mental efficiency which are bound to occur from day to day. Since this
irregularity is bound to occur, you may well make your effort vary from
one extreme to the other. At times, perhaps your most profitable move
may be to take a complete vacation. The vacation might cover several
weeks, a week-end, or if the plateau is merely a low period in the
day's work, then ten minutes may suffice for a vacation. As an adjunct
to such rest periods, some form of recreation should usually be
planned, for the essential thing is to permit the mind to rest from the
tiresome activity.

If your plateau represents greater difficulty of subject-matter and
loss of interest, your duty is plainly to work harder. In exerting more
effort, make some changes in your methods of study. For example, if you
have been accustomed to study a certain subject by silent reading,
begin to read your lessons aloud. Change your method of taking notes,
or change the hour of day in which you prepare your lesson. In short,
try any of the methods described in this book, and use your own
ingenuity, and the change in method may overcome the plateau.

If a plateau is due to our last-mentioned cause, insufficient
preparation, the remedy must be drastic. To make new resolutions and to
put forth additional effort is not enough; you must go back and relay
the foundation. Make a thorough review of the work which you covered
slightingly, making sure that every step is clear. This process was
described in an earlier chapter as the clarification of ideas and is
absolutely essential in building up a structure of knowledge that will
stand. Indeed, as you take various courses you will find that your
study will be much improved by periodical reviews. The benefits cannot
all be enumerated here, but we may reasonably claim that a review will
be very likely to remove a plateau, and used with the other remedies