The Scientific Study Method by Rohan

The Scientific Study Method by Rohan - January 2014 Scholarship Essay

In the educational world today, when students find themselves forced to study for a multitude of tests, quizzes, finals, the ACT, the SAT and various other assessments that may or may not make a fair assessment of our knowledge, students are finding it harder and harder to study effectively. This difficulty is compounded further when students resort to procrastination and wasting time on Facebook, Twitter, Ask.fm, and other Internet based forms of entertainment. While these do promote social interactions, they often do so at the expense of student learning and attention, both in school and at home. Various students have devised their methods of keeping a firm and vigorous schedule that will meet the requirements of finishing their homework in a timely manner, and yet still have time for a sustainable social life. In finding the most ideal and effective study method, one must remember two essential aspects: to prioritize the list of important tasks to complete, and to take brief breaks to split the otherwise monotonous long stretch of studying time.

Students above all need to realize that prioritizing the list of tasks they must complete in between the end of one school day and the beginning of the next is the foremost of effective study methods. By doing so, students ensure that the most important tasks are completed the earliest, and those that can be put off until later will be appropriately put off. It makes no sense, for example, to begin on a project that is due in a week, when a sheaf of Calculus homework is due the following day. But more often, what students will choose to do is come home after school and immediately take a very long break, or flip the TV switch to watch a few missed shows. Even if they say that this will last only around fifteen minutes, this often evolves into a three hour expenditure of precious time, so that the student begins homework at 7:00 instead of 4:00 when he or she arrived home. Even when the student begins homework, he or she is sorely tempted to continuously refresh the Facebook newsfeed, like photos on Instagram, and update the status of Tumblr instead of prioritizing the memorization of the subcommittees of Congress. The effective studying student will not completely cut Facebook away from his life, but will limit the amount of time spent wasting time on it. In this way, the student prioritizes what is important and what matters to attain the long sought for "A" in school, rather than perusing a relationship story on the Internet. Studying the online social networks does not get one a successful degree, fun as it might be. Instead, students must prioritize what will get them that degree: their education.

Even though education must always be prioritized, a long stretch of nine hours of continuous study can be extremely detrimental to health, not to mention being plainly boring. While education is of paramount importance, too much of it at any one time can be as detrimental as not prioritizing education at all. Instead, students should study in hour- or two-hour intervals. In between those intervals, they can take small breaks, no more than fifteen to thirty minutes long, to cool off from the monotony of studying. Watching a TV show (but one only), playing a quick game, or even a quiet book are excellent ways to reduce the stress on the mind and give it a break from the rigorous ordeal it is subjected to on a daily business. But more importantly, for days in which the student has little homework for the next day, the student should prioritize sleep. A multitude of students stay up until the early hours of the morning, not often doing homework. Even after finishing homework, students will continue to chat online, watch TV or otherwise waste time until the urge to sleep overcomes them. Students are unfortunately proud of how late they can stay up, somehow finding a correlation between the hours of sleep and performance - the later one stays up studying, the more intelligent he must be. As these students often are just wasting time, this is flawed logic. The truly intelligent students are those that can finish their homework at a decent time, and enjoy a peaceful and long rest throughout the night. So while education is indeed important, so is the student's health, which can be preserved both by moderated breaks and by sleeping early.

Students today are experimenting with ways to get the bare minimum of education needed to pass their class, and to see how lazy they can be in the endeavor. The problem with this daring adventure is that it is often doomed to failure, and any success is often attributed to pure and simple luck. The safe method of success - indeed the best, original and honorable way of success - is to study in an effective manner. While one has yet to see positive results from studying the newsfeed of Facebook, students are indeed able to prioritize the order in which they finish their homework items, and prioritize homework in general over excessive leisure activities. They can also take minor breaks in between to ensure that the brain does not get overloaded from excessive studying, as well as sleeping early. By following such a schedule, it is easy for a student to find success.