Whether you’re headed back to college, high
school, middle school, or elementary school, the back-to-school season is in
full-swing for Lexington! To help ensure that students start the school year off on the
right foot, StudyPoint’s National Director of Academics, Jamee
Wilke, shared her tips and expertise with Philadelphia’s Fox 29
reporter, Jennaphr Frederick.
Tip #1: Develop organizational systems that will work for
YOU. Not all organizational systems will work for all students. You
should choose the ones that will work best with your schedule and needs.
Remember, though, that learning to be organized takes time and practice. If a
system doesn’t work the first time you try it, try again. You may just need
more time to become accustomed to it.
Tip #2: Avoid distractions in your study space. If your
study space includes a TV and radio, it’s probably not the best place for you
to study. Your study space should be used for studying and working only.
Choose a space that doesn't have a lot of tempting distractions available.
Tip #3: Keep all of your books, notebooks, binders, and
folders for each class together on a shelf. Then when you need to
grab your math materials for school, they are all in one place, making it less
likely for you to forget something. You can even label the shelves to make it
that much easier to find the right materials.
Tip #4: Reward yourself! Positive reinforcement is an
amazing thing. When you have completed tasks, reward yourself in small ways.
This can be anything from allowing yourself to take a 10 minute break to
treating yourself to a movie. This will help to avoid procrastinating!
Tip #5: Schedule time to complete your assignments
based on anticipated time on task and urgency. Once you know all the
assignments that you need to complete, determine their deadlines and estimate
how long it will take to finish each one. You can then prioritize
your tasks and set a clear schedule for completing them!
Tip #6: Use an academic planner to keep track of your
assignments, deadlines, and appointments. By having all this information
in one place, you’ll know exactly where to look to find out what you need
to do. You can even use your planner to prioritize tasks and set a study
schedule. See the example provided.
Tip #7: Use shorter, less grammatically correct
sentences. Since you are the only one who will be reviewing your notes,
you need not write grammatically correct sentences. You should do your best to
shorten your sentences as much as possible. This will enable you to take notes
at a faster speed and will reduce the risk of falling behind. Just make sure
that you don’t abbreviate the sentences to the point where you are unable to
understand what you wrote when you go back to review your notes.
Tip #8: Divide your study time into blocks separated by
quick breaks. It is most effective to study in 30-45 minute blocks of
time, allowing yourself quick 3-5 minute breaks in between study blocks. This
approach gives you time to focus while also allowing time to relax and
re-energize. Be careful though—you need to make sure that your quick breaks
don’t turn into longer procrastination breaks!
Tip #9: Create and save study guides and aids. Students
often wait until the night before big tests to start creating study aids.
Instead, you should create study aids for each quiz and test that you have in a
class. Once the quizzes and tests are completed, you should save your study
aids. Then when it comes time to study for your big tests and quizzes, you will
already have your study aids created, which saves you valuable time that you can
dedicate to studying.
Tip #10: Learn how to effectively communicate with your
teachers. Your teachers are there to provide guidance and support. You’ll
find that most of your teachers are more than happy to provide additional
instruction and extra help. This also shows that you care about your
academic performance. Your teachers want to see that you are interested in
the class material and that you are driven to succeed. There’s a good chance
that a portion of your grades will be based on your class participation. By
effectively communicating with your teachers, you can help maintain and
increase your class grades.
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