As the new semester approaches, you must be both excited and worried. Excited about how you will be seeing your friends and teachers again, but at the same time, worried about how to kickstart your revisions properly. Fret not, we have a list of tips for you to incorporate into your own revision plans.
Have a study plan
Do not cram all your studying to the very last minute. Cramming will not only give you additional stress but may also make you forget about some of the content that is being tested. Having a study plan will help prevent you from being in such a situation. Give yourself a total of 3 hours to study on a normal school day and 8 hours to study on the weekends. Make sure to space your time up to prevent being burnt out. Taking a short 15 minutes break after each study session is advisable for you to rest your brain and to prepare for the next session. Also, it will be good to focus on 2 subjects per day so that ample time is allocated for each subject to cover all of the contents.
Practice, practice and practice
Having sufficient practice is required to ace whatever questions that may be tested. It is important to have regular practice for each subject. For example, going through two subjects daily. You can do the past year’s papers given and try to do one daily and go through the mistakes after marking the completed papers. Then, consolidate all of the mistakes you made and understand where you went wrong and try those questions a few more times before your exams. You need more than just reading the textbooks itself to help you do well in your exams. Practising is required to help you understand the flow of the exam paper and the types of questions associated with the workings needed. This can also help you do your paper at a faster pace with higher accuracy and give you more time to check your paper before submission.
Start with your most difficult subject
As a student, whenever it’s time to start studying that one subject that I dislike the most, I will always tend to push it to the very last minute to study. This is a type of procrastination that will not produce good results in the long run. Procrastinating this dreaded subject and only doing the subjects that you like will not only lead to scoring badly for the dreaded subject but also how it will in turn become a habit.
When you are faced with something challenging, you will push it away and try not to overcome it until the last minute. It is better to always go head-on and push through doing your dreaded subject before starting on those you love. You can do so by, firstly, changing your attitude towards it. Instead of thinking and viewing it in a negative light, create a positive perspective of it. Secondly, making time to go through its contents and understanding what is happening in the subject may make you feel that the subject isn’t that hard after all. Lastly, you can experiment with different study styles for this subject to see which suits you.
Have study groups & consultations
While studying, you may be faced with some challenging questions or you may be distracted. It will be nice for you to form a study group with your friends and get together to study and motivate each other to study for your exams.
Also, when you are in doubt, you can also book consultation slots with your teacher to clarify any questions you have. Teachers are there to help and I believe that they will love to help. It will be better to complete a few exam papers first and consolidate all the questions that you faced before asking your teacher in a session than going back multiple times for every paper you complete.
Remove all distractions
Studying in a distraction-free environment will allow you to focus on the work you are doing instead of being sidetracked. Remember, “Out of sight, out of mind’. Put your phone in places that it is out of sight, such as the kitchen or in a drawer. As long as your distractions are far away from you, you will slowly stop thinking about it and put your mind solely on your work. Also, it will be better to study on a table instead of on the bed, as you tend to associate ‘bed’ with ‘sleeping’. Studying in the same area every time will train your mind to learn to be focused whenever you are sitting down at your table and know that it’s time to start your revisions.
All the best for your revisions!