Today’s ‘question of the day’ comes from Joy in the U.K. Actually, it’s two questions.
Many Thanks Dr Marc,
This seems like a positive start for me, but I’ve got an important question.
I am currently in my penultimate year in the university, studying in the UK. I was just wondering if these study skills to get better grades are skills for only students in The USA or also relates to the students everywhere else.
Study Tips For Better Grades
My strategies have been used by thousands of students to improve their grades in 29 different countries and the book has been translated into 3 languages. Students from grade school, middle school, high school, college, university and post-graduate programs have used the study tips and techniques successfully.
My study tips and tools work for science subjects, social science courses, engineering, law as well as medicine.
Also I’ve got another problem which I find difficult to solve is the interest to study, I think I have the interest as I promise myself to study everyday but as soon as I pick up my books to study I lose interest immediately again it takes me so much time to understand a few lines of words while studying and I can hardly remember them too which is to say I think they do not register. It has been a great concern to me and I have been too shy to speak to anybody. I know and have this confidence in me that makes me think I am intelligent and can make it but as soon as I encounter a difficult task I become weak and just give up. I am afraid I will fail and have to repeat a class if I don’t find a solution quick.
I need your help please and hope to hear from you soon.
Regards
Joy
How To Study Subjects You Don’t Like
There are two issues at play here – the first is you THINK you are interested in the subject matter, but the reality is you’re not. If you were, you’d have NO TROUBLE STARTING. I’ll prove it to you.
If you are a stamp collector and you start to read about the new issue of the new Olympic Stamps for the London Games – you have NO PROBLEM with focus, attention or retention do you?
That’s because you’re INTERESTED.
The challenge we all have as students is that EVERY ACADEMIC PROGRAM has courses we don’t like. I remember hating Thermodynamics in Engineering School, Chemistry in College and Multi-Variate Statistics in Business School (Ph.D.).
But y’know what?
YOU DON’T HAVE A CHOICE. It’s part of the curriculum and you have to pass the course to get the diploma and the degree.
I suggest you do THAT homework FIRST – get it out of the way – DON’T DO WHAT YOU LIKE FIRST. That is a recipe for disastrous grades – it will increase your chance of failure BECAUSE you’ll spend MORE time on what you like and not enough time on what you don’t like…
Don’t do it.
Of course that’s easier said than done. BUT if you start studying what you don’t like, you’ll feel RELIEF and a LOT LESS STRESS. We all have to study stuff we don’t like – we NEED TO. We need to be aware of things because that’s what education is all about. There is NOTHING you can do about it -EXCEPT to get it out of the way FIRST and QUICKLY.
If you want to get through the boring subjects quickly, get your hands on my Speed Reading Video Program so that you spend LESS time on the subjects you hate. Speed Reading will FORCE you to focus and concentrate and get it out of the way in a fraction of the time. Imagine spend HALF the time on chemistry, physics or geography… How cool would that be?!?
Student Self Confidence and Self Esteem
That being said, the SECOND issue you have is with confidence and self-esteem. That is a lot harder to deal with. If you are keen to deal with this, I have a colleague who can help you get a breakthrough. Her name is Yvonne Mcintosh and she has ‘breakthrough sessions‘ for $97 that she can do over the phone. She’s based in Australia, but you can definitely do it through Skype for FREE or via a long distance calling card. Click on the hyperlink if you want to overcome this self-esteem issue quickly.
If you don’t choose to have the breakthrough session, all you need to do is top putting pressure on yourself and focus on the fact that whenever you LEARN something NEW, it’s by definition something YOU DON’T KNOW.
It takes time and effort to learn something NEW.
One of the strategies I teach is to start at the beginning – for example for Statistics, I bought the Cartoon Guide To Statistics to get the basics in a FUN WAY. I bought this as a Graduate School Student to help me with my MBA and Ph.D. courses.
I’m serious. I did the same for other subjects as well.
The “For Dummies” series of books is a GREAT PLACE TO START whenever you’re intimidated with a subject.
Fundamentally – we all put ourselves under pressure – when you put the study tips, techniques and strategies in my book, Get The Best Grades With The Least Amount Of Effort in practice, you’ll gain self-assurance and confidence within 2-3 weeks.
This will be especially true if you learn to speed read!
Good luck!
Wow! This assures me that I’m not the only one who thinks studying the subject that I hate the most (chemistry) which is a major subject is equivalent to dying.
Every time I think about it, that I have to study, I start to grieve in the inside and I procrastinate all the time because I hate it!
…And the fact that all my classmates this summer are geniuses! I sit at the back looking at the teacher like I haven’t taken chemistry before. They intimidate me. That’s what worries me.
The fact that they like solving problems and I’m not that kind of person. I’m more interested in writing or any arts course. But sadly, I’m enrolled in a science course.
I am not suggesting you quit your science program, but you really should be thinking about what you are doing in it since science is entirely based on problem solving, regardless of the subject.
Aligning your dreams, desires and passions is vitally important for success. The minute you find something you LOVE to do, it gets easy, effortless and fun!
That being said, let me be crystal clear – we sometimes have to study subjects we don’t like. For example, I wanted to be an engineer and I had to take chemistry in college and I hated it, but I had to pass it to get INTO engineering.
Once in engineering school, I had to take several subjects I hated – including thermodynamics which I hated even more than chemistry!
The point is that the educational system teaches us HOW TO LEARN. Sometimes that includes stuff we’re not interested in.
That is not unlike a job. You will have to do things you don’t enjoy and you will need to LEARN how to do them.
That’s life. The sooner you learn how to learn QUICKLY, the faster you can move on to doing things you like and enjoy!
That’s why my accelerated learning strategies are so important to learn.