Study Area

The route to academic success starts with a designated study area. It should:

• be a special space some distance from the daily distractions of the living room

• have a desk and chair

• house all the supplies necessary for active learning – planner/diary, a calendar, whiteboard, pens, pencils, highlighters, markers, writing pads, and sticky notes

• study material – textbooks, workbooks, and worksheets

Positive Mindset

A positive mindset is also a vital ingredient in the recipe for success at school. Therefore, a mindset shift is essential. You need to accept that studying is an important part of middle and high school. So embrace rather than resist.

discover even more reasons to embrace studying, watch this YouTube video: Study Hard and Study Smart

The Studying Process

Studying is an ongoing daily active process.

To be clear, simply sitting at a desk with an open book in front of you is not studying.

Study methods should instead include reading and making notes. Moreover, they should use bullets, mindmaps, arrows, and lots of colours to help to understand the material that needs to be learned.

Ensure that the TV is not on and cell phone is switched off!

A Study Timetable

Make a study timetable and stick to it. It should take into account and exclude:

• • • The time spent at school

    • All after school activities

Take the time available to study and allocate the subjects to study. Here is an example that has four study sessions per day.

For a study timetable template click here: Study Timetable Template

STUDY GOALS

Every study session needs to have a SMART goal. A good way to set up study goals is to break down everything to study into bite-sized easy to learn chunks.

Follow the SMART formula for all your study goals.

S – SPECIFIC

M – MEASURABLE

A – ACHIEVABLE

R – RELEVANT

T – TIME BOUND

The Pomodoro Method

A pomodoro is a period of 20-25 minutes. Break up each one hour study slot into two pomodoros. Set a timer for 20-25 minutes. Take a 5 minute break – take a walk, do some deep breathing, or have a snack.

It is also a good way for your to check how much work you can cover in 20-25 minutes and to find an effective study method to optimize your time.

Acronyms

Acronyms are a fun way to learn complex terms.

To create an acronym, firstly, take the first letter of every word in a list of items to be remembered. Secondly, make a real or pronounceable word to remind you of the items in that list. Here are a few examples:

BEDMAS (Brackets Exponents Division Multiplication Addition Subtraction – the order of mathematical operations) BEDMAS isn’t a real word, but it is pronounceable.

Flashcards

Flashcards are a simple study method that works.

Write out concepts that need to be remembered.

Subsequently, as you study, they divide those concepts into three groups and write them onto colour coded cue cards.

EASY – You know and understand these terms.

MEDIUM – You don’t know this as well as you should.

HARD – You find these terms hard to recall.

Self Test

There is certainly no point in studying if you do not test the effectiveness of your study methods.

One way is to set up a quiz on sections or subjects you've studied.

Apps to make quizzes/flashcards with:

• Quizlet

• Study Blue

• Kahoot

You can thereby assess the success of your learning from the score you get.