that’s your responsibility. And that will help you and your children for years to come. Once your children are competitive and eager to learn and stand first in the class, they will pay more attention in the class and it will be easier for them to learn new things. As they will advance in their career, they will become less and less dependent on you for their study.  

Some kids are very smart and need very little help at home. If that’s the case, still pay attention to their study. Keep track of chapters they are learning at the school and their test schedules and results. When tests are near, ask them about their preparation and ask if they need any help with any topic. There are always some topics or chapters that give hard time. Don’t let them ignore those hard topics, teach them and help them understand. They may not need to understand those topics for exams, but mentality of ignoring some hard to understand topics should be avoided.  

So help your children in their homework and study, make them competitive to improve their life and career.