Planning your study routine
Welcome to Year 11 and 12, your final years of school. While an exciting time, it can also be quite stressful. One of the key ways to manage stress during Year 11 and 12 is maintaining an effective study routine so that you can keep up to date with your course work and prepared for those final exams. In this article, we will explore some strategies to implement a successful study routine.
Step 1
The first step to organizing your time is going over your schedule to see where you might fit time to study. Our lives are busy, and quite often, a lot is going on after school and on weekends. Hence it is best to first go over your schedule and commit a time every week to study. The study period could be 15 minutes, or it could be 2 hours; however, the main goal is to commit to a designated time slot each week and honour that commitment. Once you are happy with your routine and commit to it as planned, you can extend your study window or even the number of days you implement it.
Step 2
Now that you have an allocated time each week that you will study, the next stage is finding a space that you are comfortable studying in. This space could be anything from a desk in your room to the library or under a tree at the park. The main things to focus on is trying to limit your distractions and making sure that you are comfortable working in your space for an extended period of time.
Step 3
The next step you need to think about is ensuring any equipment, study notes or textbooks easily accessible. Having all of your equipment ready to go allows you to remain more focused on your study and limits the amount of time that might be wasted procrastinating. Some simple ideas that help with this could be having a login on your laptop that is only used for studying. This can allow you to store all of your school info in one place with no distractions. Another strategy to streamline your notes is keeping all of your work in a folder(s) so that it is easily accessible.
Once you are all set up, you are ready to go and get studying. How you study is up to you, and it really depends on your learning style. Sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error to figure out what style(s) work best for you. Below we have detailed some common strategies that can work well:
Tips for effective study strategies
Working through chapter reviews and chapter summaries.
Chapter reviews are a great place to start when working on a particular topic and chapter summaries work well to provide consolidated information for a broad topic.
Watching videos
Often we get stuck on topics and just don’t know where to start, which leaves us unmotivated. Watching videos on particular topics can be extremely useful in simplifying the topic down so that we can understand it. We have videos in our Mastermind course for English and Methods, you can view them here.
Drawing notecards
If you have a study space that allows you to put notes on your walls, this can be a really handy tool. Writing a simple note for something you want to remember (i.e anions are negatively charged and cations are positively charged) and then putting it on a wall to act as a visual reminder. Seeing the note repeatedly as you go about your day can help you remember it.
Have fun with it!
Often we remember things that are a little silly. So sometimes, incorporating fun can help us remember certain terms or facts that we need to remember. If we use the previously given example from chemistry: anions are negatively charged and cation positively charged, how could we make this silly to remember it? Well, if we look closer into cation, we can see the word CAT. Cats are nice, and hence they can be seen as positive, hence cations = positively charged. It’s a little silly, but if it helps you remember something, it doesn’t matter how silly it is.
Maintain balance.
Sometimes we get so overwhelmed with our studies that it feels difficult to do anything else. However, the more balance we keep in our lives with socializing, music, sport, etc., alongside our studies, the more productive we often are.
Reward your success!
Sometimes people find it useful to record their hours worked so that they can see the work accumulating over time. Others like to reward their success. For example, suppose you want to do a regular 2-hour study session on Thursdays. In that case, you could reward yourself with some shopping or a nice dinner afterwards to keep your motivation high.
Final thoughts on planning your study routine
Overall, how you manage your Year 11 and 12 study is within your control. Our main tips are to get organized early by planning ahead, committing to regular study times, having fun with it, and celebrating your progress.
Good luck and happy studying!
