How to study smart?

Joshua A. Reyes September 12, 2013
English 17: Public Speaking and Debate Informative Speech

How to study smart? Ninety-nine percent! Can anyone tell me what this number stands for? This figure corresponds to the average grade an ordinary student craves for. I myself also wanted to reach a grade that is as high as ninety-nine. And, honestly you too dreamt of having a mark that is close to perfect one, right? Yes, of course. Today, people continue to search new discoveries that will improve the human life. This is the scenario that everyone expects—to improve, and so with our grades. Every student is expected to get a high rating, but in reality this ninety-nine percent that we like becomes seventy-nine percent or even seventy-five percent. It is really hard to acquire such high grades, but each one of us can make the impossible possible. Everybody has the capability to turn seventy-five into ninety-five or beyond. But how can we do that? To our teacher, Ma’am Clara Gonzales, and to my beloved classmates, a pleasant afternoon to each and everyone of you. Getting a high grade is difficult to do. However, “difficult” is not a word of a student who studies in a smart way. So, how to study smart? These are two principles I know that could make us study smart. First, “be responsible.” There is a quotation that goes this way, “There is no hard task in a responsible person. Being responsible for me is not being an “all-day and all-night studying” student. Rather, being responsible is being able to manage ones’ time in an effective manner. A task becomes difficult or hard if you’re in a rush. If you are in this situation doing your work, that’s the time you cannot think very well. Because of doing things quickly, you forget to understand things if it is the right one, the true one, or the correct one. You will not be able to improve your work, correct your work, and make it better because the deadline is there. In contrast, if you’re not in a rush, you do things smoothly, you do things properly and you do things correctly. We must avoid rushing things! Being responsible is also prioritizing the most important activities. If I do this, if I do that, if I go here, or if I go there, what will I get after? We must ask this question. For me you’ll be able to know the most important activities in your life by enumerating the advantages, the satisfactions, or the benefits that you can get in attending to those stuffs. The activity that has the most number of benefits is the most important activity in your life. Second, “Dream big!” Most of the times, we keep our dreams smaller because we don’t want to be disappointed and we think it is easier to achieve. We limit them and we settle for less. What is your dream? And more importantly, is it big enough? Most people dream too small. The thought is that if we set our goals low, we will be more likely to achieve them. And we will be happy when we exceed them. The problem with this thinking is that we are not allowing ourselves to reach the best on us. How do you know how far you can go if you never try? Craig Jarrow, a renowned writer, said, “Realistic goals are often met with little effort, and thus little fanfare. Big dreams are hard, tough, and take all of our determination and effort. And they can make all the difference in life”. If you are dreaming big, you allow yourself to come out from your comfort zone. You exert more effort than you usually do. And one day you’ll realize that you are far from what you expect you can achieve. Moreover, make your dreams and goals specific. I want to be successful – in what particular aspect of your life? How successful? Our dream, if absurd, will bring uncertainty to us. Because we don’t know the particular goal, we limit our actions. “I want a high grade” – but how high? We must not say, “I want a high grade” rather, we must tell “I want ninety-five percent”, something like that. “I want to become a Cum Laude”, this is an example on how we must dream. The two principles “be responsible” and “dream big” are principles that I apply in my life, in my studies specifically. I use these not all of the time but most of the time. I don’t know if these are applicable to you. We do things on our own, but a quotation says, “If you want to become good, you join the company of good people, and the like”. If you want to study in a smart way, try these things. Today, ask yourself, “Am I responsible in my studies? Are my dreams big enough?”.