Learning Plans

Everyone who plans his learning schedule will be conscious of the immense power of planned learning.   Combined with motivation to learn, planned learning is a powerful catalyst to acquisition of knowledge.  It will imbue you with self confidence and equip you with the necessary information on the subject you have set out to learn.

Learning Plans are as varied as there are learners.  A popular method is the use of mnemonics.  Mnemonics is a set of associations that are used for recall of unconnected material. Rhymes, imagery and associative words are used for this process for the recollection of terms, definitions, key points and theories. An example of mnemonics is PASS which would stand for Plan; Pay Attention; Set Time and Be Systematic.  Nevertheless mnemonics is quite useless when you need to comprehend, apply, analyze, synthesize or evaluate a subject. They can at best assist you in building a foundation for the study process.

Study plans focus your attention on the nitty gritty details of the syllabus.  You are forced to evaluate the volume of work involved, the time it will take to walk through the topics, the time it will take you to master each individual topic and so on.  You will find that you will set yourself objectives, measures for actual performance against targets and you will sub divide the topics for convenience.

Study Plans have largely four components—Strategy, tactics, operations and monitoring.  Your strategy will be to cover the whole syllabus.  Your tactics will be to ensure that the study material you have is adequate to cover the syllabus.  The operative part will be the actual study process and the monitoring will be the measure of achievement against set objectives and targets.

Attention is the core of the operative part.  You must first pay attention to the contents that you are being taught or are reading. You must make it a habit to summarize everything you are listening to or reading in a piece of paper for future recall.

Setting time is a function of the operative part of learning. Managing your time is an essential art. You need to consciously give up your leisure time to study and that can be very de-motivating.  So it is important to distribute your time consciously between work and play to maintain the balance in your life.  

Systematization is again an essential aspect of the study process. You must have a method and a systematic plan for study.  You should not let your ambition blind you to the reality when you define your study methodology.  When you have the system in place you must make sure you stick to it so that you are not wracked by guilt when you enjoy the leisure you have allowed yourself.