Preparing for a competitive exam such as CA or CS is two fold. One is that you have to be motivated throughout, each & everyday with a steady belief of where you are heading and the other is your Action must match your belief.
Both have an equal importance.
So if one believes I am going to perform really well but did not study the entire first month in no way he could be better than the one who did. Yet again if someone might be studying but is constantly unsure of his performance, is unmotivated, does he appear to be at his full potential ?
So here are a few common study tips & techniques you can use that will help you build up your belief and also study better:
1. Look back: It is very important to see what we have done in the previous week or over the previous month. Repeating things immediately takes much less time than if you give it some gap. You could take the help of a friend to time and again ask you that what did you study today or in the last week. So one, if you are not studying, it would make you feel that we should study by now. Or even if you are repeating it, what you have studied is being revised. Maybe if you forget a line or two you immediately go back to check what it was. So the concepts become stronger.
Make some extra time every day, hardly 10 to 15 more minutes to see what you covered back in time. This bit can also be called going the extra mile.
2. Planning: Planning is very important because it is much easier to walk on a path which is certain to you than an uncertain one. Study Plans can range from Daily Plans to Monthly Plans. Remember, sometimes it is possible that you have to re-plan because the original plan is no more suiting the situation. This is the point where many of us disbelieve. But the right approach is to re-plan immediately. Because it is more important to have a study plan than not having one. And your study plan has got nothing to do with what someone else is doing. It is really important to Plan for yourself.
3. Live in the present moment: It is one of the most important things to do in Life and especially when you are preparing for a professional exam. If you failed, consider believing that your past performance in no way has anything to do with your future one.
You have all the power at present to write your success. So all a past failure does is that it dictates your belief. If you choose to believe in yourself despite a failure, if you've accepted your failure and intend to grow out of it, you're on the right track.
A solution oriented mindset always sees such problems as opportunities. Like for E.g., someone gets a Job by cracking one interview and someone does by having to go through ten interviews and then finally cracking one of them. I can certainly tell u that B is better than A. Because he's faced ten interviews. So has experienced more than the first one.
But the only problem is most of us like B would see that I failed 9 times, and not the positive side of it of how much he learnt and how amazing an experience he gathered.
So if you've failed, trust me you are in a better position than the one whose passed in the first attempt. Do not let your failure ever demean you.
4. Less Social networking:
Once again mentioning about living in the present moment, our mind has a tendency to always occupy itself. This is especially for those who find themselves scrolling the Facebook news Feed too often. Most of the content is advertised or some post that has got nothing to do with you especially when exams are nearby.
Does it not happen sometimes, that you would not even need to think before you are already scrolling through some social app and then suddenly happen to realize that I was doing this for the past 10 minutes. It's become a part of our habits so much that we do not even need to think before repeating it.
Some thought or the other continuously goes through our minds. So as much it is occupied somewhere else, the lesser you are giving to studies.
If 10 things run through your mind while studying are you being able to give your full focus to it?
Remember, the more you talk about many other things, the more you think, the lesser you Focus.
5. Always be Happy: This in turn is one of the best of all things you can do for yourself and for others is to stay happy yourself. A calm & open mind can cater to any situation much better than a bogged & stressed mind can. Happy mind tends to be giving, and in the process of giving you return much to yourself than you can think of. Do not get fooled by feelings or emotions. They keep changing. It is really important to have an open mind.
6. Do not be confused: It occurred to me that many of us try to find answers "Ki CA ya CS karke hoga kya." Are constantly worried about this. Sometimes they even think this is not what I want to do, even when exams are nearby. Many are confused, that if I do this where would I ultimately be heading.
But for once let those questions be unanswered. Where is the surety ? Is it in your mind ? It's a part of the process of discovering as and when Life unfolds. Many of my friends doing articleship at good places are not really sure what will they do in the future. It is ever certain to most of us?
Imagine living a Life with a Professional Degree to you accreditation. It is much better than without one. And once your belief is right, then only you will be able to study with the right level of confidence.
There are so so many out there that already believe I'm not good enough. Do you think with such disbeliefs about yourself or about what you are doing, you can give 100%?
You never know how much of a change you will make to your Life just by believing Yes I'm Good Enough.
Very less proportion of the World is doing what they would have actually wanted to. In a way that is the true meaning of success. We all dream big. But slowly we start accepting what others tell us about ourselves.
You & Me. We don't know what our 100% is. We all are a part of the process of discovering. So in whatever you do, scale your belief up. Remember, self belief will help you achieve remarkable goals.
Be the Unstoppable.
"Success & Failure has no meaning. You have to give it a meaning."
All the Best!
CAclubindia
