Time Management

Why set up a study time management plan?

In the course of your studies you will have many study tasks to perform and only limited time in which to perform them. It is therefore essential that you manage your time efficiently to complete all tasks on time with minimum personal stress. Planning your time management will help you allocate appropriate amounts of time to each task and avoid conflict of assignment commitments and a last minute rush (nobody consistently produces their best work at 3am the night before the assignment is due).

Expertise in time management is highly valued by employers, so as well as helping you succeed with your undergraduate study, practicing time management planning will give you a highly marketable skill.

How do I set up a time management plan?

Here are some steps to follow:

• Identify the tasks that have to be done;
• Rank these tasks, according to what needs to be done first, what is most important, what is most time-consuming, etc;
• Be aware of the natural human tendency to give time to tasks we find easy or agreeable and not enough to those we find difficult or disagreeable;
• Sequence the work, giving a realistic allocation of time to each activity. Discipline yourself to stick to this allocation;
• Remember to allow time for social and personal commitments;
• Become aware of time-wasting activities (talking on the phone, watching TV, etc.) and avoid them or keep them under control; and
• Be realistic about how much you can achieve in each study session and remember to schedule short breaks every hour or so. If you work for too long without a break your concentration may begin to flag. However make sure that you keep breaks to about 10 minutes.

When is the best time to study?

Here are some suggestions:

• After lectures. This allows you to review and reflect on what you have just learned.
• Before tutorials. This allows you to do required reading and to prepare you to learn from and contribute to the session.
• Before exams. Avoid last-minute 'cramming'. If you have been following a well-designed study time management plan you should need only a general revision to remind you of what you have learned over the semester.
• Observe your own personal preferences. For instance, are you a 'night person' or a 'day person'? Plan your heaviest study for the time when you are most productive.

Weekly planning

At the beginning of each week refer to your semester timetable and use this as the basis of your weekly plan. Print the weekly plan template. In addition to the activities indicated on your semester timetable, you will need to make provision for additional study tasks which you did not anticipate at the beginning of semester. Also make a note of social and personal commitments. From this information, plan how you will organise your week and complete your weekly plan.

Reading Techniques

1. Preview

Preview the text to be read by skimming it. Skimming is the technique of allowing your eyes to travel rapidly over a page, stopping here and there to register the main idea. When skimming, you should follow the procedure below, adapting it to your purpose

• Read the title.
• Note the writer's name.
• Note the date and place of publication.
• Read the first paragraph completely.
• Read sub-headings and first sentences of remaining paragraphs.

As you read, pick up main ideas, key words (words that tell you who, what, when, where, how many, and how much), and transition markers (words like 'however', 'alternatively', 'additionally', and so on), which suggest the direction of ideas in the text.

2. Question

Effective reading is active reading. To turn reading from a passive into an active exercise, always ask questions.

To do this, you must be clear about the purpose of your reading. If you are reading a text which you will be critiquing in detail, your questions will be different from those you would ask if you were reading a number of texts for background information. If you are gathering material for an essay, formulate some tentative ideas about the approaches you might take, modifying them as you accumulate material.

During the preview, note as many questions as you can about the content. For instance, turn headings into questions and try to anticipate possible answers the writer may offer. Always actively look for connections and relationships. Look at the ways ideas are structured and developed.

The object of the preview and questioning steps is to determine the writer's thesis, that is, her/his main idea and purpose in writing.

As you read, list all the words about which you are uncertain; look them up in the dictionary and write down their definitions.

3. Take notes

Some reasons for taking notes are:

• to maintain attentiveness as you read,
• to focus your attention,
• to familiarise yourself with primary and secondary material on a given subject,
• to analyse the assumptions and rhetorical strategies of the writer,
• to provide you with a summary of the material.

Some hints for taking notes:

• Always record bibliographical details of the text from which you are taking notes.
• Write on one side of the paper only.
• Leave a wide margin for comments and cross-references.
• Use headings, subheadings, and diagrams.
• Keep notes brief but full enough to still make sense to you in six months' time. Make sure they're legible.

4. Summarise

A summary is a collation of your notes, recording the main points the writer makes. Making a summary from your notes has two main benefits.

• It allows you to test yourself on your understanding of the material you have been reading - sometimes it is only when you try to put the writer's ideas into your own words that you uncover difficulties.
• It provides you with a compact account of the text for further reference.

5. Review and reflect

To capitalise fully on the time you've spent reading an article or chapter, it's important to review and reflect upon what you've read. This enhances your understanding and helps you to commit important facts and ideas to your long-term memory.

Here are some review and reflection exercises you may find useful:

• Test your understanding of the material by trying to answer your preview questions without referring to your notes.
• Write down the meaning and usefulness the material has for understanding other concepts and principles. Indicate what other ideas the material substantiates, contradicts, or amplifies.
• Evaluate the text in terms of its informativeness, soundness of argument, relevance, and so on. If you are gathering material for an essay or report, decide which points you want to use and think about how you can use them.
• Start a reading journal in which you keep all reading, review, and reflection notes.

Difference between Class Results and IIT , AIEEE

Well i would like to tell everybody one thing that is extremely important to know while preparing for the IITs, and that is, if u think u r extremely good at school then it does not necessarily mean ur intelligent or brainy and end up having high hopes that u can get into any one of the IITs.

The reason is very simple, at school u don’t need brains to do well in your exams, u need lots of memory and hours of hardcore mugging! But at a place like IIT - JEE, its insane to even think u
can mug, ’cos the syllabus is designed for people who can think!

I have seen people who have scored around 65% - 70% in their boards, but end up with very good IIT - JEE ranks at the end. So now I hope u can differentiate between true intelligence and true ’mug - pots’
According to me no bloody school exam can ever judge the true intelligence of a student, but at IIT it shows it all! At school all of us mug our heads off and the better the mugging the more intelligent we all seem to the teacher’s and parent’s eyes!
True intelligence can be found and discovered only at the IIT - JEE, so why not prove yourself there, rather than waste time mugging and falling under the illusion that u r intelligent, genius etc:- after seeing your class scores!

So the bottom line of the above text is.. Stop putting ’IIT - JEE’ and your ’performance in school’ in the same side of the coin, ’cos if u do.. you would be committing the biggest blunder of your life.



An Example of class study :)