About Vijay Patankar

Vijay is a qualified English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teacher and currently teaches at Nottingham University in Ningbo, China.

He has MA (TESOL) from UTS in Sydney and CELTA qualifications. He has previously taught EAP courses at University of New South Wales in Sydney and at Kaplan Higher Education in China.

In 2002, Vijay was instrumental in preventing his teenage son (and many others since then) from dropping out of high school. Like many teenagers, his son was going through a rough patch and had lost the motivation to complete his high school studies.

Recognising that his son’s lack of motivation to study stemmed from not knowing how to study, Vijay taught him how to study effectively. This empowered his son and gave him the tools he needed to become an independent learner.

Learning how to study was one of the best things his son did. It helped him to achieve a high score of 94.95 (UAI) in the HSC exam of 2004.

This incident made Vijay realise that perhaps there are many more students who may be struggling from lack of study skills. Without understanding and knowing how to study effectively, even the most capable and intelligent students may feel overwhelmed by the amount of work they have to get through the high school and university.

Conversely, an average student who has mastered these basic techniques will feel confident, in-control and is most likely to get higher grades. Since these students are better equipped for undertaking academic challenges they are also less likely to drop out.