Preface: This article is applicable for people across any age group, for any kind of source study material and any form of evaluation/application of the knowledge/skills.
A question I am very often asked is: How long should I study? or How many hours at a stretch? How many breaks do you take? Frankly, parents ask me these questions for their children more than students themselves. These questions are a good starting point to improve your performance. However, they can be quite misleading at times.
What I will recommend is based upon three sets of experiences -
(a) Observing and interviewing top performers, people who consistently score excellent marks and have a good understanding of the concepts
(b) Working with 30+ children on an individual basis across various age groups and IQ levels to help improve their studies
(c) Being the school topper for 7 consecutive years, scoring 490/500 in CBSE class 12 (science stream) and maintaining a 9+ CGPA in college. For more details view profile
The simple answer is that an optimal study schedule is highly personalized. What works for one person may not work for others. There are several variables that you need to decide upon
(a) How long should you study at a stretch?
(b) How long should your breaks be?
(c) What should be the activity you engage with while taking a break?
(d) What time of the day to study at - morning/afternoon/night/owl time (post-midnight)
(e) Minimum and maximum number of hours to study in a day
I personally study for around 2-3 hours at a stretch. Then I take a 15-20, max 30-minute break and then get back to studying. I prefer the mornings, and when required, I can study up to 15 hours a day but typically cap it at 10-12 hours. To give a stark example, someone who performs just as well as me in academics only studies 45 minutes at a stretch, takes 15 minutes breaks, and studies just 6 hours a day.
So the key is experimentation. Try different patterns of study, different durations, different times of the day, different kinds of break activities, and identify your peaking point (maximum hours you can put in a day). You have the list of the 5 key variables to experiment with listed above. Try for yourself and identify your optimal. Also, try to observe and measure your retention rate as your play around with different study schedules. Look at both your short term and your long term retention of data points and concepts. You can set up simple self-evaluations to test your short term and long term retention.
One more thing to keep in mind while optimizing your study schedule is sustainability. If you need to study hard for say just a month, then perhaps you can sustain 10-12 hours a day. However, if you need to study seriously for maybe 6 months or a year, typically while preparing for a competitive exam or board exams, then 10-12 hours a day might not be optimal. You might have to reduce it so that you can effortlessly study every day without exhausting yourself.
Feel free to connect with me for any queries, and if you need additional assistance, sign up for a session on performance improvement.
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Happy studying!
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