Personal Study Tips: Wisdom Gives Life to Knowledge.

We learnt from pastor that in order to do well in our studies, we must stop saying negative things such as, "This time fail liao!", "Die lah!" but instead, confess positive things like, "I will have good results!" and "I am going to make it!"

That is indeed the first step to good results.

The next step is to of course, study!

Jas 2:20
"But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?"

However, have you know of students who study and study but never seems to do well?

They are stuck to their notes the whole day, they keep doing past-years papers, make a whole pile of personal notes and can even recite their textbooks but their results is always nothing more than a pass.

I always hear many student saying this after a test or when the results are out,

"I know, I really know but I just don't know how to answer!"

Does that sound familiar to you? Perhaps, even you have said something similar too.

So what went wrong?

Ec 2:17
"For wisdom is a defense as money is a defense, But the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who have it."

The problem with many student is not knowledge but they lack wisdom! According to the verse, wisdom gives life to the one who already have the knowledge! Knowlegde only excel with wisdom!

What is knowledge and what is wisdom?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary,
Knowledge information and understanding that you have in your mind.
Wisdom is the ability to use your knowledge and experience to make good decisions and judgments.

Reading textbooks, memorizing and doing past year papers are important but all these just increase knowledge and not wisdom!

The verse also remind me of a Chinese saying, “读死书，读书死” (Which can be loosely translated that if all one does is to study from books, he will die studying.)

So how do you increase wisdom?

Jas 1:5
"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him."

The first and foremost thing, as a Christian, you should pray and ask God for wisdom.

Remember this point well, what works for the spiritual will also work for the natural. The key word for this verse is "ask". Wisdom comes by asking questions and answering them!

Now, I don't mean asking question that will come out for exams. Questions like "What is the role of vitamin C?" and "How is a waterfall formed?" will just set you reading and refering to your textbooks, which is again just dealing with the area of knowledge. You need to ask questions that will set you thinking, thinking of more questions and multiple solutions to each questions then branch out to more questions again.

Lets have a look at an example of a good thinking process when studying.

"What is the role of vitamin C? It is helps to boost the body's immune system." "
"So where can I obtain vitamin C? Vitamin C can be found in most vegetables and fruits, not forgetting vitamin supplements which you can get over the counter."
"What is the recommended amount of vitamin C a person should consume? Most food labels will recommend taking at least 500mg to 1000mg of vitamin C each day but there isn't a maximum amount stated."
"Have I read any articles or journals about vitamin C? Yes! Most articles will mention vitamin C with vitamin E and beta-carotene as anti-oxidants that could reduce free-radicals which causes aging and cancer growth."
"So where is vitamin C absorbed? In the small intestines together with digested food particles."
"So how does the small intestine function? The small intestine blah blah blah..."

I will not go on further but that's the basic idea. The ability to think beyond what most people will consider the "standard" answer. Of course you don't answer your exam question that way but thinking in such a way make your brain work and help you to link up with other knowledge that you have previously learnt. It sets you thinking, explain things in greater and further details and gives a deeper understanding of the knowledge that you have learnt. From there, you will also gather new knowledge and greater insight, just by thinking and asking questions alone!

When you study, when you ask questions and answer them, You should never let the knowledge in your mind be isolated like stand-alone computers. Never make the mistake that "biology is for biology" and "physics is for physics"! Such method of study I like to call it "Micro-study" as it restricts the learner to just looking at every piece of information in a narrow perspective.

However, learn to understand that one topic can always be linked with another topic. One subject can also explain or give a different view of another subject. Let your thinking work like a network server where you can have access to many computers from one computer. Think of how you can link different pieces of information together and learn to look at one subject in many different perspectives. Ask questions about a question and answer them. I call this method of study, "Macro-study" as the learner see things in a wide, limitless view.

Sounds difficult? Well, no one ever said that studying is easy. The main point I want to stress on here is to ask questions, think wide, see things in different angles and perspective and answer the question and ask more questions once again.

Wisdom as you can see by now, is really a collection of the experience you have and the flexibility of it is how much you really use your brain.

There is a myth that study is easier for younger people and thus, it is less suitable for older people. In fact, people also try to prove this point by stating the fact that the brain decreases in size as the person age.

However, studies have also showed that as a person gets older, the different parts of the brain also have better nerve linkage to each other and thus, despite the size of the brain decreases, the person is able to better reason and see things in a wider perspective. Which is why it is very common to see older people able to understand certain topics better than younger people. It also explain why a Varsity Degree is offered to people after a certain age.

But do you have to wait until you are old before you can "study better" or have wisdom? Not true. The reason why older people have more wisdom is because they have used their brain more than younger people over a longer period of time. In other words, if you learn to use your brain more, you can also improve the connectivity and function of your brain.

Thus the saying, "Practise makes perfect."

One way to increase wisdom is then to read widely, be up-to-date with new informations, to go beyond your textbooks and what is expected of you.

If you are studying Infocom, don't just read about I.T. but read also about healthcare and politics. If you are studying Healthcare, read also about electronic and world history. Read not just what you are interested in but allow yourself to be saturated with knowledge from different perspectives and disciplines. Look at information even if they oppose your belief. Seek to understand how other people think in differing views. Doing so, you will be able to answer many questions in many possible ways. That is how you can set yourslef thinking.

Thus, I am not really telling you how to do well in certain topics. What I am sharing is really a method that will help you to excel in not just your studies but also in every decision you make and in your future career.

If you want to have better result but see no breakthrough because you keep studying using an old method, try something new today! To keep doing the same thing and expect to have a different result is not perseverance, it is MADNESS!

ASK for wisdom today. It is going to ease your study once you grasp hold of it. Remember, it is not about IQ. King Solomon wasn't born with great intelligence in the first place.

GOD IS GOOD.