Effective Study Habits
For Good Academic Performance

By Dr. Niranjan Prasad Upadhyay

EVERY student prefers to study different types of reading materials. Generally, the students use their own methods. Especially, the psychologists give key methods and skills pertaining to effective study or learning. Effective methods of learning always shows good academic performance of the students .

Effective study covers a planned programme of subject matter mastery. It carries diversified roles i.e. to acquire knowledge and habits which will be useful in meeting new situations, interpreting ideas, making sound judgements, creating new ideas, to perfect the skills and to develop attitudes.

The term "practice" refers to the repetition of an activity in order to perfect performance. Study is usually is associated with reading and reference work, but it is also related to the solution of problems arising in daily life activities. Successful achievement in any form of activity is based upon study, interpretation and application.

If an individual wishes to get ideas from the printed page, he/she will direct his/her energies in terms of particular purpose or aim that he/she hopes to achieve. The basic interest in reading the material may be to analyze critically the content of the reading matter or the style of the writer. The basic objective may be that of gaining emotional stimulation from what is being read. Study requires a purpose, and what one learns as a result of study depends largely upon the degree to which one succeeds in achieving that aim or purpose. Learners, whether they be children in the third grade or students in high school or college, often give evidence of lacking study habits. Since study usually is connected with gaining of ideas from the printed page, the learner’s need to grasp the thoughts of a writer. When the experiences of the reader and the writer have been similar, the reader’s interpretation of the written material is made quite easy.

In academic course of study, the students sometimes may fail in their exams. It happens due to various causes. Poor study habits also account for this type of failure. An educational Psychologist reports that fresh students do not succeed in their study activities largely because they lack purpose, read in small units and fail to take proper notes and home works. Batra, P. and Garga, R. (2001) have conducted their study on effect of temperature on memory. The findings reveal the higher degrees of temperature would lead towards slower acquisition and poor retention as compared to moderate level of temperature. The study reveals that temperature as an environmental variables which plays an important role in learning and memory.

Students either in high school or campus, especially those who succeed , usually study alone and pursue a study technique that has been worked out by themselves and that incorporates desirable procedure. When this purpose is linked with a selected life work, the learner’s energies are focused still further on mastery of learning materials, and he/she thereby is enabled to concentrate on the subject area of his/her interest. The successful student learns how to alternate work with rest. A learning psychologist writes that the effective study habits cover various approaches viz. regular note preparation, participation in class room works, use library and recall the learned items. The eminent psychologists Lester D. Crow and Alice Crow have highlighted that the amount and kind of study in which learner engages differ with his/her age and grade level. During the early years of schooling the child masters fundamental learning tools, habits and attitudes as a result of classroom stimulation.

As a young person passes through the latter grades of elementary school, high school, and college, study materials become more abstract. The learner’s techniques and habits of study need to be adjusted to the change in learning materials, purposes and desired outcomes.

Feeling of fatigue, however, are known to result if study conditions are unfavourable. Inadequate lighting, extreme of temperatures or humidity, poor posture, subnormal physical condition, emotional disturbances, or boredom in connection with the activity may produce severe feeling of fatigue.

A school building located alongside a main highway or busy marketplace gives rise to so many distracting influences that extra effort is required if the learner is to concentrate upon study content. Experimental evidence indicates that noise and other distracting factors decrease learning efficiency and cause an individual to waste energy. So the school and college buildings must be far from main highway or busy market areas.

Poor reading habits are obstacles in effective study. Learners differ in their rate of reading. The more rapidly an individual reades, the more ideas he/she is likely to get from the material read. His/her reading speed also may be increased by the fact that he/she is reading for a definite purpose. A slow reader tends to give attention to each word or to separate phases, thus decreasing his/her reading efficiency.

Many students are able to develop efficient study habits without receiving any special formal trainings. However, it may result from the use of several methods of study before satisfactory study procedures are discovered. Some young people fail to achieve economical and successful study techniques unless they receive help in the form of guiding principles, which they can apply to their study activities. The educational Psychologists have forwarded some suggestions related to effective study habits, which include having a definite purpose of and place for study. They also suggest seeking favourable physical conditions for concentration and to have a definite schedule for study. Interspersing study with rest periods, silent but rapid and careful recitation, taking notes, evaluating the difficulty of the learning materials and developing a habit of summarising and reviewing what is read could prove to be some of the important methods for successful study.

Study habits are developed through the process of parenting. Especially, good parenting always leads to prosperous and healthy environment within family. Also school environment and good friends are the key influencing factors for the forming of effective study habits in young people.

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