Do you have plans of reaching the highest height attainable in your academic pursuits?

Are you a goal getter that absolutely refuses to be average? Have you dreamed of graduating from your higher institution with a first class degree?

If your answer to all these questions is in the affirmative, then this, my dear, is for you.

Being or becoming a first class student is not a day’s job as anyone would tell you. Getting through school itself is a mighty chore. Therefore, it takes uncommon grit and determination to be the best student and I congratulate you for even attempting it. You have my respect! Now, let us not get carried away.

The key to being the best student you can possibly be is the knowledge of how to study smarter and not necessarily harder. All first class students have managed to develop some reading habits that is way out of this world and we are serving it to you on a gold platter. I’ll walk you through it.

1. They All Start From The Beginning

Everybody has lofty dreams but we all know that not everybody lives their dreams. This is because some people leave them just as they are. Dreams. But there is a thin line between having a dream and having a goal. A man who has a dream and wants to see it come to pass, would do one thing and that is to START! To be a first class student, start from the very beginning of it all. Start working towards it at the beginning of the semester. Start working it from your first class.

When you study, make sure you start studying from the beginning of the school session. Do not attempt to wait till maybe two weeks to your midterms or examinations before you start studying. Note-taking is instrumental in this regard. If you are going to be a first-class student, you must learn to make notes, while in class and even while you are studying. This helps when you have more studying to do or you have assignments to turn in. Bottom line is to make sure that whatever strategies you have for achieving your goals, you must make sure you start them from the very beginning.

2. Smarter, Not Harder

If you want to be a first class student, then staying up all day, having sleepless nights and never finding the time to eat or even breathe is not the way to go. Yes, it looks like you are doing a lot more but unfortunately, you are not making much progress. Most first class students you would find will tell you about how they have had to learn the hard way that getting the best grade does not rely on how hard you study the course but how smart you study it.

We have definitely had cases of students studying so hard for a course, running helter and skelter, attending tutorials then staying up all night in front of a desk, refusing to sleep or eat and still end up failing the course. It’s the most unfortunate thing that could ever happen to a student but it does happen. To study smart, it is important to be observant. You have to understand the major points of whatever it is you are studying. After which you go on to schedule shorter times for consistent study. It is not how long you studied that matters in the long run, it is how well.

3. Understand, Do Not Cram

Usually, cramming becomes your best bet when you are trying to meet a deadline. While cramming might be the only way for average students, first class students do better than that. They understand. Now, the process to understanding might take a longer and slower process but it is worthwhile. This is why we are advised to start early. Start from the very beginning of the session, immediately you get your study materials. Ever been in a situation where because of one word that you can not remember in the jumble of things you have crammed, you lose the whole information?

It is a dicey bet you do not want to take. You rarely find first class students trying to cram all their study materials due to a time crunch. You need to learn how to have a goal, start working towards it very early and also develop smarter strategies for understanding and not for faster ways to cram an entire textbook in one night.

“Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.”

– John Maxwell

4.  Plan, More Plans, Keep Planning

As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said,

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

We all know that everybody is capable of making wishes. Even two-year old babies make wishes but not everyone’s wishes come true because a wish is merely a desire, a hope or a longing for something or for something to happen. This is all in its abstract form. A wish is abstract and therefore has not concrete results. Everyone wishes for success, even the one-year old baby who is even unable to articulate the word correctly.

But the real task is how we must have actionable and probable goals which when met, would in turn deliver our wishes on a platter. To actualize any goal, we need plans! Plans, more plans and even more plans. As a first class student, you need plans for everything. You need plans concerning your eating habits, plans regarding your social activities, plans about your relationships and most importantly, plans for your studying. These plans are a set of intended actions, usually mutually related, through which one expects to achieve a goal.

As a first class student, your study time must be structured with military precision.

You must schedule specific times during the week when you must study and most importantly, you must stick to it! First of all, you observe and decide which time of the day is the best for your studying and you must be consistent, come rain, come shine. Do not let anything sway you from your study time.

Students who usually study ‘anyhow’ and ‘anytime’ they like, leaving their study time to the whims and spontaneity of their other activities never reach their full potential in their academics. After creating this routine and sticking to it for a particular length of time, you discover that your body has been conditioned to understand when your study time is and as such, your body begins to respond mentally and emotionally to every study session.

5. Do You

Being in a whole new environment where people from different cultures, backgrounds and whatnots have come together for a specific length of time to achieve a common goal can be overwhelming. It is so easy to allow yourself get lost in this sea of faces and varying personalities. What is important though is to not forget to ‘do you’ at all points in time. While making new friends, it is expected that you meet strange sets of personalities and characters that you might have never seen before.

A lot of people come with their own mentality and their own set ways of doing things and you must be careful not to attempt to be like any of these people. You must never forget to be yourself especially when you are studying. Different strokes for different folks. You have to understand what works for you as a student and constantly work in that direction. You have to give yourself time and discover which time of the day you are able to assimilate more. You have to discover which subjects you enjoy more and which subjects you might have to put more effort than usual.

You have to understand how your body works and you must work accordingly. Never make the mistake of forming a study habit only because your friend does it. That is the quickest path to failure. There are several people who prefer to study with their headphones plugged in, letting the music play in the background and help them focus while there are some people who would reject the slightest sound during their study time as this distracts them and makes them lose focus. There are people who study better at night and others can not. Bottom line is you have to discover what works for you regardless of what everyone else is doing and just do you. That is one of the markings of a first class student.

6. Flee From Distractions

Just like temptations, distractions would come. The fact remains that if you want to emerge as the best or one of the best in your academic pursuits, you must flee all distractions. Distractions do not necessarily have to be bad, they could be the right things coming into your life at the wrong time. Or they could be the wrong things coming into your life at the right time. Whatever form distraction takes, you must flee.

To a first class student, time is golden and therefore precious. You must not trade your study time for anything if you are going to come out on top. You must learn to stand your ground against every form of distraction. Sometimes, some school activities would come up and your presence might be required but somehow, this plan clashes with your scheduled study time and then you start to procrastinate.

It is worthy to note that once you are comfortable postponing the first time, it becomes easier the other times until you are too far gone. Your distractions might come as friends. Friends that would continually advice you to forfeit your study time for frivolities, making you constantly forget that if you do not study, you can not be a good student. These friends, although they might think they have good intentions, they are not good for you and your goals and you must shed the weight.

Some nights, your friends might be going to parties but you just have to stay in and get some more school work done. Your distraction could be your mobile device or extracurricular activities. Basically, everything that has the potential to separate you from your books is a distraction and you have to let it go. These are the sacrifices first class students constantly make and if you would like to join the league, you must be ready to make such sacrifices too.

7. Do Not Forget to Breathe as a Student

This is as important as anything else you do. You must acknowledge when it is time to relax. Constantly tasking your brain with no rest can be detrimental to your health and even to your productivity as a student. As much as you want to succeed, do not forget to relax. Take a chill pill, as the cool kids say it. Learn to take a breather. Usually, our bodies alert us when it is time to rest. Be careful not to push your body to the limits where returning becomes a herculean task. You want to be able to show up and show out in your academics.

There is no use constantly studying and when the day of reckoning comes, you are unable to show up because your body has finally given up and you are now under the weather. First class students never fail to relax because they know how important it is. Relaxation could take different forms. For some, it is a well deserved sleep that goes on for longer than usual.

For some, it is a good movie. Or maybe two. Having some exercises might be your own way of relaxing. Taking a long run and allowing the fresh air to rest in your lungs or taking a deep and relaxing dive into a large body of water. A chilled drink and headphones plugged in might be your own way of relaxing. Whatever it is, make sure it relaxes you so that by the time you return to your books, it would be with renewed strength and vitality, ready to take the grades you deserve!

Even if you can control realms of magic like Harry Potter, a first class can never be achieved through magic. You must put in the work and be smart about it. Inculcating these habits will not only help in your studying, it will also help you be an all-round excellent person. Cheers to that!

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