Circle of Excellence

Study skills for smart students How do smart students study? What specific skills do they use? What are their optimum learning habits? Do they apply any special strategies? How do they learn faster, study better and score higher at exams? What are their secrets?

Their secrets are really no secrets at all. They have a few predictable study habits and they follow some simple rules of learning. Anyone who observes the same strategies will get the same results.

Whole-brain learning
One of the first things to know and apply is what is called whole-brain learning. It’s really a simple concept after all. There are two hemispheres in our brain – the left and the right – joined by a complex neural switching system called the corpus callosum. Each of these sides performs its own special functions. The left side plays a major part in processing the language, logic and mathematics (academic abilities) and the right side mainly deals with music, imagination and pictures (creative activities).

While learning our courses, we generally neglect the right side. But best learning takes place when you engage both sides of the brain.

One reason we remember songs easily is because they use music (right brain activity) and words (left brain activity) together. Similarly, movies use music, pictures and lots of imagination. No wonder we like them so much.

So it would be a pretty good idea to take the services of your right brain while you study. Make use of music, pictures and imagination whenever and as much as possible. Let the right brain do the visualizing while the left brain is busy analyzing. Two brains working together is always better than one struggling alone!

Mind mapping
If you want to engage both sides of your brain in the learning process, then you wouldn’t want to take linear notes starting at the top of the page and ending at the bottom. You’d make a mind map instead and study it.

Mind mapping is a simple tool to brainstorm, organize and store ideas. It’s actually like making a map of what you’re studying (or thinking) using words and pictures. You start from the center with the main idea and put all the related ideas and points on the branches spreading out from that center.

A mind map looks rather like an octopus with main idea as its head and supporting points as its arms. See an example here.

Mind mapping is an effective learning tool because it has food for both the brains - words and pictures. Besides, it gives information to the brain the way it likes it. You see, the brain doesn’t work in neat lines and columns. It processes information on its tree-like dendrites, using special association patterns. You do just that when you make a mind map of what you’re learning.

For more on mind mapping, read Tony Buzan’s excellent book on the subject The Mind Map Book.

Memory systems
There are fantastic memory systems that you can make use of as a student. One of the oldest and most popular is the linking system. “In order to remember any new thing, it must be associated, in some ridiculous way, with something you already know,” says Harry Lorayne, a memory specialist. And that’s really the essential part of this system. You connect new material (what you want to remember) with something common and familiar (that you already know) in some funny way. The crazier and more ridiculous the connection, the better the memory. You can find a good example of this in the book Circle of Excellence which you can freely download.

Then there are other simple and effective methods such as the peg and the number-rhyme system and a whole range of mnemonics. The good news is it doesn’t take long to understand and apply these systems – a week should be good. Read a couple of fine books on the subject such as the ones listed here (25 Power Books for Students) and you’ll be excellent.

The superlearning state
If you want to learn faster, then you’ve got to slow down your brain – down to what is called the alpha level. At this level, the brain is working at a frequency of 8-12 cycles per second. At higher frequencies of beta level (12-16 cycles per second), the brain is surely alert and prompt, but it’s not in the right state for learning. Beta is good for other activities such as talking, driving and playing. Then, at the lower frequencies of theta and delta (0-8 cycles per second) the brain is actually too slow to take in new learning. Alpha is just right – here your brain is slow but alert and open to learning. Researchers believe that when you are in this state of ‘relaxed alertness’, the information you take in goes directly into the subconscious mind. It’s the superlearning state.

How do you put your brain into that state? Through relaxation and music. The best is Baroque music – a 60-beat per minute music from the 17th century. But of course, even your favorite relaxation music will help.

Listen to it (again, Baroque if you can get it!) for about 30 minutes before you sit down to study. Or you can have it playing softly in the background even while you study.

Do it for a few weeks and you’ll begin to see the difference.

Rest and review
Do you know why normal class periods are usually of 40 to 45 minutes? That’s because it’s time to take a quick rest. You can't learn much by pushing your brain too hard for too long at a stretch. After every 30-to-50-minute session of study you need to take a short break – five minutes will do fine. The brain uses this downtime to make sense of what has been learned and to organize and store the stuff in their right places. And as your brain is doing its critical duties behind closed doors, you can just stretch and relax. Or if you wish, you can jump, hum or doodle. Do whatever pleases you. Just don’t study. Then, after five minutes, you’re back to work, ready to learn more.

Now something about revision. You can study like crazy, but if don’t review and revise at regular intervals, you’re wasting a lot of good energy.

Most of what you’ve learned will have gone from your head within the next 24 hours if you do not review it. Within a week or two, you may have nothing to show for it. So a smart thing to do is, after you’ve studied anything, review it immediately in about 5 to 10 minutes. Review it again in 24 hours, then again in a week and then again in a month. Each review may take less than five minutes, but this short-term investment will deposit well in your long-term memory.

Speed reading
You may think that if you read slowly and deliberately, word by word, you will understand better. But no, it works the other way round. The faster you read, the better you understand.

The brain itself is designed to understand things quite fast. Would you understand a movie better if they rolled the film fast or if they showed you one frame at a time (taking a couple of months to finish the complete movie)? Would you understand a joke better if I told you the whole thing in one shot or if I told you one word a day?

So learn to read fast. One simple way to do so is to train your eyes to jump from one group of words to another. Not glide in a straight line, but jump. You’ll find clear instructions on how to do this in the book Circle of Excellence (you can download this book free)in the section titled How to study better, learn faster and score higher.

Individual learning styles
You learn best if you follow your own learning style, of course. For example, if you are an auditory learner, then you will learn better and faster if you listen to things. Why not record all your notes and listen to them on your mp3 player? That’s a cool way to learn! You could even put the stuff into some kind of music and then sing it. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

If you are a visual learner, then you could draw pictures of what you’re learning. Design colorful mind maps rather than take the usual black-n-white notes. Make mental movies of the matter to learn and then play them in your head while you lie on the couch. That’s what you call having fun while you learn!

If you are a kinesthetic learner who has to touch or feel or do something to get a grasp on the subject, then don’t sit still and moan. Get into action. Dribble a ball while you learn. Dance while you study. Act the part. Do something!

As a student, you’re going to have to learn a lot of stuff – some of it important and relevant to life and some of it hopelessly outdated and useless stuff. But learn you must whether it’s for life or for the exams. If you adopt smart and creative ways to learn, you’ll do yourself a world of good. On the one hand, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and effort. On the other, you will score better, which counts too. On top of it all, you will develop a genuine love of learning because for you it won’t be a chore anymore, but a creative adventure. It will serve you for life.

All the best.

How to quit smoking and drinking It’s easy. I know because I have done it.

I used to smoke like a chimney and drink like a fish. I was an addict for more than fifteen years. Then one fine day I quit. No struggles, no therapies. I just quit.

The tale of a firewalker

Can anyone actually walk barefoot across a bed of red hot burning coals and not get hurt? Is it possible to take your shoes off and walk on a heap of broken beer bottles without getting a cut on your feet? Fakirs and monks from the east have been known to have achieved such feats, but how about mere mortals like you and me?

Well, I did both and lived to tell the tale and share the lessons I learned.

The first time I ever heard of firewalking was from Indra Gurung, an HR trainer and friend of mine. He had participated in one of Anthony Robbins’ firewalking seminars in Manila some years back and would often talk of his experience. I used to think to myself, don’t some people have anything better to do than walk on fire?

But then, a few days back I found myself staring at a 12-feet stretch of embers and flame, ready to take the steps. Do you think I was scared? Or was I enthusiastic and eagerly waiting for the countdown from my coach? Honestly, I was filled with Fear (yes, with a capital F), and how I wished I could just run away from the scene. But then there was no escape, with more than a hundred people cheering and prodding me from all directions. I did the 12 feet marathon and when I reached the other end there was a winning smile on my lips and not a tiniest burn on my feet.

Then I did something else. I walked over a pile of broken glass strewn on the floor, and I did it without so much as a scratch on my feet.

Tall tale? No. There was not a scar on the feet of any of the people who went through the experience. I was not an exception.

How did we do it? And why did we do it? Why would anyone in their senses ever want to walk barefoot on fire, or glass, or ice, or whatever for that matter?

Let me explain.

How is it possible?

Most promoters of fire and glass walk emphasize that you need to be in a special mental state or have an unwavering belief in order to prevent the hot coals from burning and the sharp glass edges from cutting your feet. Critics quickly point out that neither firewalk nor glasswalk has anything to do with the power of the mind, and it doesn’t really require any special mental state or ability; it all has to do with basic physics.

Going by the laws of physics, the reason you can walk on burning coals is that they are poor conductors of heat. It is the same reason why you can touch a cake baking inside an oven without being burned, but you can’t touch a metal plate inside the same oven.

Similarly, it is subtle pressure management when it comes to broken glass walk. A bed of glass is prepared with sufficient depth for the glass to be able to shift and settle as a foot is planted slowly and directly down upon it. This is somewhat similar to pressing a sharp knife with the flat of the blade against one's flesh, where considerable force may be used without injury.

A word of caution though, no matter how much physics or logic you apply, there are definitely serious risks involved in both fire and glass walks. So do not try any of them at home! To make matters clearer, swimming across a 12-feet deep pool is possible by all laws of physics, but you wouldn’t take the plunge unless you know how to swim or you have an experienced coach to guide you through the process.

Why would you do it?
In certain tribes such a practice is a part of the ritual that you can’t escape, and for the ascetics it may be a form of penance and surrender. As for Tony Robbins, Suresh Padmanavan (whose event we attended) and other life coaches, getting people to walk barefooted across a bed of red hot coals or a pile of broken glass is a way of driving home some valuable life lessons.

These people use fire or glass walk as a tool to demonstrate it to people how they can overcome their fears and limiting beliefs.

One of the most important sets of beliefs that we have are the beliefs about possibilities and impossibilities in life and these beliefs influence not only our choices, behavior and actions, but also the risks that we take and what we are willing to try. If we believe something is impossible for us, we wouldn’t even try it, would we? But once we start believing that something is actually possible, it opens up a whole new set of avenues and choices right in front of us.

The firewalk or glasswalk experience is a perfect example. People who have not seen or experienced any of them find it difficult to believe that anyone could actually walk on hot coals or broken glass without getting hurt. It seems to go against common sense and their previous experiences with hot coals or broken glass. But when they do the walk, the old belief comes crashing down, and there is a major shift in paradigm.

That’s what exactly happened with me.

What to do when someone calls you ugly and stupid

I have been called ugly, stupid, dunce, failure, thief, everything. Not now of course, but in the past.

Do you think I am any of those? Not by any chance. I am a wise and handsome :) author and educator who’s into giving, rather than thieving. And I am not a failure; I am a success by any definition.

What about the people who called me those names?

Well, I don’t even bother about them because I secretly know that they were calling those names to themselves.

How’s that?

Look, it’s simple. If they were beautiful people, they wouldn’t call me ugly. Those who have beauty in them also have the vision to see the beauty in others. And if they were wise people, they wouldn’t call me stupid. Those that are truly wise have the wisdom to see the greatness in others.

I never paid attention to what they said. I knew I wasn't any of the things they said about me. So whatever they said went back to them.

Indeed, what we see in others is really what we are. It is our own reflection that we see around us – good, bad, ugly, beautiful, success, failure, everything.

In the story of Little Master, the little boy learns this lesson from the stars. He and his friends were looking at the stars when…. Well, let me give you the extract from the book itself:

Suddenly, the sky looked unusually bright. There was a flurry of flashes and blinks all over the sky. It seemed the stars were in celebration of some kind.

Then the boys and girls heard whispers and giggles up in the sky. "We are beautiful! They think we are beautiful!" It was the stars whispering among themselves.

Then a bright old star in the northern sky blinked merrily at the boys and girls as if it was trying to get their attention. When they looked at it, it simply said: "Thank you for making us beautiful." The other stars immediately broke into a beautiful chorus. "Thank you for making us beautiful!" they sang.

The little boy was thunderstruck, and so were his friends.

"We... how do we... make you beautiful?" the little boy asked in great surprise and disbelief. "You are stars and we're just human, young and little."

The stars continued to sing. "You are made of the same stuff that we are made of. Yet you are more than the stars. It is you who make us twinkle."

"Wow!" exclaimed the boys and girls in unison. "How do we do that?"

The wise old star of the north winked heartily at them and said:

"We are stars because you call us so. We twinkle because you look at us. We dance with joy for you think we are beautiful. If it weren't for you, we'd just be balls of hot swirling gases."

The old star then joined its billions of little friends in the merrymaking. They were all frisking and frolicking and turning the sky into a heaven of lights.

The little boy and his friends continued to look at the marvelous night sky for some more time. Now they had a new reason to look there: to make the stars beautiful, to get them to twinkle. They even made new stars appear in different parts of the sky.

Imagine making the stars beautiful!

But it could be true. It could be true that the beauty we see around us (including that of the stars) is really our own beauty reflected back to us. It could be true that how we see other people is really how we are. It could be true that when we call someone ugly or stupid, we are really calling that to ourselves.

So the next time you are tempted to point a finger at somebody, remember that you might be doing that to yourself. The rubbish you want to hurl at someone might land on your own nose.

But what, now I hear you scream, but what if it is the others who are calling me the names and throwing the garbage at me? It’s they who think I am ugly and stupid. I am the victim here!

Well, in that case, you have a choice: Believe what those people say to you and dutifully play the role of a victim. Or do what I did – DON’T GIVE THEM A DAMN! Let them call you a thousand names, point a million fingers at you and scream their hearts out. You hold your head high, put a smile on your lips, pray for those poor souls and walk your way. For you know the truth.

Circle of Excellence

Uday Online