 Hi, I'm depressed. I'm extremely exhausted. Not because I've been studying since morning, because I'm unable to remember whatever I have read in my previous study session. Is this what you generally tell yourself after you take a break from the study session? Are you the one who failed to remember things from a textbook and on the day of the exam feels as if you've not done any preparation for that particular text? If that's the case with you, then don't worry, this is the video exclusively for you. I have had a word with a lot of people preparing for UGC-NET for UPSC, IAS exams and most of the students have told me that this is the area where they face the most of the issues. So they are able to study, they can concentrate well, but when it comes to remembering the facts, they are not able to do it. They feel as if their brain is not sharp enough. They are average students, they can't do really big in their life, they can't remember facts unless and until they mug up the same information 20 times. If that is what you feel about yourself, then shed that belief right here, right now, because in this video I'm going to give you scientific techniques on how you should study. There was this fabulous video that I watched a few days back and it was by Mindvali and the person who was talking about brain memory was a very renowned expert and research scholar named as Jim Quick. This man, Jim Quick says that it is a myth that people are not smart enough. The fact is that you are not trying to understand how your brain works and because you are not able to align your study routine with how your brain functions, you are not able to remember the data because if you can train your brain, your brain can be the brain of Albert Einstein. It is that superpower which can remember almost everything. The only way you can do it by understanding your brain and understanding how it works. So in this video I'm going to talk about some study techniques which I realized when I was studying for my bachelor's and master's and I became the university gold medallist. Also, while I was preparing for UGC net, I faced some of the problems which you guys face and I try to overcome them by using certain techniques. So in this video I'm going to talk about those practical tips. Also, I'm going to talk about some really fantastic ideas which I got by reading a book called Ready, Study, Go which is written by ex-IITians. So a lot of masala musty is going to come your way. Stay tuned, take a notebook with you so that you can write down the pointers which I'm going to talk about in this video and apply that right after this video in your next study session. The first important tip that I would like to give you here is that you must know your goal. You must know how you would be tested on that book that you are reading. There are times when you're studying for a essay type subjective examination where you have to write a 20 marker answer, you have to fill pages about a particular concept. On the other hand there are exams like UPSC prelims, UGC net where you will be tested on MCQs. So you have to choose one of the four options. Now this approach from which you are going to look at the book is going to be very different in both these cases. So make sure that whenever you sit down to study a book you know how you will be tested on that book. Is it that you are going to do a objective type paper or is it that you have to do a subjective type paper? Because this is going to give you an overall idea about how you should study a big picture approach. I have seen people who are fantastic when it comes to long answer type questions where they fail miserably in case of competitive exam because the approach that they are putting in case of a long answer type paper is very different from the approach that they have to put in a competitive exam. So I have seen brilliant people failing at competitive exam because they don't know how to approach a textbook, how to prepare notes for a particular exam. Make sure you don't do that mistake and you know from the first day itself how you should approach a particular textbook. Now comes what you need to do when you begin reading a textbook. The first thing that you have to do is to skim. So when you start a particular chapter in a textbook make sure you skim through the chapter. You don't have to read it in the first go. Just look at the highlighted points. Look at those bulbs. Look at the headings. Look at the previous questions that are written at the back of that chapter. Look at those small key notes which are given at the right hand side of the margin or you just go through the diagrams, tables, charts. Just try to become friendly with the text. This is going to help you to get an overall idea about what the chapter is going to talk about and it is also going to help you to develop interest when you finally start reading it line by line. The next important step that you take is to finally read the lines one by one. So active reading is the second step. Now what is active reading? Active reading doesn't mean slouching down and just trying to flip the pages and read it without understanding or without seeing whether you are able to absorb the information or not. Active reading means you sit on a chair with a table in front of you, you put that book there, you have a highlighter, a notebook and a pen ready and you then read each and every line very consciously and see what that means to you. You have to understand that you have to ask questions when you are reading. Then you have to also associate things with your previous experiences. For example, I'm reading a work for UGC net English literature. Now there's a character which looks exactly and the way the character behaves is very similar to that of my best friend. So the moment I associate my best friend with that character, my character gets there in my head. I will never forget the character anymore because I have had associations with that character. The same thing happens with mind maps, with those study techniques that you use. Make sure you give yourself examples when you are reading something. You read something, suddenly a practical life example came in your mind. Make sure you write it down somewhere near that particular paragraph so that you get reminded by yourself. So associations, story, using all these small, small techniques will help you to actively read and remember information. Never sit and study without a highlighter or a pencil in your hand. Make sure you highlight the important points. Make sure you note down the important points in a register if you are more of a tactile person. All these things will help you to understand and memorize the text better. So after skimming, make sure you do an active learning. If till now you've been slouching and just reading the pages, make sure you don't fool yourself from now and change your study habits. Take a table and chair in front of you and then read and remember and perform exceptionally well on the day of the exam. The next important element in learning which is going to solidify your memory is by involving different learning styles. Now we all know that in our brain there are neural pathways. Whenever you learn information, it is going to connect to neural pathways. But if you learn something new, it is going to make one neural pathway. If you learn the same thing by involving different senses, it is going to create simultaneously a lot of neural pathway and this will end up making that information stay in your mind for a very long period. So there are different senses. If you look at something, it might get registered in your brain. On the same side, if you listen to that thing again, it is going to create another neural pathway in your brain. And then if you write it, another neural pathway is going to be created. So for one thing, there are three neural pathways. This will help you to remember and retain the information for a way longer period than if you only listen or only read a particular thing. So you must make sure that you involve all the three learning styles in your study method. There are three learning styles namely auditory, kinesthetic and visual. So visual learners are the ones when you look at these flow charts, pictures, videos, it gets registered by your eyes. So a different kind of neural pattern is developed in your brain. So whenever you are reading something, you tend to remember the area where it is on the page. For example, if I am reading a second paragraph, I will kind of have this photogenic memory where I would remember that in the second paragraph, this particular point was mentioned. Similarly, when you see these flow charts, you see mind maps, all these things is going to be taken care by the visual side of your brain. On the other hand, we have auditory learners. Whenever you are reading something aloud, your ears are listening to what you are saying. Similarly, when you teach somebody, you tend to say that aloud and that is how it gets registered in your brain. It is said that 95% cases may have that thing that you always remember if you have told anyone. For example, you might read newspaper, you will forget it. But after reading newspaper, if you discuss one of the news with a friend of yours, you will not forget it so easily. That is because you talked about it. You somewhere use the auditory skills to remember the information. And the third kind of learning style is kinesthetic. That is by doing. So when you write something down, your pen, paper, and the touch of your hand will help you to remember the information for a much longer period. So it is said that if you are not writing down anything while you are reading the book, that's the worst way to read a book. So make sure that you have your pen and paper handy. Whenever I am delivering audio lectures to my students in the online course, I tell them that the reason why I gave you audio lectures is that you can listen to it. It registers in your brain. You can write it. When you are writing those bullet points, it again gets registered in your brain. And when you are reading what you have written, the visual skills are helping you to remember it for a longer period. So all the three important learning styles are getting employed. And that makes you remember the facts for so long duration that you yourself are surprised that you never had that much of sharp memory. So make sure you use all these three learning styles when you are reading and trying to prepare yourself for the competitive exam. The next topic that I am going to talk about in this video is somewhere along the line, the most important part of this video, and that is revision. Revise karna sapsi zada crucial hai. Why? Because if you look at how our brain functions, you will figure out that a scientist has very well talked about a forgetting curve which summarizes how we retain information in our brain. What is this forgetting curve? Forgetting curve very simply says that when you learn a new information, you tend to forget it if you don't revise it thrice. And when do you have to revise after 24 hours? Then after a week and finally after a month. Once you go through these three revisions at these three intervals, you will never forget that information. It goes into the long term memory. So make sure that whenever you are reading anything new, you revise it the next day before you start reading anything new the next day. Then after you have learned new information in 6 days, Sunday you should keep for revision. You should not learn anything new but only revise whatever you have done throughout the week. And finally towards the end of the month, make sure you keep the last 3-4 days empty where you only revise whatever you have studied in the entire month. If you follow this technique, I can guarantee you that you can score exceptionally well in the next competitive exam you are sitting. You can remember the textbook exactly the way the textbook is written. You will remember all the important facts without pressurizing your brain. That is because you have to understand how your mind functions. I have seen lot of students doing this mistake. They read, read, read for 3 months without revising and then when just one month before the exam, they try to read what they have read in the first month, they forget it completely. Why does that happen? That happens because you have not understood how your brain functions. You have tried to use your own mathematics not understanding the formulas according to which your brain works. So make sure you revise. Also there are two important things that I would like to tell you here. I want you to take it as a disclaimer. Lot of students say that after reading for the first time, they forget so much. Don't panic when you forget information after the first session. That is how your brain is supposed to be. Forgetting is actually good. Why? Because when you forget, your brain tries to work harder to retain the information. So when you will revise the next day, you will see that your brain absorbs the information faster and retains it for a longer period. So suppose you read something today. Now tomorrow when you try to revise it, as in you try to recall it, you will not be able to do it. Now you feel bad about yourself. Now your brain is working harder to remember the information. Now you open the book, you revise it again. Now when you revise it again, your brain is going to absorb the same information with much more dedication and it is going to retain it for a longer period. So this is how the brain functions. Make sure you remember all these things and you apply it in the next study session. That's it for this video lecture. We will meet very soon in the next video lecture. Till the time we meet next, happy learning, keep loving literature and stay tuned to arpathakarva.com.