Enjoying study

Possibly the best way of getting involved and drawing satisfaction from your studies is to try and enjoy your subjects for their intrinsic value. Your interest can be kindled and maintained by reading around the subject area, making connections between subjects, seeing links with real life situations and in discussing with students and lecturers.

Some people find it useful to distinguish between those subjects which they find interesting and those which are essential to complete their course. If this happens to you, it's important that you employ some strategies to keep your motivation and focus on those essential but not-so-interesting subjects.

Getting your goals clear is the important thing.

Make it a game

Some students make it a game. You can give yourself points for completing tasks on time; or for time spent concentrating on your least favourite subjects. One student even devised a golf-style scoring system to make sure he spent enough time on all his subjects.

You can read more about Joseph's system in the book Study skills handbook for tertiary students pp. 6-7.

Clerehan, R 1994, Study skills handbook for tertiary students, Monash University, Caulfield East, Victoria.