Seven Habits of Toppers – Study Secrets by Toppers

In this video, we are going to discuss the top seven study habits of toppers which differentiate them from the rest. This video is third part of the Video Course – How to Crack NEET which helps medical aspirants to get good score in NEET exam.

Video Lecture – Seven Habits of Toppers

Video Transcript

 After interviewing hundreds of NEET toppers, we find that most of the toppers have few habits in common. These habits help toppers to score high on competitive examinations like NEET. 

The First Habit is Short study duration

Toppers study only for short duration of time, but they do it every day, day after day, consistently instead of doing, one long cramming study session in a week. It is not important, how long you are learning. The important thing is, how consistent, you are in your learning. A steady flow of water(river) makes the land fertile and rapid flow of water(flood) destroys the fertile land.

Learning is a slow process, it is like building a basement and pillars and then adding the roof on it. You cannot build the basement, pillars, and roof on the same day. We now have enough evidence that efficiency decreases after 30 minutes of the study session. So plan your study sessions for 25 minutes and go for a compulsory break for 10-15 minutes.

The second habit is Sticking to the Study Plan

If you fail to plan, you are planning for the failure. The first thing, to succeed in the exam, is to have a study plan, and the next thing is to stick to the study plan. It is not important whether you study 14 hours a day, or 4 hours a day, the key is being consistent, so that your learning compounds and matures before the exam. Many students fail to execute their study plan, because they fill their schedules with study time first, leaving very little time for enjoyment. Try changing your approach, by filling the schedule with fun activities first, and then fill the rest with the study.

Another thing, you can do, to follow your study plan consistently, is to have a dedicated study place. Don’t do any other activity, apart from study, at that place. This will help you, to get into the mood of studying, as soon as you enter that place. You have to self-motivate yourself at the end of the day by giving yourself some reward. In the beginning, you may find it difficult to stick to your study plan. You should use the power of habit, to help you get over this. If you do, any activity repeatedly for 21 days, it becomes your habit. Once any activity becomes a habit, you will start tapping the potential of the subconscious mind. Nishita Purohit, All India Rank No 1 who topped both AIIMS as well as NEET says that she solved close to 200 questions every day consistently to rank at the top.

The third habit is Seek to Understand than to Memorize

When you understand things, you will be able to apply the concept to different situations. If you find yourself seeking to memorize, all possible problem types and their solution patterns, you are not trying to understand the concept. Toppers, always try to get the big picture of whatever they study. They use tools, such as Mindmap and concept maps to get the big picture.

The trick to understand is to associate what you study with the concepts you already knew before. The number of old concepts you are able to associate determines your level of understanding. Always remember that all the time you spent for reading is a waste of your time if you can’t spend few minutes assimilating it.

The fourth habit is Switch Between Focused Thinking and Divergent Thinking

Most of the students use focused mode of thinking when they read the textbook. In focused thinking, your thoughts follow the direction of the book without any deviation. After focused reading, you will know what units the subject have, what chapters those unit have and important points in each of those chapters. But toppers use another mode of learning called as divergent thinking, which means allowing your mind to flow as it wishes on a particular topic. This allows them to associate a concept discussed in the first chapter with a concept discussed in the fifth chapter.

It is only the student who thinks, learn. Divergent Thinking is one of the primary ways of active learning as you deliberately try to think and associate related concepts.There is evidence that divergent mode of thinking improves memory retention by 80%.

The fifth habit is Spend more time on practice than reading

After interviewing many toppers, the single most defining parameter for the high score in examinations which stood out was the practice time. Toppers are found to spend as high as 70% of their study time for practice. More the practice time, higher they scored in the examinations. If you want to improve your recall during exam time, the best way to do it is to recall information, multiple times, in multiple contexts, before the exam. Toppers, write more mock tests and solve many previous year question papers. Reading is passive learning which gives 20% recall ability whereas solving questions is active learning which gives 80% recall ability.

Roman Saini, who cracked AIIMS at the age of 16 and became IAS at the age of 22, claims that he had spent close to 1000 hour of practice to clear both AIIMS and IAS. In fact, he claims that, to master any skill all it takes is 1000 hours of practice to perform better than 95% of the competitors. Roman Saini gives a very high emphasis on this fifth habit of NEET toppers.

The sixth habit is Use Learning Tools to revise

One of the tough steps in preparing for examinations is the process of revision. It is practically impossible for students to read the book again and again during revision. Toppers use proven tools and techniques to make their revision effective. Seed may be good but if the soil or water is bad, it doesn’t grow. Hard work is important but if one uses bad techniques and tools, hard work does not help.

Hitesh Shah who got all India rank 1 in NEET 2016 says that he just spent close to 3 hours every day to reach the top because he used right tools and techniques. He identified his weak topics by solving mock tests and previous question papers online. He spent most of his time improving weak topics. If you ask me, what makes the toppers remember more than the average student, it is the use of right tools and techniques. Most of the toppers use learning tools such as Mnemonics, Flashcards, Visual Aids, Mind Maps,  Compare and Contrast to improve memory retention and recall.

The seventh habit is Maintain Health and Good Sleep

The brain represents only 2% of the body weight, but, it consumes more than 20% of the calories. Oxygen and Glucose act as the fuel for our brain. Eating moderate portions of fresh vegetables and fruits and consuming 3 litres of water every day helps to boost accuracy and performance of your brain. Do you know that Sleeping and Dreaming helps in the consolidation of memory? It is only during sleeping, all our learning during the day is moved to permanent long term memory.

A Harvard University study shows that students who studied and had good night sleep performed 35% better when they are tested next day morning, compared to students who read in the morning and gave the test in the evening. Neuro-scientists and Psychologists have concluded that Physical Exercises and meditation increases the formation of new neurons in the hippocampus, the region of the brain which is responsible for long term memory. After interviewing many toppers, it is found that all toppers spend a minimum of one hour for sports or for doing other extracurricular activities. This helps them relieve stress, improves blood flow and provide the essential nutrients to the brain.

Important Characteristics / Trait of Topper

These 7 habits mentioned here is not given in any order. If you are interested to know the top habit which differentiates toppers, it is the habit of spending more time on revision and practice. Apart from this, there is an 8th habit which is not commonly shared by toppers(habits of toppers) but found to be common among intelligent students. If your aim is to just crack NEET, you can close this video and move on to the next video in the course. But if you are interested in becoming intelligent, then this 8th habit, is as important, as the other seven.

The 8th habit is the ability to Observe than just Seeing

Let me explain this 8th study habit of experts with an example. Wherever you are sitting right now, you might be having a wall clock in that room. Don’t look at the clock now and try to answer my question.

Is the number six in your clock, Roman numeral or Arabic numeral? Before checking the clock to verify your answer, spend few more minutes to decide as if there’s a lot of money at stake if your answer goes wrong. Once you finalise the answer. Check the clock and see if you are right. If your answer is right, hold on for one more minute before you celebrate.

Test For Your Observation

Now comes the real test of observation, what was the time when you checked the clock. 90% of people were not able to tell the time because they were seeing but not observing. If you do not observe, you do not remember, if you cannot remember, you cannot recall. If you carefully observe What affects your observation, it is the intention of your reading or learning.

How we read books

We read books in three ways, the first way is to search information like in the case of a dictionary, the second way is to gain some knowledge like in the case of reading a newspaper, the third way is to gain understanding like in the case of reading textbooks. The intention of the reading decides which way we are going to choose to read a book. If your intention for reading is to teach and not just to pass the examination, you will start observing all the concepts, and relate them, because, you cannot teach others, what you do not understand.

Purpose of Learning

The objective of experts for learning is not to pass but to teach those concepts or apply those concepts in the real world. This shift in the learning purpose can do wonders not just for the NEET examination but for your whole life. This concludes the top study habits of toppers. If you find any scientific study habits of toppers missing in this list, please comment to get it included.

Key Summary

• Short Study Duration: Use Pomerado Technique for effective study.
• Sticking To Study Plan: Consistency is more important than one-time performance.
• Always try to understand not to memorize: Quality is more important than Quantity.
• Spend Time For Divergent Thinking: Divergence is as important as Convergence.
• Solve Previous Year Questions and Mock Tests:  Face it earlier than the examination.
• Use Effective Learning Tools and Techniques: Using an axe to cut the tree is always better than using a knife.
• Take Care of Your Health and Sleep: Set Your Priorities right.
• Set the right Purpose for Learning: Learn to Teach Not to Pass Exams