Studying is a timeless struggle for many students. They often don’t believe that they have enough time to study for all of the honors and A.P. courses packed into their schedule, and the workload can become extremely overwhelming.

Effective learning and mindful studying should be effortful, while methods such as “cramming” are only helpful in the short-term and usually won’t get you satisfactory scores on tests.

Salil Naik, a 10th grader at Mountain Ridge, was named the winner of the Congressional App Challenge among students in District #8 for her app called Hour.ly. The program is used to help students create a helpful and efficient study schedule that will not only help them retain more information, but keep them on top of their schedules. Along with recognition for his hard work and gift for computer science, Naik won a $250 prize.

He was inspired by his own experiences in school, and wants to help other kids just like him.

“When studying, I tended to focus more on the classes I liked rather than those I needed to study for. This year, I’m taking harder classes, so I realized that I needed to change my studying habits to succeed,” she said.

Naik was among over 10,000 students to register for the Congressional App Challenge. The contest was created by the U.S. House of Representatives to inspire middle school and high school students in their districts to pursue a career in computer science. More than half of Congress held the CAC in 48 states across the country.