How to overcome preparation blues?

Less than two months are left for the D-day to dawn. Every MBA aspirant is beginning to get the jitters; after all cracking the CAT is no child’s play. But does it really need to be like this? Do you really need to get into these preparation blues at this stage? No, no way. Let us just get out of this crap-trap and fasten our boot straps. Here is how.

Preparation is not only about studying for long hours; there are many other supporting factors that enhance your learning.

Health:

If you keep sitting in a place for a long time, while studying, please move your legs a bit. Shake a leg as the saying goes. It gets your blood flowing which helps sharpen your concentration and recall.
If you are in the habit of skipping breakfast, think again. Creativity is often at its peak in the morning, eating ‘protein’ laden breakfast helps feed your brain cells. If you suffer from frequent headaches, please check the amount of protein in your diet.
Never, ever, eat a heavy lunch. It makes you feel drowsy. You can lose precious productive hours this way.
Stress of any kind inhibits your ability to absorb and recall information. This inhibits learning. Sometimes just absorbing some sunlight and reducing refined foods in your diet, helps reduce stress. Taking a short walk around the neighbourhood may help. Taking a 15 minutes break every hour during study sessions is more beneficial than non-stop studying. These breaks help your mind to relax and absorb information.
Whenever you feel tired or stressed out go take a shower. Water is a universal solvent; it dissolves all your negativity and washes it away, leaving you freshened and loosened.
Laugh often. Laughing relaxes your body and a relaxed body is more receptive to ideas.
Play video games to relax. Video games can be an effective aid in learning.


Perspective and Focus:

Alternate between studying Verbal and Quant. This change of subject focus helps in better assimilation of both.
Use all three ways of learning: visual, kinesthetic, and auditory. Involving all your senses in learning make for a much better absorption and recall.
Learn meditation and meditate for about 15 minutes everyday to tap into your inner resources, and strengthen your ability to focus. Walking meditation is a very useful tool.
Focus on what you are studying. Don’t get distracted. Don’t try to watch TV at the same time, and don’t worry about other things while studying. Anxiety is best avoided. If you take three deep breaths every now and then, you will feel relaxed.
Read as much as you can. Give a breadth of topics as well as depth.
Give yourself deadlines; limit your time for learning some concept in that given time. By learning to constrain yourself, you will achieve more in less time.
Plan your learning. As Led Zeppelin says, “There are two paths you can go by. You can take a haphazard approach to learning, or you can put in a bit of planning and find an optimum path.” Plan your time and balance your learning.
Learning happens in layers. So build your base knowledge first upon which you can build advanced concepts.


Recall techniques:

Efficient Speed reading helps in filtering out a lot of irrelevant information.
Using acronyms and mnemonics helps remember information.
Use visual aids. Draw or sketch what you are trying to remember.
Use mind maps to see the relationship between different ideas.
Brainstorm with your friends. Brainstorming involves verbal activity, writing, and collaboration with your friends. Don’t shut any idea out. It will help you assess your own level of preparation.
Use various symbols for learning. Create your own particular symbols.
Organize your thoughts on what needs to be done for each day.
Loosen yourself up through playing rhyming games and uttering non-sensical words from time to time. It also stimulates ideas.
Learn by osmosis. Record some important lessons in your own voice and playback these lessons whenever you want to.
Writing notes by hand stimulates ideas. The same does not happen while typing your notes. The simple act of holding a pen or pencil in your hand massages acupuncture points which in turn stimulate ideas.
Organize your notes by using sticky color tabs to partition chapters for easy referral.
Revisit complex concepts in order to fully absorb them. Repeating and revising improves absorption and speeds up learning.
Collaborate with others. Form study groups.
Quiz yourself. Test what you have learnt to re-enforce the information.
Create an FAQ and write everything you know about a topic. You can even create a blog about a topic.
Learn critical thinking. Critical thinking takes your learning ability to a whole new level. It involves good analytical skills to help the ability to learn selectively.
Learn complex problem solving. Learning is part of this process.
Ask questions to yourself. Make your learning interactive, with your friends.


Self motivation techniques:

Give credit to yourself for each day’s learning.
Focus on the result that you want to achieve.
W. Clement Stone once said, “Whatever the mind can conceive, it can achieve.” Believe in this dictum. If you keep your mind focused on this saying, hurdles will seem surmountable.
Think positive. Have faith in your abilities to achieve your goal.
Organize your time well. Make your ‘to do’ list and prioritize the tasks.
Remember that if someone else can do it, so can you. Believe in your infinite potential.
Before you start working on a topic, decide what you already know and figure out what you don’t know. Then learn the later.
Multitask. Multitasking helps in time management.
Think holistically. It is a mindset, so develop it.
Remember that 80% of the concepts take 20% of your time and effort to learn, while 20% of the concepts take 80% of your time and effort. Recognize and ascertain which ones are which.
Challenge yourself. Put yourself through tough assignments. People are often more intelligent than they realize. There is more to you than you take credit for. In a world that compartmentalizes and categorizes everything, most people are not too sure where they ft in.
Teach others. The best way to learn something is by teaching it to someone else. Teaching forces you to learn. Sharing your knowledge is the best way to gain more knowledge.
Persistence always pays. Don’t give up. Anything one human being can learn, most others can learn as well. Einstein had said, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”
Remember there is more than a new way to learn. Never believe that you can’t learn.
Relax, don’t worry, and stay happy.

As always EXPECT success!

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