Studying
- Try and live and experience the subject as though it's a major part of your life or something. Then you might remember it better. It's a bit hard to really explain what I mean here- I guess the thing is to get really mentally and perhaps emotionally involved in your studies so that your new knowledge becomes a part of you. (Note: A friend just pointed out to me how unhealthy this sounds. He's probably right- I wasn't exactly the most emotionally healthy person last year. I think that perhaps the most important part would be not to see the stuff you learn at school as just dry chunks of information to memorise for tests, but rather to see it as interesting and maybe somewhat applicable to your life as well.)
- When learning new stuff, try and connect it to stuff that you already know, or other stuff that you're learning at the same time. More connections makes the material stick better.
- Don't be afraid to try unconventional methods of studying. Writing this blog has, for me, been a useful tool to help me studying. Also try using multiple different methods that you can use at different times depending on your mood.
- Study timetables work for some people (though admittedly I've never really used one), but if you have a really busy day, be prepared to be at least a little bit flexible with yours so that you don't get bogged down with guilt.
- If you're pretty much solid on whatever it is that your class is covering now, look at the course outline and see what you're meant to be doing next so that you can be ahead of the class.
- Try not to just read passively- at least take notes or do something other than just reading and mindlessly highlighting. One way I keep myself focused on what I'm reading is to keep a pencil handy so that I can write stupid comments in the margin related to whatever it is that I'm reading (hey, you have to understand at least a little bit of what you're reading to comment on it!). (This is another way I used to keep myself from over-stressing in tests and exams, but I've been advised not to do so because apparently the markers don't like it, so it's back to the drawing board I guess.)
- Here's a brief guide as to how I studied for all my subjects last year: Lit- writing practise essays and giving them to the teachers for feedback, Maths/Spec/Chem- doing every single practise question that I could get your hands on, Chinese- I was probably a bit unbalanced here but I mainly just did Language Perfect and read Chinese books, though I did also visit China twice last year on two two-week trips, Music- doing every aural exercise that I was given (though possibly could have done more on the website that my school signed up to- http://www.e-lr.com.au/), writing blog posts on the Lit parts, reading all the given handouts and relevant textbook sections, listening to the set works and practising clarinet. I didn't do much theory study because that's probably my strongest section, but one thing that I've done this year is look up all the Italian terms that I don't know on that list of terms that they gave us, and add them into Anki, a free flashcard program that you can download at http://ankisrs.net/.
- Here are some ways that you could study outside the course and feel extra confident: Lit- read other classics, particularly those written around the time or in the same genre as your set texts (for example, if you're studying Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, an Absurdist play, you could read Waiting for Godot, another Absurdist play written about 10 years earlier or so), or read scholarly articles on your set texts or other books that you've read (use Google to find these articles), Maths/Spec/Chem- find other textbooks to get alternative methods of doing stuff you already know or learn new things, use the Internet or library books to find out more about the topics that you're studying, Chinese- read books, watch movies, talk to people, practise writing sentences (you could start doing this by picking some sentences in a book you're reading and then changing some words so that you get the feel of different sentence structures), get a penpal and write to them (I haven't written to mine in a while...), Music- learn more challenging repertoire, learn the basics of another instrument, write compositions, read music theory textbooks, read about the music, art and culture of whatever time periods you're studying.
- Obviously, be a nice person and help your classmates if they need it, because you will also benefit by explaining stuff to them. The more you have to put your thoughts into words, the better you will come to understand the topic.
Work/Life Balance
Hm. I'm not very good at this part. All I can really say is, unless you have an assignment due the next day, pick a bedtime and a time to stop working (maybe about 20-30min or so before bedtime) and stick with it. Don't stay up super late studying the night before a test because you'll probably do better with less study and more sleep than the other way around.
Oh and also make sure that you've got SOMETHING that you do besides studying. Again, I was a study-holic in year 11 (still am in some ways, but I'm too burnt out now to do as much studying as I did last year), but I at least had a few things that I did to break it up. I did driving lessons and played clarinet in band. This year, I'm in my school's wind quintet, orchestra and wind band, and I also do yoga since my year 12 year coordinator encouraged/forced me to do it and it's actually pretty fun. I no longer do driving lessons since I've passed my test (albeit only on automatic, so I can't drive Aston Martins since I'm pretty sure most if not all of them are manuals), but I still go driving on weekends to build up my hours, not like I'm in any hurry to do so though.
I'll probably add to this page later. For now, enjoy year 11 or year 12 or whatever year you happen to be in! I'm probably not going to heed my own advice on that one, but... whatever. To quote the toilet wall at my school:
"Have a nice day- you're lucky to be alive, appreciate it."
"NO THANKS"
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