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Perseverance in Study – Be Persistent, Don’t stop!

Perseverance means to keep your efforts continued despite difficulties until the aim is achieved. The quality of perseverance is crucial for success in every field of life. People have certain goals in their life. To achieve these goals, they have to undertake some efforts. They also face challenges in the pursuit of their goals. In such a situation, most people get discouraged and stop their efforts. However, some people cope with these challenges tactfully and keep their efforts continued. They are never scared or discouraged by challenges. They never stop struggling and finally they get the success. This reflects on the fact that the difference between successful and unsuccessful people is that whether they are persistent in their effort or not.

Perseverance is also very much important for a student. Every student has academic goals such as to study and learn their books; to be able to reproduce their learning in the exam; and to score high in the exam. To achieve these goals, they have to carry on certain efforts such as attending their class lectures, doing study, making-study notes, visiting the library for books, and preparing themselves for an exam. They may also face certain challenges in the pursuit of their academic goals, which may discourage them. Therefore, students should be always persistent in their efforts to achieve their academic goals.

Perseverance in the study means to keep doing study regularly and to never give up it even if they are difficulties or situations which may discourage you and divert you from your studies. However, the majority of students are not persistent in their studies. They may do their study one day; then give up it for several days; and then start it again for a day or two. They generally repeat this practice – of starting and quitting study – during their academic sessions. This habit is not good for effective study. The correct approach is to keep on doing studies and attending class lectures regularly. Such approach helps the student enhance his academic productivity. By contrast, the habit of doing a study one day and quitting it for several days affecta the academic outcomes negatively.

In this article, we will discuss three areas with regard to perseverance: 1) common obstacles to perseverance in the study, 2) the importance of perseverance for studies, and 3) how to become persistent for study? 

  Why do students give up their studies? – Obstacles to persistence

The common causes for giving up studies, by students, are as follows:

  1. Some students do not have a love for their study. They take study as a burden on them and thus, do study only due to fear of failure or getting less marks in the exam. Since they have no eagerness for their study, it makes it difficult for them to continue their study for longer.
  2. Students sometimes may find a topic difficult to understand. They either get discouraged or they simply think to study it some other day (rather than trying harder to understand it on that very day or to get the teacher’s help to understand it).
  3. Most students get too excited when they have to start their study newly. They may study more on their first day which gives them a sense of overconfidence or satisfaction that he has studied a lot. This sense of overconfidence and satisfaction make him somewhat careless about also doing his study the next day.
  4. Another aspect of studying more than one’s capacity on the first day is that it may exhaust the student mentally and he may feel unable to study the next day.
  5. Student life includes common activities such as playing games, watching movies, listening to music, using social media sites or hanging out with friends. Some students give these activities more time than their need; and they forget their foremost and primary task that is to do their study. This is a common problem nowadays that students, rather than have a balanced approach to all activities, may give more time to their non-academic activities.
  6. Some students do not plan their studies and work haphazardly. They do not have a clear plan which may keep them studying on regular basis.
  7. Some students have problems in their study place which unconsciously makes it difficult for them to continue their study on regular basis. The study place should be well-lit, well-ventilated, and neither too hot nor too cold. Similarly, the study place should be free from distractions which may divert students’ attention from their study such as a sound of a television coming from an adjacent room which is turned on there for some hours daily.

  Why is persistence important for study?

Persistence is important for studies in the following ways:

  1. It helps students save time and complete their courses on time. When a student studies his books daily, he easily completes his courses before the exam. By contrast, the students who do not study regularly, their courses become a burden on them with the passage of time. Such students feel stressed during the exam because they have to cover a lot of their courses in the short time of the exam in order to prepare themselves for the exam. Sometimes, they may also end up getting less marks in the exam.  
  2. Another aspect of persistent study, that is the most important, is that it helps in learning topics in sequence easily. The topics in the books are generally in a sequence where the learning gained from a topic helps in understanding the next topic. When a student studies and learn topics one day, and then he studies another topic the next day, the leaning he has gained from the previous topic helps him understand the next topic. When you quit study for somedays, you have forgotten what you had learnt from the previous topic. It is quite natural when we learn something, that learning fades in our brain with the passage of time.
  3. If a student studies due to fear of failure or getting less marks in exam, he may study only on some specific days (with long gaps in them) during the academic session. Such study may enable them to get average marks and to only pass the exam, but they do not benefit from their study in the real sense.
  4. It makes the student take his study seriously and thus, instills in him a sense of responsibility towards his academic activities.    

  How to become persistent for study?

Some important factors of developing the habit of persistence in study are as follows:

  1. The first thing, that is required for perseverance in the study, is the student’s interest in his studies. Develop a love for your study. Do not take study as a boring activity. Develop your interest in your study; and make the study an enjoyable activity for yourself.
  2. Always plan about your studies. Think about how many courses (subjects and chapters) you have to study in the academic session and how much time do you have to complete them on time. Make a clear plan and follow it. Your plan should reflect what to study and how much to study each day.
  3. It is a common habit of most students to always say: I will start my study tomorrow and would surely start it tomorrow. Their tomorrow, to start their study, never comes. This is like cheating our self by satisfying our self with a false pledge to start from the next day and to allow ourselves to waste time. You should start it from today and keep studying on the regular basis.
  4. Never wait for an ideal day to do your study. Every day is an ideal day for doing the study.
  5. If you find any topic hard to understand, don’t be scared or discouraged. Simply think about what you can do about it such as to study it from other books or taking help from a teacher. Don’t leave the difficult topic for any other day. You must learn it today. Nothing is difficult if you have the passion to do it today.  
  6. Be serious and concerned about your studies. Being a student, your primary and most important task is to study and learn your books and prepare yourself for the exam.
  7. You may have other activities such as playing games, watching movies, using social media sites and hanging out with friends. You should have a balanced approach to all activities of your life. However, your study is the most important for you among all your activities and thus, should get comparatively more of your time, attention and energy.
  8. Do not study for long hours in one sitting. Take short breaks during the long study. It will refresh you and help you restore your concentration power, and will let you not lose interest in your study. This is crucial for sustainable study.
  9. Remember! If you have given up your study for a period of time and you have to take a new start, do not study more than your capacity, particularly on that very first day. As noted earlier, it may make you overconfident, and resultantly you become careless to think of studying the next day. Similarly, this may exhaust you to the extent where you lose your energy and interest to be able to do study the next day.
  10. Have a healthy lifestyle such as take physical exercise (at least a short walk) daily, eat a healthy diet; and have a good amount of sleep daily. These are important for sustainable study. Among these factors, your sleeping habit is the most important in relation to the persistent study. The time you sleep and get up has an impact on all your routine activities including your study. Avoid keeping awake till late at night unnecessarily. ‘Early to bed early to rise’ is a generally good sleeping habit and is also good for persistent study.