How to Cultivate Good Study Habit for Excellent Academic Performance In Our Children
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September 12, 2017
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INTRODUCTION
As the title suggests, how do we inculcate in our students the good habit of studying for academic excellence?
Owing to the fact that a lot of distractions have been observed to have bedeviled the study habits of our students in recent years, it has become pertinent to enunciate good study habits that will encourage the students to build confidence in them as they grow in seemingly effortless excellence in their academic performance.
Every teacher and lover of education will agree with me that such interests as cell phone/social media, cultism, negative peer association, drug abuse and sexual tastes as found in the practice of heterosexuality, lesbianism and homosexuality have eroded the real reason why these students were sent off to school by their parents and guardians in the first place. When the above enumerated interests fight for a student’s power of concentration, little is left to be desired at the end of every term as the student is bound to enter the examination hall empty. This student would give what he/she has which is failure. Even when they attempt an answer, the demon of social media style of written English will make a mess of their effort.
Our experiences as teachers at secondary school level has shown us that poor study habits can bar even bright students from many important opportunities that would otherwise enable them to realize their potential. It has been established that the problem most students have that contribute to their poor academic performance in tests and examinations is lack of proper study habit. For an excellent performance, there is need for the student to form good study habit. In school, high academic performance has been attributed to students’ effective study habits. In this paper, you’ll find out that the pillar to improvement of secondary school students’ study habits is well outlined in implementable study habits.
Definition of Key Terms:
Cultivate: to develop an attitude;
Good: an acceptable standard
Study: activity of learning from books
Habit: a thing one does quite often which he finds hard to break from
Excellent: unusually good, or state of possessing good quality
Academic: to be good at subjects involving a lot of reading and studying
Performance: the act of doing something
From the foregoing, it is safe for one to say that cultivating good study habit implies forming a well planned behavior by which a student effectively learns and advances in knowledge of chosen subjects which at the end of the study will result in an excellent academic performance of such student.
The key to becoming an effective student is learning how to study smarter, not harder. This becomes truer as you advance in your education. An hour or two of studying a day is usually sufficient to make it through secondary school with satisfactory grades.
While some students are able to breeze through school with minimal effort, this is the exception. The vast majority of successful students achieve their success by developing and applying effective study habits.
The following are the top 10 study habits employed by highly successful students. So if you want to become a successful student, don’t get discouraged, don’t give up, just work to develop each of the study habits below and you’ll see your grades go up, your knowledge increase, and your ability to learn and assimilate information improve.
10 Habits Of Highly Effective Students
1. Don’t attempt to cram all your studying into one session. Successful students typically space their work out over shorter periods of time and rarely try to cram all of their studying into just one or two sessions. This calls for regular but shorter study periods.
2. Plan when you’re going to study. Successful students schedule specific times throughout the week when they are going to study – and they then stick with their schedule. Students who study sporadically and whimsically typically do not perform as well as students who have a set study schedule.
3. Study at the same time. When you study at the same time each day and each week, your studying will become a regular part of your life. You’ll mentally and emotionally be more prepared for each study session and each study session will become more productive.
4. Each study time should have a specific goal. Simply studying without direction is not effective. You need to know exactly what you need to accomplish during each study session. Before you start studying, set a study session goal that supports your overall academic goal (i.e. memorize 30 vocabulary words in order to ace the vocabulary section in an upcoming English test)
5. Never procrastinate your planned study session. Successful students Do Not procrastinate studying. If you procrastinate your study session, your studying will become much less effective and you may not get everything accomplished that you need to. Procrastination also leads to rushing, and rushing is the number one cause of errors.
6. Start with the most difficult subject first. As your most difficult assignment or subject will require the most effort and mental strength, you should start with it first. Once you have completed the most difficult task, it will be much easier to complete the rest of your work.
7. Always review your notes before starting an assignment. Obviously, before you can review your notes, you must have notes to review. Always make sure you take good notes in class. Before you start each study session, and before you start a particular assignment, review your notes thoroughly to make sure you know how to complete the assignment correctly. Reviewing your notes before each study session will help you remember important subject matter learned during the day, and make sure your studying is targeted and effective.
8. Make sure you are not distracted while you are studying. Before you start studying, find a place where you won’t be disturbed or distracted either by human noise or T.V. For some people this is a quiet cubical in the recesses of the library. For others, it is in a common area where there is a little background noise.
9. Use study groups effectively. Ever heard of the phrase, “two heads are better than one?” Well this can be especially true when it comes to studying. Working in groups enables you to (1) get help from others when you are struggling to understand a concept, (2) it helps you complete assignments more quickly, and (3) helps you teach others, whereby you help both the other students and yourself to internalize the subject matter. However, study groups can become very ineffective if they are not structured and if group members come unprepared. Successful students use study groups effectively.
10. Review your notes, schoolwork and other class materials over the weekend. Successful students review what they’ve learned during the week over the weekend. This way they are well prepared to continue learning new concepts that build upon previous coursework and knowledge acquired the previous week.
I’m confident that if our students will develop the habits outlined above that they will see a major improvement in their academic performance.
Role of Parents/Guardians In Encouraging Good Study Habit In Our Students
It is the responsibility of parents to provide an enabling environment at home for their children to study in either as encouragers or sub-teachers.
They will elect themselves to serve as monitor of their children’ reading habit.
The onus for home study falls on the parents to provide their children with Home study timetable.
Parents should be on the lookout for the kinds of friends their children keep as bad friends destroy their effort at moral upbringing of their children.
Parents should make out time to visit their children at school, get to know their form teachers and attend PTA meetings regularly.
Knowing the moral decadence in our society today, parents should take heed and curb the excessive use of cell phone by their children.
Above all, parents should take out time every morning before their children leave home for school to commit them into God’s hands for His protection from every kind of distraction.
From the foregoing, I strongly believe that when the enumerated measures are assiduously pursued and imbibed, that our students’ reading habits would guarantee them excellent performance in their academic pursuit.
