Study tips at the beginning of the study

I always receive messages from students asking about the best ways to study so that they can gain a better understanding of the subject matter and thus achieve higher grades.

 

There are questions that you should answer clearly and clearly from the beginning of your studies. These questions are: Why are you studying? What do you want? What is the academic level you want to achieve in your specialization? And where do you see yourself twenty years from now? 

After answering these questions clearly and accurately, comes the second stage, which is setting the plan that, if followed and adhered to today, will lead to achieving - God willing - what you want to achieve. This comes from answering the following questions clearly and accurately: 

· What do you need to do to get what you want? 

· What steps do you need to take to overcome the weaknesses that stand between you and what you want to achieve? 

· What are the available opportunities that you can exploit to achieve what you want to achieve? And how can you exploit them? 

There are a huge number of good books and courses that help those who want to set and formulate goals, and I strongly advise every student to read these books and attend such courses in order to be able to master this skill because success is directly linked to setting priorities, and then striving to achieve them continuously through an accurate and clear work plan that is followed gradually and in an organized manner. 

Having such a plan is vital and important because it imposes on the student from the beginning a certain lifestyle and helps him organize his time. Everything that is consistent with his plan that he needs to achieve what he aspires to becomes a necessary task that has priority on the agenda, and everything that is not consistent with that plan becomes a secondary task that can be postponed for free time or even ignored because wisdom says that success is in knowing the things that should not be done. 

It is very important to surround yourself with people who help you stick to your plan and work on it. Try to be a role model for those who do not have a plan and live their day randomly and help them change their lifestyle. 

 

Usually, specialized committees select the subjects related to the curricula, and the subjects necessary to qualify a specialist in a certain field are arranged in a series of study subjects, which the student takes gradually from the beginning of the study to its end to graduate as a specialist in this field or that. For example, some academic bodies specialized in academic accreditation have determined the subjects that a person must master in order to be considered an engineer specialized in electrical engineering, and then committees in electrical engineering distribute these requirements and subjects in a series of study subjects that students go through gradually to achieve the required skills in these subjects. 

This sequential distribution of subjects means that if a student wants to fulfill the requirements for graduating with a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, he must pass a series of successive subjects to ultimately form his personality as an electrical engineer. It also means that the loss or weakness of one of the links in this chain will weaken his final personality as an electrical engineer in the workplace because the subjects are cumulative, and weakness in a particular subject will result in weakness in other subjects, and this accumulated weakness will affect his final personality as an electrical engineer, which will provide the opportunity for others to excel in future job and study opportunities. Simply put, the multiplication table in elementary school contributes to shaping the personality of a graduate of the Bachelor of Accounting. If he does not master dealing with the multiplication table, division, and written problems that the student begins training on in elementary school, his ability to work in accounting will not be complete. This example illustrates the cumulative nature of the subjects and illustrates the danger of dealing with the scientific subject as a temporary issue that ends with the end of the exam for the subject. 

The view of the scientific material presented in the course is a very vital part and is directly linked to the effectiveness of the academic achievement in it. If the student views the scientific material as part of his personality and that it will contribute to his distinction in his specialization after graduation, he will deal with the scientific material in a different way than the student who only wants to finish the material in any way and forget it immediately after the end of the semester. 

Sometimes a student may feel that he is studying a subject that is not related to his specialization, so he neglects it and does not give it its due. This feeling may sometimes not differ from the feeling of an elementary school student that there is no point in studying written questions because at that stage he does not know its importance in the future. In any case, sciences today are intertwined and work today has become intertwined with other specializations. For example, it is difficult for an engineer to say that he has nothing to do with management, economics, or accounting. It is also difficult for an accountant to say that the principles of engineering and medicine do not concern him because both of them may end up working in a place that combines both. Therefore, I advise students not to surrender to the feeling of the uselessness of this or that subject because the presence of the subject in the study plan is justified and is not random. The diversity of knowledge and backgrounds of the student also enriches and develops his abilities. Some may imagine that there is no link between some sciences, but the reality may be different. For example, someone who understands biology, organ functions, and gene formation, and at the same time understands electronic engineering and dealing with signals, is distinguished in his understanding from someone who understands only one of the fields. Therefore, there is no subject in your study plan that is not related to shaping your personality after graduation. 

 

Make sure to attend courses and seminars and read books that address the skills you lack and do not limit yourself to reading in your field of specialization only, because creativity requires a broad horizon, and this will only be achieved by developing personal skills in various fields such as leadership, time management, project management, prioritization, communication skills, and computer programming skills. Creativity also requires developing other personal talents such as drawing, arts, and sports skills. In general, try to learn, even briefly, what is necessary in the various fields related to you and your specialization. 

 

Motivation to work and produce is a vital requirement for achieving academic excellence. This motivation should not be conditional on anything other than achieving the greatest possible understanding and application of the presented scientific material. For example, it does not matter whether the person presenting the material is distinguished or not. The student must believe from within himself the importance of achieving a good understanding of the presented scientific material regardless of the surrounding educational circumstances. 

Do not be one of those who do not open the book and study it except at exam time. Rather, read the scientific material before the lecture, summarize it during the lecture, re-read it after the lecture, and then apply the scientific material from the syllabus immediately. As for the exam, you are supposed to review the scientific material only and then perform additional applications that were not included in the curriculum. 

The student's outstanding performance will only be achieved through self-motivation from within him, so I suggest that the student read books that discuss how to increase motivation and productivity because there are several means and methods that suit each person according to his nature and personal circumstances. 

 

The book is the main reference for the scientific material, and anyone who thinks that he can understand the scientific material by reading the lecture slides prepared by a faculty member or through colleagues’ summaries is mistaken. The lecture slides are excerpts chosen by the teacher to address in one way or another, but they do not represent the complete scientific material. Also, the time of the lecture does not allow for many applications to be made on it, so the student must return to dealing with the book as the main source for the scientific material, while the teacher’s lectures and explanations are a secondary source and an aid to understanding the book. I have often noticed that the situation is reversed for students. Instead of the book being the main source and the teacher’s explanation being a secondary source, the reality is the opposite, which results in a deficiency in understanding the scientific material and its applications. 

 

When you look at the scientific material as part of your identity after graduation, you will imagine yourself during your studies as a graduate who wants to return to understand the subject you are studying now. This will make you keen to make clear and comprehensive summaries of the subject in a way that will not only benefit you in the exam, but also in a way that enables you as a graduate to return to it after your graduation to understand the subject in an easy and smooth way. These summaries must meet at least two conditions. The first is to combine what is in the book, the presentation slides, the teacher’s explanation, and the student’s understanding, all in one place that becomes the reference used in this subject. The second is to write these summaries first and experience their comprehensiveness by using them to solve the book’s questions and applications before the periodic exams, so that these summaries become a reference that the student uses to prepare for the periodic exam, and through it he solves additional applications from outside the curriculum of the subject to prepare for the exams. 

 

When a student feels like a victim, he develops one of the biggest inhibitions that affect his performance in subjects. A student who feels like he is a victim of the educational system or that he entered a major he does not want because his grades do not allow him to enter the major he wants or that the subject teacher is bad or that the subject is difficult or that the educational system is confused or something else, such a student will not make an effort to study the subject because he will justify his shortcomings directly by feeling like a victim. 

Dear student: When you look at the subject as part of your future livelihood, it does not matter whether the subject teacher is good or not, nor does it matter whether there is confusion in the education system or not, but there is nothing else of importance except that you make an effort to understand the content of the subject so that your personality is not affected after you graduate, because you cannot change the education system or even change the teacher’s method of teaching, but you can change your method of studying, so make an effort in what you can do instead of playing the role of the victim and focusing your effort on proving that you are a victim, and in the end you will actually be a victim of your personal choices and not a victim of your surrounding circumstances, so take responsibility for yourself and occupy yourself with improving and developing your study methods instead of occupying yourself with proving that you are a victim, and do not forget that there are those who will excel even under the circumstances and conditions that you complain about, so how can he excel while you remain in the position of the victim? 

 

Continuously accustom yourself and your mind to doing new things, using new methods, and learning new things because dealing with what is new in the classroom will qualify you in the future to deal with what is new in your work. However, if you convince yourself that you are not able to take on the challenge of dealing with new issues, new projects, or new topics that you do not know, then you will remain as you are while others will surpass you and excel you. 

· Purchase the course book at the beginning of the semester. 

· Allocate a file for each subject and do not forget to bind this file at the end of the semester to return to it after you graduate to review the content of the subject. 

· Set a weekly time for each subject to read the lecture content from the book before starting the lecture. 

· Record the teacher's notes and the points you understood well and put them in the subject file. 

· Set a weekly time for each subject where you read the book, the lesson slides and your lecture notes, then summarize them in your own way in the subject file. Remember that you are writing this summary to refer to after you graduate in case you need to understand this subject, so do not neglect the details and good organization. 

· Set a weekly time for each subject to solve its applications in the book and using the summary you wrote, make the necessary adjustments to the summary and ask the subject teacher about what you find difficult to understand. 

· Set a weekly time for each subject to complete its homework and projects on a regular basis. 

· Find additional sources to explain the scientific material, and use those sources with your summaries to prepare early for periodic exams. 

· Solve additional questions from outside the textbook about the scientific material, and edit your summaries again if necessary. 

· Set aside time each week to develop your personal skills by reading a book, attending a course, or working in a group. 

· Do not forget that what is written above is only a study plan and you must write similar plans for yourself in your social and spiritual fields as well. 

 

Conclusion 

If you continue studying the same way you did in the past semesters, you will get the same result as last semester. 

If you want to raise your academic level and increase your GPA, God will not change your academic status unless you change your study habits. Wisdom says that if you continue studying in the same way as in the previous semesters, your GPA will remain the same as it was in the previous semester. Achieving excellence always requires more effort and dedication in a continuous and sincere manner. I believe that you deserve to make a greater and more effort for yourself and your person to achieve the excellence and creativity that you aspire to. Whoever works hard will find, and whoever sows will reap.