Importance of Self Study

Self Study is defined as something studied by oneself without any kind of help or supervision by a teacher or a trainer, though the person studying may take help of some external sources like books, tutorials, and encyclopedia etc, hence it would not be wrong to say that it is a form of study in which the student himself is responsible to a large extent for his one's own instruction and is himself his teacher. There is no one to tell him or to guide him to do something or the other. It may also be defined as "learning on your own" or "by yourself" or being yourself your own teacher.

Self-study may either be studying through books, some online journals or using tutorials to learn a particular topic, self-study is an individual effort to learn by references/experimentation or a prescribed course. Self-learning, in general, is not only more convenient method of learning but, in fact, it is more effective than the conventional classroom teaching method, for high school, college and adult learners who don’t really have time to attend classes. But for those who still think that learning can only happen in a classroom, the world of self-learning can be a little can be really absurd or useless for them.

It had never been so easier and more exciting to be a learner. Let constant learning be a major part of your lifestyle and rewards will be constant, personally, socially, and professionally come adding to your career. Learning is and should always be treated as a lifelong occupation. All learning arises from curiosity. Those who love this life very passionately they are tremendously curious to learn new things. Only curious people learn everything very personal and benefit from the hard work they put in.

The current trend for self and social learning has some scholars and analysts wondering if we are approaching towards the end of formal learning techniques and conventional teaching methods. There will always be a need to train people to acquire first-time skills or to upgrade their current skill set, learning and development professionals will increasingly consider the option of leaving some learning needs to other nonformal approaches. But if people are to start learning by themselves, we first need to be sure that everyone is competent to learn to and the effectiveness of the learning process be determined by the content used in.

Advantages of Self Study

• Helps the students to broaden their thinking level.
• Freedom of learning without any restriction.
• Self-learning would enable the learner to limit the number of interests undertaken.
• Self-learning is more fun than regular teaching.
• Student tends to build a sense of responsibility and they start accepting responsibility.
• Self-learning means that you can read different interesting new books, rather than boring notes by teachers or textbooks.
• You can make study material of your own.
• No fear of criticism.
• You may learn at your own desired time according to your schedule.   
• Self-learning students tend to retain more naturally when they do the work themselves, as compared to the regular teaching where teacher’s spoon feed the information into them.
•  Self-learning gives an opportunity to the enthusiastic people to go as deeply into a subject and interact with the subject matter as deeply they would like to go.
• With the self-learning, there is a great opportunity to develop a good work ethic.
• Gives self-confidence and a good feeling of doing a job well
• Student performs well in tests because they are already used to tackling problems on their own, which increases their confidence.

The need for Self-Study
Self-study is an important aspect of effective learning. Even studying with conventional teaching methods, it is very important for a student to have a clear vision and understanding of every. You can’t learn and understand everything in the classroom, after your lecture you have to revise topic for the clear understanding of the topics. It is very important for students appearing in competitive exams to self-study and be thorough with the topics to appear in the rigorous questioning of competition and to go through with flying colours.  

There are many other people who work besides they study or many who left studying at a young age to earn and wish to complete their studies. For these students, self-study is a very important and useful tool, with the ease of learning at any time without any restriction of time or attendance these students get sufficient time to work and study as well, whenever they have free time.

Steps for Self-Learning

• Set your Objectives: Setting clear objectives and goal is one of the first habits of successful people according, and one of the first things learning professionals do when kicking-off the research phase. In many companies, learning objectives are formalized by the golden triangle of the learner, manager, and HR. For some independent self-learners with intentional learning needs or students, it is important and beneficial to start by setting well-formulated, smart, results-oriented objectives. Clearly define the topics you need to learn and start collecting the relevant material accordingly. Do not waste time, be sure of what you need or want and proceed accordingly.
• Look out for Good and Reliable Information Sources: There are hundreds of materials available on topic with the same name, of which all topics will be accessible to all people at all times. But the big-data mass of useful information may go unnoticed with an equally abundant mass of useless information, and you need to be very careful about what you need and from where you can get it. You need to filter out from every relevant information available and formulate some quality study material that would make your preparation superior to others.
• Develop Interest: Interest in the subject is an essential driver for the successful mastering of a topic. You can’t learn what you do not want to learn or that you have no interest in, no matter how hard you try but without interest, you cannot achieve perfection. Emotion is an important part of the successful learning process. If you are even moderately interested in a subject, you may give yourself a chance. The key is to get started and with time create your interest in what you do. If you are able to create some pleasurable routines, you may find that the subject grows on you and along with your interest you understanding levels also rise. Love what you do, and no one can stop you from being successful.
• Cover your Topic Well: Our brain is a mysterious organ; it is always struggling to form patterns to cope with new input that it gains from our learning activities. Sometimes, no matter how long we focus on one subject, our brain is not picking up anything that wear are trying to learn or understand. If you are stuck, move on. Try covering the same topic from a different study material, a different encyclopedia, or a podcast, or an online lecture or an online tutorial. Try to become a free learner, roaming the countryside, rather than a feedlot learner, just standing on one spot, munching on the same bale of hay and just sticking on to one conventional approach. Explore new ways and move to some unconventional or new ideas. The broader your base, the easier it is for you to learn. Just as the “rich get richer”, the more you know, the more you can learn and able to utilize it well at the required time.
• Be Prepared to deal with Problems: There are always problems associated with everything. Doing something new, it is obvious that you would face problems. Intelligence is to be already prepared with the problems that you would face. Have a clear idea of what you think may be a problem for you. Don’t expect to understand things at first time, much less remember them, when you study for the first time. Have confidence that things will get clearer as your brain gains grip over the new information source or teaching method. It is like a jigsaw puzzle or a crossword puzzle once you start to put the pieces together, or string the words together, the full picture becomes clearer and you tend to move closer and closer to the final result slowly and slowly. The brain learns all the time, but on its own schedule, while some topics are easier other may take comparatively longer time. Learning has no rules and never take place according to a schedule laid down by a curriculum or teacher or as expected by you. Some things are easier to learn than others. Some things just take a long time to click in. Keep going with it, and you will gradually find that things that were difficult at first attempt, would become quite easy to understand as you gain a grip over the method. So the need not get distracted by the problems, rather be ready to face them.
• Make Effective use of Technology: Technology today has touched every domain of human life. Today in the world of modernization where technology is available at a very affordable price, everyone is moving towards it and there is hardly any sphere left where technological advancement has not spread its roots. In self-study, technology plays an important role. There are tons of online journals and articles lying. Thousands of tutorials are being uploaded daily which have helped thousands of students from different parts of the world. If a person is opting for self-study, it is very important for him to keep him updated with the latest technology and latest tutorials, encyclopedias, and books.
• Keep Learning: Anytime is learning time, there is no restriction for student opting self-learning based on time. You can take full advantage of the Internet, i-tutorials, and various mobile devices, good old-fashioned books, and encyclopedias. Learn during “dead time”, convert every possible minute of free time into learning time. Listen in your car, on the train, or while you do some activity not involving your brain. Have your learning with you while waiting, or try to listen to lectures on i-pod while checking out at the walking in the park. Anytime is learning time. Remember that you learn through exposure and not by nailing things down. It is more like moisture accumulation in a cloud, rather than building a brick wall.
• Look out for Learning Communities: The most important set back of the self-learning process is the loneliness that these students face. The “loneliness of the distance learner” in today’s world of technology is a thing of the past; one can easily join a learning community on the internet, where different members can share their knowledge and experience while others can make use out of that material. Search for the communities that suit interests learning style and the learning topics you are involved with. You may find encouragement, advice, and stimulus from the fellow learners, as well as from tutors, teachers, and coaches and may make some friends there and remove the socialization barrier. In these communities, you can measure your progress against your own goals and also get to know where you stand and how others are planning and preparing, or compare your experience with that of other learners. You can even teach and help others, which is a great way to learn with the facility of taking online tests also.
• Take Breaks: Learning at any level whether learning in a job, studying for a test at School or a College, or teaching yourself something new is often condensed into short time segments. The reason behind is that this form of condensed learning does not lead to long-term retention. Research shows that the distribution of the study of a subject over a period of time is more likely to help you retain the information easily and for a longer period of time. Between first learning something then practising that particular topic, and then the application should be divided into equal gaps. There can be a few ways to help you out with this:
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  • If you have an exam two weeks later, it is best to start learning it from today and then practice some sample papers in the second week. When you appear for your exam, you’ll be more likely to remember most of the things as you systematically managed everything.
  • If you want to retain material over a long period of time and have clarification of every topic, practice it at regular intervals or else you will forget it with the passage of time.
  • Set your deadlines yourself for when you want to learn things and time for practising, so that you can make a proper work plan on how to proceed effectively.

Conclusion
Self-learning is basically taking in information, processing it, and retaining it without the need for another individual to be teaching it or evaluating you in order for the understanding to occur. It is basically the responsibility of an individual to learn and retain. Self-learning has come out as a great gift of modernization to people working while they study or those who left their studies for some reason or the others. Even some students taking conventional methods are making use of self-study to gain complete knowledge of their topics or to understand something they could not in the classroom. There is no age for learning and no time for learning, and for those passionate about learning, self-study has come out as a blessing for them.