Polish Your Study Skills In Term 1
The value of addressing study skills as early as Term 1
It’s late at night. You have a big test tomorrow morning. You’ve been cramming for hours, but nothing seems to be sticking! You’ve done the mindmaps, the keycards, you have summaries with highlighting and diagrams. Why aren’t your study skills working?!
This is a scenario most of us have faced at some point in our school (or university) careers. The reasons behind it aren’t surprising though… Most learners get through their whole school career without knowing what their unique learning style is and without understanding which study methods work best for them. This is partly because no such assessment is done in mainstream schooling in South Africa, and only a handful of study methods, which aren’t appropriate for all students, are taught by teachers.
Knowing what your learning style is (from day 1!), and which study skills and organizational techniques are best suited to you, will mean more effective studying, less stress, less frustration and less time spent on methods that don’t work for you!
Here are some more reasons why Term 1 is the best time to get to grips with your learning style and which study strategies are right for you:
- Getting on top of your work from Term 1 will mean that there aren’t any gaps in your knowledge or understanding that will need to be filled later. Most school subjects work on the principle of building on knowledge transferred earlier in the syllabus, and so not understanding how fractions work now could mean not understanding how to solve an algebraic equation later.
- Your marks in Term 1 will also form the basis for your marks in Terms 2, 3 and 4, because of the way that continuous assessment works. This means that it’s just as important to be able to study well in Term 1 as it is to study properly for your final exams.
- Studying can be daunting, especially if you don’t understand the work or don’t know how to go about trying to learn it. This can lead to demotivation and not enjoying your schoolwork. Knowing how to study in a way that engages your mind and makes the content more interesting for you will help to keep learning fun AND effective.
- Term 1 is normally less busy than Term 2 or Term 4, when exams happen, and is usually less chaotic than a packed Term 3. You have more time available to learn to study effectively, as well as to practice your new skills before your first set of exams and before there are many projects and assignment deadlines filling your calendar.
- The pandemic and the uncertainty of the school year are difficult to deal with, even for adults. Spending 2 hours now, to ensure that you know how to study properly no matter what 2021 throws at you, is a really good investment!
- Term 1 is all about organizing and planning, so that you can make the most of the year ahead. Knowing how to manage your studies effectively will help you to organize your study schedule and your study space.
- Cramming is stressful, and almost never works! Studying for a few hours every week, from Term 1, will mean that when exams come around you won’t need to learn an entire textbook, and you’ll already have all of your study notes!
Without knowing how to study properly and effectively (and unless you have a photographic memory!) you are at the mercy of your classroom environment, your teachers and your circumstances. A 2 hour Study Skills Crash Course is one way to make your life way easier this year and going forward. Our Study Skills Crash Course can be done online or in person, in one 2 hour session, or split into two 1 hour sessions. Let our trained facilitators help you to understand:
- How your brain & memory work
- Why cramming doesn’t work
- What your learning style is
- Which study methods work best for you
- How to use these study methods
- How to set up a study schedule
- How to set up your study space
- & loads more!
Read more about our Study Skills Crash Course here or get in touch with us to book yours!
Written by Tessa Cooper, BrightSparkz Staff & Blog Writer
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