I started my refresher course 4 years ago at my own time place at my own pace. Isn't one of the best deal? Since I've been out a bit long time now from my course of field since my marriage and my daughter came along, time and money would one of the issue to consider in leveling up your professional career. How to save time and money and still get that licensure exam or certification exam passed is tough and mind consuming. So here's some few tips I wanna share and is very effective to me, so here it is;
Study Tip # 1. If you a timeline/time table or schedule for your review time, PREPARE AHEAD.
How?
a.) Rest the day before your study time or rest before you study (If you prefer studying everyday). Play, read your favorite book, have your coffee time, get a body massage, watch your favorite tv series or listen to music (I prefer smooth jazz by this time), do your chores and errands and more. Remember not to tire yourself much.
b.) Prep up your emotion, psyche yourself (you may listen to a relaxing music or instrumentals, read your bible and don't forget to pray. Remember to get a good night sleep. Or to those who study everyday just make sure have a rest in between errands/chores before studying.
note: These are just small things you do to yourself with little or no effort at all. So just relax.
Study Tip #2 LISTEN TO CLASSICAL MUSIC AND BREW SOME COFFEE.
The moment I wake up I tuned into Mozart online radio, brew my own coffee (from beans to cup), bite some biscuits, and face my books. Let Mozart and coffee take effect and you'll see everything will follow. Not realizing you already read almost a hundred pages for just a hour or two. Don't worry or be surprised if you keep that mode until the end of the day or be possible a week, it's the Mozart and caffeine effect.
note: Don't be too harsh on yourself, get some sleep and food. Rest a day or two before going to another study session with Mozart. It's a normal thing if your brain wouldn't process more information that's to keep the information you had and process it in your long term memory. Rest is a good thing.
Study Tip #3. GRAB YOUR TEXTBOOKS.
We all know that time is precious, we are on constant move in this fast-paced generation. Review books are a great deal for us who wants to learned the condensed or just the most important information in a short period of time. But the question is, are we really learning or understanding the concept? Or it's just another way of memorizing the material with little to no understanding. I've learned that from 3 to 4 years of experience. I started in a review/concise books and ended up a lot of questions of how's and why's and wasting time.
So what should I do?
Go get your textbooks and reread and relearn it again. It may be bulky, so what? there's what we called E-book nowadays, so no excuses to that...sorry! But these contains the whole story of how and why It began and why you should study the material.
note: Don't get me wrong, I really love review/concise books. I used these books to reaffirm, remind, organize and highlight the important information in my brain, but that does mean the "less important" stuff that aren't included in the condensed notes are not important, it's the "less important" in addition to the "most important" knowledge that makes the whole story understandable.
Study Tip #4. FAMILIARIZED YOURSELF WITH THE LEARNED MATERIAL.
Now this where the Review Books, Concised Notes, Q and A Books, Flash Cards and notebooks comes in. After learning the textbooks, time to brush up what you've learned. Bring your pocket notes or flashcards wherever you are and reread and reread. Practice answering the some questionnaires everyday. This is very important, and I'll be discussing this topic in another blog post. That's it and we're almost done.
Lastly,
Study Tip #5. NEVER STOP LEARNING,
whether it be learning a new skills, watching informative or historical documentaries, reading an article or writing a blog can make the brain active and healthy.
