How to develop Self-Motivation Skills for Online Classes?

Until half a decade back, offline or classroom coaching was the only way for dedicated ESE, SSC-JE, State Engineering Exams, and GATE preparation. However, over the past few years, the technological boom led to the rise of a promising alternative in the form of online coaching. Although the courses were available in online format earlier, however, by the beginning of this digital era everyone understood the importance of online classes.

Online courses for GATE, ESE, SSC-JE, and other competitive exams are a great relief for exam aspirants. To learn and execute the content of the online courses, competitive exams aspirants must understand the most important factor – Self-motivation. Online courses demand a slightly higher level of attention and effort from the aspirant’s end as compared to regular classroom coaching. This is because ESE, GATE, or any other competitive exam preparation with online classes requires students to stay more disciplined. These classes do not have the presence of a teacher in front while studying, which is usually available in classroom coaching. Therefore, if you want to excel in these challenging exams, you must ensure that you emphasize building your self-motivation skills for the long term.

Here are some reasons why developing a strong self-motivation is required in online classes:

1. You are your own master:

In online classes, you will have to create your own study pattern and schedule. While this seems to be a highly advantageous aspect of online courses; it might as well be the worst disadvantage. You will have the liberty to finish the entire course in a day. You can binge-watch or put it straight for a week. If self-motivation to study does not exist in such a scenario, it becomes tough to maintain a regular study schedule. Apart from this, aspirants can keep the study pace according to their habits to complete it on time. If you are preparing for SSC-JE, State Engineering Exams, ESE, and GATE exams, you need to ensure that keep a decent pace right from the start. The right level of self-motivation will help you sail through the preparation journey.

2. The slow yet steady will succeed:

It is equally important to reach the finish line, as it is to participate in the race. Aspirants generally start an online course with full determination and enthusiasm. However, this determination deteriorates or even gets lost in the upcoming months. This makes the student or professional leave the online classes midway. Here comes the role of self-motivation skills that one must develop before it is too late. You must understand that you need the determination to learn something yourself and avoid complete dependence on the teachers, course instructors, or even external factors. Most aspirants face difficulty in understanding concepts through questions when they learn and practice with online courses. You must keep learning and practicing to improve your exam-oriented performance.

3. You are your own competition:

Aspirants do not face any competition with fellow students in online courses. This feeling of competition is consistent in Offline Classroom Courses that turns into a big source of motivation. Online courses, especially online classes grant that level of comfort to the students and professionals that often makes students and professionals procrastinate during exam preparation. This is because there is a lack of direct motivation from subject experts. The online study environment does not let the aspirants experience real competition. This often makes the students procrastinate towards one or more of their target competitive exams unintentionally. When external motivation is absent, the impact of self-motivation skills becomes more significant. Therefore, you must consider yourself as the only competition in the entire preparation journey.

4. Boosts confidence:

When one is sure of their goals, determined to achieve them, and motivated from within, it is then, that success becomes inevitable. Nobody else apart from you can tell the real ability to achieve the goals of the competitive exams. Someone else telling it and urging you to do it will not work in the long term. Internal motivation, i.e., self-motivation plays a significant role in improving your confidence levels. You can get the best plan from the subject experts but it is up to you to execute the plan. You need to own your efforts and hard work in the best possible manner. The combination of self-motivation and self-confidence can help you achieve heights.

5. Self-motivated learning is better:

Learning is a unique aspect that comes from within. One cannot force a student, professional, or specifically exam aspirant to learn the respective topics in the respective competitive exams syllabus. There is a difference between learning and studying. You might force or push someone for studying. On the other hand, effective learning happens when one has the required self-motivation and will to put in the best efforts to achieve it. Surprisingly, you need to understand that you need to learn certain concepts and formulae to excel in any competitive exam. In online courses, motivation to study is often lost, accredited to many factors. These factors include no fixed schedule, no interaction with the educator, no track of performance, procrastination, distractions due to unnecessary use of smartphones and frequent study place changes, etc. Therefore, in such cases, self-motivation becomes all the more important to ensure that you are learning and progressing toward your competitive exams goals.

This indicates that self-motivation skills hold a significant place in the preparation journey of competitive exam aspirants. Now comes the most frequently asked question – How to develop self-motivation skills for online classes? We all know that there are several motivational speakers, uncountable good reads, and thoughts on motivation to study. The best motivation is the one that comes from within the individual, i.e. self-motivation.  Let us find out how you can improve your self-motivation and ace your preparation.

Here are the expert-recommended tips, using which you can develop your self-motivation skills and upkeep them for a long time:

• Evaluate your current motivation and get started: First of all, before you start with your online courses, you need to evaluate your current standing in terms of knowledge as well as motivation. You can check your present level of self-motivation with different resources. You can opt for the best online classes, which serve the dual purpose of strengthening the basics and giving an insight into good questions and solving them in minimum time. You will have the best level of self-motivation when you select the online classes after in-depth research and analysis with the testimonials and success stories. Once you have decided on the respective course, you must understand that you need to create a plan that helps you in your ESE and GATE preparation.

• Stick to the particular schedule you want to follow: To have a perfect schedule is not as important as following the study schedule consistently. Aspirants often face a lack of motivation to study in a bid to have an ideal schedule, with more than 14 study hours, waking up at 5 am, sleeping sharp at 11 pm, eating healthy, and exercising regularly. This happens because sometimes, this schedule is not realistic for most of the aspirants. If you set up a realistic schedule that you can follow religiously, you can become consistent and motivated for your competitive exams preparation.

• Meditate for mindfulness: The habit of meditation or mindfulness helps you gain a calm and peaceful mind. You must put effort to add at least 15 minutes sessions with eyes closed with peaceful music. Focus on keeping your mind stable and avoid thinking about anything during these precious minutes. This practice helps your mind to calm down and attain peace. In this way, you can channel your thoughts and energy in the required direction.

• Set realistic goals: People seeking perfection will tell that students and professionals must complete an online course in a week or score 90 marks on the respective test. But you must understand that this is a perfect scenario and you must focus to be practical for each session. You need to ensure that you set goals right and dedicate the essential time with the right dose of self-motivation to achieve each goal. Once you achieve the goal that you had set, reward yourself appropriately. You must analyze your recent exam results and current knowledge. According to the possible improvement, you must set a score that you can secure in the practice tests of the competitive exams. Your goals must revolve around the time available for practice and the number of questions you can complete in that particular period.

• Reward your achievements (even small ones): Even if your little achievements may seem small to you now, a series of such achievements often lead to a big difference later. It is a natural tendency associated with human psychology that when we see the reward at the end of achievement (especially the delayed one), we tend to put less effort into that particular activity. Simple little rewards, like a movie break at the end of an online course, or a pizza treat for solving 100 questions from a course will boost self-motivation levels. It makes you stay motivated throughout your competitive exams preparation.

• Become accountable for your actions: Staying accountable for your actions is as important as rewarding yourself. If you miss some of the deadlines that you set for yourself, it creates a delay in the next move of your plan and then another missed deadline. This often leads to a delayed cycle that often leads to procrastination. For the complete action plan to be in place, you must be honest with every part of it, or else it kills away the self-motivation to study. Apart from this, online courses especially the ones that comprise recorded sessions make it a bit challenging for the aspirants opting for the online classes to stay accountable. You can choose a trusted and reliable study partner or guide for your consistent and dedicated study sessions. Always remember that the ESE exam and GATE preparation will require timely monitoring to avoid aspirants from getting distracted from their competitive exams preparation. You can have a study partner, who can be even your mom, any friend, or a guide, to whom you are accountable. You must remember that it is important to communicate your deadlines and other important information with your study buddy or guide.

• Prioritize feedback: Taking feedback after implementing the respective plan is as important as planning for the task itself. When in offline classroom coaching, aspirants of competitive exams like SSC-JE, GATE 2025, or the ESE get multilevel feedback from faculty, fellow aspirants, and even other experts. The feedback revolves around speed, approach, or even specific feedback on a particular question specific to a particular exam. When it comes to online classes though, this feedback can and must come from you, yourself. This is why self-motivation becomes so important before starting online courses. You need to analyze your performance, results, and approach and make improvements based on that. In the entire process, you must emphasize improving and using your self-motivation skills effectively.

• Be alone, but never lonely: Going for classroom coaching classes, being in touch with fellow aspirants, and talking and discussing with educators, often upkeep the feeling that you are not alone. The teachers formed the primary source of exam motivation in the offline classes. However, online classes often lead aspirants to experience loneliness. As an exam aspirant, you must focus on avoiding feeling lonely at any time throughout the exam preparation journey. You need to keep your inner motivation alive and tell yourself that you have the self-motivation skills to succeed in competitive exams. Stay in touch with your friends, family, and talk to your fellow aspirants. Join existing Whatsapp/Telegram groups, or form new ones, where you can discuss your feelings, and apprehensions, along with technical doubts and problems with your fellow aspirants and even experts. As important as it is to stay safe during the times of this pandemic, equally important is to stay positive.

The motivation to study, or for that matter, to do anything in your life can never come from outside. All the TED talks, motivational speeches, and inspirational books aim to charge your self-motivation. Once you realize what your goals are, and whether you want to achieve these aims, your self-motivation comes into play.

When it comes to online courses for GATE 2025, ESE exam, SSC JE Exam, or any other exam, self-motivation has to be developed and maintained for a long time, without any motivation to study, coming from anywhere outside. Be sure of your goals, set a plan of action, culture a positive mindset and you are good to go.

We at MADE EASY try to share most of the study tips related to the engineering segment like GATE, ESE, PSUs, and other governments departments so that the aspirants can get all the information in one place.

Hope you found the blog post useful!

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