Before my June exams, I asked one of the top students in my class for study tips. They shared their routine confidently, and I followed it exactly. One of their main suggestions was to move around while reading notes. So there I was, pacing up and down my room, reading Tax Principles out loud, convinced I had finally discovered the secret to academic success. I felt productive. I felt confident. But when the results came out, I had not performed the way I wanted to or the way they had. I remember thinking, maybe they did not tell me everything. Maybe they lied.

Later, I discovered the VARK model, developed by Neil Fleming. After taking the assessment, I found out that I am a visual learner. Suddenly, everything made sense. Visual learners understand information best when they can see structure and relationships clearly. Instead of walking around while reading, I started creating colorful mind maps and detailed flow diagrams. I organized concepts visually and connected topics in ways that made sense to me. The difference was immediate. In my next test, I earned a distinction.

That experience taught me an important lesson. Top students are not lying about their study methods. They are simply describing what works for their brains. The mistake many of us make is assuming that what works for one person must automatically work for everyone. Learning styles differ. According to the VARK framework, learners generally prefer one or more of four approaches: Visual, Aural, Read Write, and Kinesthetic. When you force yourself to use a method that does not align with how you naturally process information, studying feels harder than it should.

This insight becomes even more important when we think about lifelong learning. In demanding fields like accounting, understanding cannot be temporary. You cannot afford to forget foundational knowledge after each exam. True mastery means that if someone wakes you up at 3 am in the morning and asks you to define an asset, you can answer without hesitation. That level of confidence comes from studying in a way that creates deep understanding, not short term memorization.

Top students do not have hidden secrets. They simply understand themselves. The real breakthrough happens when you stop asking how the top performer studies and start asking how your own brain learns. When your study methods align with your natural learning preferences, effort becomes more productive, understanding becomes deeper, and studying becomes not just about passing exams, but about building lasting knowledge. – Kgaogelo Matjomane, University of Pretoria, Bcom Accounting Science Student

True mastery means that if someone wakes you up at 3 am in the morning and asks you to define an asset, you can answer without hesitation.