In today’s world, many students – including myself – struggle with productivity due to distractions from their mobile phones, primarily social media. As a 16-year-old, I know firsthand how easy it is to get lost in those endless Instagram reels or get caught up with constant notifications that pop up on my screen. While these distractions might offer a quick, temporary escape from stress, they can severely impact our academic performance.

In my personal research, I found a few psychological principles that can provide us with effective strategies to manage our tasks better, improve our study productivity and well-being, and ultimately reduce our stress levels.

The Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique, designed to enhance productivity and focus, was developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. This effective time management technique involves breaking study time into 25-minute intervals, known as Pomodoros, followed by a 5-minute break. After completing four Pomodoros, you take a longer break of 15-30 minutes. This approach leverages the brain’s ability to focus for short periods and helps prevent burnout by incorporating regular breaks.

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The academic year 2024-25… yet another brand new opportunity to excel. Starting a new academic year is an exciting and pivotal time for both students and educators alike. Striving for academic excellence begins from the first moment the student enters the school or college gate with a clear-cut academic and career goal and a commitment to pay the required price.

Everyone wants to win, but few are willing to the pay the price. All students aspire for success, but only a select few are prepared to endure the hard work, discipline and the sacrifices necessary to realize their ambitions.

Students have to cultivate certain skills and turn them into routines to achieve academic excellence.

What is a Student Skill?

A skill is an ability or proficiency acquired through practice and education. Both hard and soft skills are essential in academic and personal contexts. Hard skills are specific, teachable abilities or knowledge that can be defined and measured. Soft skills are interpersonal or people skills that are harder to quantify. They relate how individuals interact with others and manage their work.

Student skills help in learning maximum with less effort and time. For a fruitful and meaningful life, students have to spend time on many activities apart from just studying. Study skills or academic skills are the subset of student skills.

Essential Student Skills

1. Self-motivation skills
2. Career Goals Fixation skills
3. Time Management skills
4. Reading skills
5. Note-taking skills
6. Concentration and Memory skills
7. Examination skills

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One of the few aspects of the Indian development project that is supposed to have seen some recent success is education. As India continues to witness a surge in the number of students pursuing higher education, the importance of understanding and managing finances becomes paramount. The transition from college to a professional career is a crucial phase, often accompanied by financial challenges. This article explores the significance of student loans and financial literacy for Indian students.

The Rising Cost of Education

In recent years, the cost of higher education in India has seen a notable increase. According to the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) data for the academic year 2020-21, the enrollment in higher education institutions crossed the 3.85 crore mark. With this surge in enrollment, there is a parallel increase in education and other related expenses. According to EduFund, education costs in India have climbed by around 10-12% between 2012-20. Not only the tuition fee, but transportation fees and examination fees are also hiked periodically which affects the overall budget.

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2 days and 10 chapters more to go!
Will I finish studying?
What if I don’t complete the paper?
I should have planned better.
Why did I waste so much time?
I am so exhausted right now.
Will I fail?

How often have you asked yourself these questions?

Students often feel that the syllabus is very limited and that they can finish it in a single reading, until they actually sit with their books and realize that it’s a completely different story. Planning and organization play a key role here. Most students underestimate their time and this leads to them fumbling last minute. It is also said that students generally start studying the subject they like the most. It is suggested that you start with the subject that you find the most difficult.

Learning certain strategies to retain information better is very important. How do we learn the colours of the rainbow? VIBGYOR is the word that helps us recollect all the colours quickly. In the same way, students need to form certain strategies to grasp lessons better.

Academic burnout is very common, it is also on the rise when a student is less prepared. This is because the anxiety of being under-prepared adds to the burnout and fatigue.

Tips to help you deal with academic burnout and conquer demotivation

1. Make time for things that make you happy.
Set aside a time where you only do things you really like. It could be watching a good movie or reading a book. For that full amount of time you don’t do anything but that. Limit it to 30 minutes in case your exams are just around the corner.

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Whether you are preparing for the SAT, ACT, GRE, TOEFL or IELTS, we’ve got you covered. ULKA PADWALKAR’s expert tips will guide you through the test preparation process, effective study techniques, time management strategies, and proven methods for tackling different question types.

Are you dreaming of studying at a prestigious university abroad? The secret to achieving your goal lies in conquering standardized tests. Admissions officers place utmost importance on these exams, as they provide an objective measure of your academic skills and potential. But how do you prepare for these tests and ensure that you excel?

Importance of Standardized Tests in International Admissions

Standardized tests play a crucial role in international admissions. They provide admissions officers with an objective assessment of a student’s academic abilities and potential. These tests help universities compare applicants from different educational backgrounds and countries, ensuring a fair and standardized evaluation process. Moreover, standardized test scores serve as a common benchmark for admissions committees to assess the readiness and suitability of international applicants.

Regardless of your high school grades or extracurricular achievements, standardized test scores are often considered the most significant factor in the admissions process. Therefore, it is vital to understand the importance of these tests and approach them with a strategic mindset.

Preparing for standardized tests requires a significant investment of time and effort. However, a strong performance can open doors to prestigious universities and scholarship opportunities.

Understanding Different Standardized Tests: SAT, ACT, GRE, TOEFL, IELTS

Let’s delve into the specifics of each test:

1. SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test): Primarily used for undergraduate college admissions in the U.S., the SAT assesses mathematical and evidence-based reading and writing skills. It focuses on critical-thinking and problem-solving, reflecting a student’s readiness for higher education.

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Exam stress or test anxiety involves a combination of excessively negative feelings, worry and dread about test performance and often interferes with normal learning and lowers exam performance. It is prevalent amongst students all over the world. The words ‘pressure’ and ‘stress’ are often used interchangeably, but in fact they are quite different.

Pressure can be positive and useful to complete deadlines or to help somebody avoid danger. However, when pressure is prolonged, it can be negative, and depending on how the individual perceives it and reacts to it, it can lead to the development of stress.

Exam stress is a natural reaction to too much pressure and can come from a number of sources, viz., young people themselves, comparisons with others, wanting to reach over-ambitious goals, pressure to excel in an exam from family members and peer pressure or pressure from teachers.

Symptoms of exam stress or test anxiety

Some people feel pressure and develop stress symptoms more readily than others. When someone is faced with increased pressure (in this case at exam time) their body can go into a response which releases increased amounts of stress chemicals in the body. This can lead to various symptoms including:

• Feeling cranky and irritable.
• Feeling inadequate and negative self-talk.
• Problems sleeping or waking up from sleep.

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We all love travelling, don’t we? Let’s recollect one of all our favourite times of the year — our summer vacation, a month-long holiday, for which we start planning months prior to it. The list is as long as the number of hours to reach our holiday destination, isn’t it? But as we travel to our destination, sometimes we still forget something or miss out on something. But do you give up going on holiday? Never! Instead we quickly tell ourselves that we shall be even better-prepared the next time.

You must be wondering, I have been talking about travelling and packing, but the topic states ‘Studying’ and ‘Exam’. So now let us understand this Train from Studying to Exam, which is one of its kind. We all get jitters during our exams, as very often we are never prepared for it. But when you plan and study, you automatically become super confident.

Let’s create a simple itinerary which can be followed to make this journey smooth. Start with making a combination of subjects which are your favourite and the least favourite, then choose the time of the day when you are most active.

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Having seen 30 summers so far in my life, I can still relate to Are You My Mother? by P. D. Eastman. It is a beautiful story of a baby bird and his quest to find his mother.

In the story, expecting a baby bird to hatch soon, the mother bird flies out of the nest to bring some food for her baby. While the mother is out in the sky, the baby bird decides to find his mother. Since he cannot fly yet, he decides to walk. He walks and walks on his tiny little feet, trying to find his mother. Since the baby bird doesn’t know what his mother looks like, he asks everyone he comes across if they were his mother. Along the way, he comes across a hen and asks her if she was his mother. She doesn’t reply. He moves ahead and asks the kitten. The kitten said that she was not his mother. Then he asked the dog and she too wasn’t his mother. The cow also told him that she was not his mother. Finally giving up, the baby bird returns to his nest. And that is where he found his mother.

This baby bird is each one of us. All of us are trying to find ourselves, trying to find the right career option, trying to find what we are passionate about, trying to find out what defines us, and trying to recognize our mothers.

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During my recent visit to a school in Agra, I had the opportunity to speak to thousands of students and numerous teachers. Both teachers and students shared some of their post-Covid concerns with me. Teachers find it very challenging to manage the students as they are frequently distracted and seem to be preoccupied with many other issues. At the other end, students find it very hard to sit in class listening to the teachers for long hours. Many of these high school students claimed that they had lost interest in studies. Two years of online classes and Covid lockdowns have resulted in many such social issues. However, most students showed an honest desire to get back on track with their studies.

The key to becoming an effective and successful student is learning how to study smarter, not just harder. Top students achieve their success by developing and applying certain strategies and study habits. So if you want to become a successful student, don’t get discouraged, don’t give up, just embrace some of the study habits, and you’ll see your grades go up. Here are the top 7 study habits of successful students.

1. Have definite and written study goals.

Successful students are driven by purpose. They have a definite and written study goals which help them stay focused and monitor their progress every day. They are very clear about what they want to accomplish throughout the year. A journey without destination is meaningless and gets you nowhere. Most of us plan and prepare many days for a short holiday trip. But we don’t bother to have study plans even for the current academic year. We just go through the motion of education without any purpose. Begin the academic year with specific study goals which will help you accomplish your dreams. Your purpose should be greater than the obstacles. I strongly recommend that you should have a written study goal in the beginning of the academic year and make a commitment to achieve it.

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After the gruelling experience of the pandemic, the world is opening, albeit slowly. Education abroad has been an aim for lakhs of students in India. Not all can successfully study abroad, regardless we can try. It is important to note that studying abroad is expensive and when you invest so much money you should be sure about the course and career you want to pursue. You should try not to study abroad if you have no plans to work abroad. Consult a career counsellor to discuss your option and evaluate whether it would be advisable to study abroad.

DARRYL D’SOUZA explores a few options that rank amongst the high-paying, up and coming careers in countries abroad.

USA

The United States of America has been on the list of every student at least once.

Mass Media: Hollywood and Broadway dominate the entertainment industry in the world in terms of revenue. To add to it, the television industry and the OTT platform have only given a boost to this industry. A career in photography, cinematography and journalism could serve your purpose in working with any top broadcaster.

Renewable Energy: The whole world is moving towards renewable energy and the USA is trying its best to come up with cheap alternatives to petroleum and other non-renewable energy sources. This has caused a rise in careers in the field.

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