Study Skills/Introduction

Learning involves many activities: managing your time, taking notes, reading books, listening to lectures, memorizing, having discussions, and writing tests. We'll cover each of these activities individually, and teach you to do them more effectively. Feel free to learn the sections in any order that makes sense to you; however given that this is a text, we suggest that you start with the Reading Textbooks section.

Before you begin studying anything, there are some basic ground rules to follow:

  1. Desire to learn the material. If you are not motivated, you won't learn. Respicius Rwehumbiza in 2013 asserted that, Desire to learn enables you to sacrifice for study and manage time for study. It enables you to study anywhere and at any time. It creates a sense of responsibility in you about study, a sign of success. It puts you in sense of competition to learn more and more. It makes you generate new ideas and techniques for study, how to study effectively, how to concentrate and how to manage time for study
  2. Review the material regularly to reinforce your knowledge of the subject.
  3. Apply the knowledge. If you don't use it, you'll forget it sooner.
  4. Introspect regularly. Set aside a specific time each week where you examine your actions for that week. Take the time to learn from your mistakes and your successes.

These instructions are distilled from the studying tips offered by Dale Carnegie in the introduction of each of his books.