Year 10 Study Skills Day

Andrew and I were both members of the ELMS class and last year finished both year 12 chemistry and maths methods. This year I’m only doing 3 subjects at school, English, Psychology and Biology, I’m also doing a first year media subject at Swinburne University. It’s great to get one, or 2 year 12 subjects out of the way in year 11 for in the future, if only to learn in which ways are best for you study-wise. You also get to have a second chance to learn from your mistakes. That’s another reason year 10 is important, if you want to do a year 12 subject next year and I would recommend it to anyone who can, you have to get good marks. Balance is really important too. I get stressed out really easily and last year I focussed practically all my attention onto schoolwork. I want to make sure I’m not like that this year because I think I would have done better if I had had something else to escape to. I don’t mean just on the weekend going to a party either, just something that you can do when you need to get away from school stuff, whatever it is you’re into.

Another thing I find helps a lot when I’m stressed is writing things down, figuring out exactly what the problem is and what I can do to solve it. That doesn’t necessarily have to be to do with school work either, just anything. In year 10 I don’t think I really had any idea what I wanted to do after school, I’m still not really clear, but I have a fairly good idea where I want to go with my life work wise. If you don’t have an exact course, or job you want to get into after school that doesn’t matter, especially not yet. It’s good to start thinking about it though, if you haven’t already, because it’s helpful to have clear goals set if you want to achieve your potential. If you don’t know what you want to do set goals for individual subjects, that way you have something to aim for and try to achieve. If you succeed its good to do something as a kind of reward and if not, try to figure out how you could do better next time.

Something I have definitely learned is to do the homework you don’t like first, otherwise it often gets left to the last minute, causing stress, or doesn’t get done at all. I’m sure at different stages of the year you all burn out and don’t really feel like doing much work. I think everyone is like that. Something I learned last year was that it’s really important to be constantly revising, you can’t just do your homework and then study for a week before the exams and expect to get good marks and as much as teachers tell you this, I can’t describe how true it is. So it’s really important that even if you don’t feel like doing work, you do at least a little bit. I was told that to do well in year 12 exams you had to be studying all year and from September on it was just going to have to be study, study, study. Last year I was kind of like well yeah, but I’m not actually in year 12, I’m only doing 2 subjects so I don’t think I really have to worry, I don’t have half the amount of work as the actual year 12s.

Although I had fewer subjects, I really learned how important it is to be revising from as soon as possible and as often as you have time to. Especially because in that situation you do have fewer subjects and so you should use the extra time to your advantage. Just before I finish I’d like to come back to goals. No matter how small, or stupid, the goal may seem, it will help you to achieve it to just write it down. Have it in your face so you can see it. That will give you the desire to complete it, otherwise it will just continue to sit there, incomplete and staring at you until eventually it is hopefully done. Thank you