Henrik Wissing has analyzed with Nicola Fritze the everyday problems of a student who needs motivation for boring lectures and long learning times. His practical tips largely coincide with those we offer here as learning tips for studying. However, we would like to emphasize one important point: the strategy of imperfectionism, because many subject areas that students have to learn are very complex and you don’t have a proper overview, but you start learning somewhere and after some time you realize that you still haven’t grasped the topic completely.
Therefore, you should skim the topic once very roughly (table of contents or study headings) and only then go more into detail. This way, it doesn’t take too long in the beginning to get through the material once and have the first motivating experience. Another advantage of this approach is that you can stop at any time, because you don’t skip complete subject areas and don’t take the “courage-to-fail” route, which is experienced by many students as very stressful, because it usually triggers feelings of anxiety shortly before exams to be examined just these subject areas.
Literature
Wissing, Henrik (2007). Motivation in studies.
WWW: http://www.nicolafritze.de/media/motivation_im_studium.pdf (10-05-08)