With your plan in front of you, you should be able to write your composition. There should be no need to write a rough verseon first, then correct it and make a final copy. This is a waste of time.

Additional Informstion

    There is a lot of misunderstanding about studying. Most students have not been taught the principles behind really effective working. Above is a graph showing the amount a person learns against the number of honrs he works in a day. If he doesn't do any work, he learns nothing (point 0). If he does an hour's work he learns a cerain amount (point 1 ).

If he does two hours' work he learns about twice as much (point 2). If he does more work he'll learn still more (point 3). Now, it he tried to do 23 1/2 hours' work in 24, he'll be so exhausted that he'll hardly remember anything: what he learns will be very little (point 4). If he did less work he'd learn more (point 5).

    Now whatever the exact shape of this curve, it must have a crest. Point X is the very maximum anyone can learn in the day. And this represents the optimum, the best, amount of work to do. It is the best possible compromise between adequate time at the books and fatigue. Fatigue is an absolutely real thing; one can't escape it or try to ignore it. If you try to, if you press yourself to'work past the optimum (and any fool can prop his eyelids up and do 14 hours a day ) , you can only get on this downward slope and achieve less than the best-and then get exhausted and lose your power of concentration.

    The skill in being a student consists in getting one's daily study as near the optimum point as possible. I cannot tell you what the optimum is. It differs with the type of work, it differs from person to person, andeven in the same person it varies from week to week. You must try to find your own. Every day you study, bear this principle of the optimum in mind. When you feel yourself getting fatigued, if you find yourself repeatedly reading over the same paragraph and not taking it iri, that's a pretty good sign you've reached the crest for the day and should stop.

    Most ordinary students find their optimum at about five hours a day. Yours may be a little more or a little less-but if you get in five hours' good work a day, you will be doing well.

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