Q I am in school and I know that I am intelligent. My results are quite good but not the best. I manage to score 80 per cent marks most of the time but am unable to get higher marks than that. I lose concentration very easily. Since all good colleges have above 95 per cent cut-off marks these days, I am worried about my future. Please suggest how I can improve.

Name withheld

I am really glad to know that you are doing well in school, even though the marks are not exactly to your liking. I suggest that the first thing you do is figure out how and why you lose concentration. Is it because you get tired of listening or do you get distracted by other things? Once you have a better understanding of what is going wrong, you can try and correct it.

Each one of us has a special learning style — some of us like to read, others like to hear and learn while some people have to see to learn best. It really helps to know what your unique learning style is and adapt accordingly. If you feel that the teacher speaks for long stretches and you can’t pay attention or stay interested in the class, it is because there’s a mismatch between your learning style and the instructional environment of the class. As soon as you understand this mismatch, you can find ways to adapt your style to ensure your success in class. You might start recording the lectures so that you don’t have to worry about missing important information. If, however, you prefer more visual information, then you might decide to draw rough diagrams that illustrate the ideas being presented in a lecture.

In case you learn better by speaking things aloud, you could get together with classmates and take turns to revise key concepts. If you prefer learning through writing, take copious notes and write out key phrases. When a problem involves a sequence of steps, write down each step in detail.

Since you are interested in improving your marks and are ambitious, you will need to think about your how you can adapt what is being taught to your own learning methodology. It is best that we learn how best we learn as schools focus only on one style. A bit of introspection and modification will not just help you now but also when you are working. Good luck.