The truth about mugging

A drink for muggers

Before I entered university, I always preferred mugging alone. Call me anti-social but I always thought that mugging in a group is less efficient. I was of the view that with friends around you one would socialise more than study. Coupled with my laziness in bringing my books out and my comfortable(and conducive) bedroom and you almost never see me out mugging with my friends. Plus it got me through JC.

Today I realised how wrong I was.

Maybe it's due the fact that most of the university materials are distributed via the web,but I find myself going online more often in the days leading to the exams- to print solutions that I've forgotten to print out or just to browse through past year questions that the lecturers have uploaded for the exams. All that is well and good but every time .I go online with all the intention of doing just the above tasks, I decide to check my e-mail, read the news and once I log in on MSN ,it's as good as saying goodbye to an hour of work. And it's happened more than once.Feeling a little desperate I turned to mugging in a group. And I think it may be the answer to my woes.

As a first step, I decided against bringing my laptop. At most, I could use the library's computer to print my materials - and that came with a time limit. Most of the time at home, when I feel tired, I'ld just take a 30-min nap which at times extended to one hour or more. Not so in a group. Rather than distracting you, when you see your friends furiously scribbling notes, you feel the urgency and the need to perservere; but of course the nap is always there for you to take should you really feel the need. It can get depressing at times when studying on your own. At least in a group, you know there's someone as depressed as you.

Ultimately, mugging need not be a lonely business. It can draw your group closer as friends while at the same time egg each other on. So if you have not tried before , why not?