A Smart Start to a Gratifying Scholastic Year

I remember how as a child I felt super excited and brimming with hopes for a brilliant start to a new class. Buying new books, stationery, covering the notebooks, pasting the name slips, making the index was like a ritual for every student. I spent a night before the first day of the new class in getting ready the uniform, the schoolbag, and polishing my shoes. The first day of entering the new classroom, meeting new teachers and classmates used to be a thrilling experience.

But as the days pass, all of it became a routine task, and the initial excitement wanes. Catching up with the daily rigor seems an uphill task. Missing few classes mean pending work, accumulation of which manifests in form of procrastination. Then, the examination time arrives, and this is when students feel jittery about not having studied well throughout the year!

The same cycle repeats on and on in every class! To break away from this vicious habit, it’s truly important how you plan your studies throughout the year. The syllabus is designed to get completed in a year, not in a few days of examination! This very well explains the need to dwell on some thought process into beginning a session on the right note.

Contemplate on Last Year’s Lessons

A rewind button is useful only when one is aware of mistakes and limitations, which can be done away with a new chance given. Identify what you did wrong! Was it your inability to manage time, difficulty in grasping concepts, or a lay back attitude that didn’t let you come up to your own expectations from you? Remember the feedback you received from your teachers, friends and parents about your habits and practices. Ponder over those little things and try to bring little modifications. But while you do this, take one habit at a time. When you see improvement, then go on for the next one. This will not only help you in achieving your study goals but also bring an overall improvement in your personality.

Plan Your Year in Tune with the Syllabus

As said earlier, the syllabus is for the entire academic session. A lot of planning goes into designing the syllabus. Students are the ones supposed to grab the syllabus and sort of master it. Mastery takes time! So, you need to spread the syllabus within the available span of time and set your daily/weekly/monthly targets for each subject.

To give you an example, if you are a class XII student, you may divide the syllabus in a manner that aligns with your school timeline. The school year is usually divided either into three terms or two terms with assessment at regular intervals. You can align your self-study with it for enhancing your performance at school.

Organize Your Studies

Staying organized is a virtue that helps you in the long run. For studies, there are three things that will make your studies easier – Gather your study material and all relevant resources you will need for your studies, prepare your study space where you can focus, and chalk out a study plan. 

Manage Multiple Subjects with a Study Schedule

Students have to juggle with 5-6 subjects together. Managing all subjects often becomes tough. If you have trouble handling multiple subjects together, then you need to sort this by developing an amenable study plan. To give you some idea, for regular working days a 6-hour self-study plan for a class 12 student be like 2 hours for doing homework, 1 hour each for three major subjects with 10 minutes break after every 40 minutes of study. If there are more than three major subjects, they can be alternated every three days of a week on a rotational basis.

For Sundays and holidays, you can follow the same pattern while doubling the time spent on the major subjects. The easy and lighter subjects also can be taken upon these days. Such days are also good for weekly revision of concepts and lessons.

Mix a Variety Of Study Approach

A concomitant mix of various study approaches is good for quality learning. Self-study is required almost always. But there are some concepts that are better learned through discussion and interaction with peers. Such topics can be learned best through collaborative study groups.  For topics that are too abstract and complex to understand on your own, you need the help of a teacher. Such study is a guided study approach. Bring variety to your study methods.

Make Your Notes for Year-end Revision

Writing effective notes or taking notes while in class is one of the key components of good study skills. Don’t rely on your memory, note it down every time you learn something new. The sole purpose of making notes is to retrieve the information by revision. Make sure your notes are legible, simplified, creative, and engaging.

Study like a Termite

Learn like a termite. It eats whenever it can! A termite never stops eating up the wood until it finishes it all! Often students make long-term study plans and delay what they could learn in the present, like through classroom lectures, homework, and correction work. They don’t attend to the information they receive as they believe they will study them later. Such excuses are common among them like ‘I understand only through self-study’.

Self-Care

Academics require lot of rigor. This can create stress and affect health. A self-care routine should also be developed simultaneous to a study routine. This may include eating healthy, sleeping well, doing physical exercise, talking to parents and friends, indulging in a hobby, etc.

Adapt to Online Learning

COVID-19 led school closures for an entire year gave students the chance to experience online learning. A sudden upsurge again has led to the extension of online learning this year too! Also in the future, it is sure to stay for the many benefits of online learning. Hence, adapting to learning with technology is a must for today’s learners. But just watching the YouTube videos without any active involvement will not fetch the desired outcomes. Online learning is more about becoming an autonomous learner. You can’t emulate the way you learn in a physical classroom with an online or virtual classroom. In a physical classroom, a teacher pokes you on seeing if you are uninterested or passive in the class. But in an online classroom, it’s you who needs to do that.

Optimistic Attitude

Be flexible and stay confident. It’s ok if sometimes you are not able to work as per your plans. Monitor yourself and keep trying to bring improvement. An optimistic attitude will keep you enthusiastic and motivated to chase your dreams. For an optimistic attitude, try saying few positive things to yourself every morning you wake up. I bet it will increase your productivity of the day!