School, Studying and Stress
I've wanted just to sit down and write for so long as it's been ages since I've written a post, but every time I've sat down, I've been disturbed by either homework, more study, or home life.
I'm still disappointed that it's taken me so long though.
So currently I'm in the last week of school holidays before I go back to school. I have been studying like a mad idiot for about a week, summarising everything, writing essay paragraphs, doing practice exams. I think the worst part about it all, is that even though I've accomplished so much, it's taken me this long to get around to writing study notes that I'm still so behind.
I have just under four weeks until my exams. I'm hoping that I can have everything done, or most things completed by then.
In my HSC, I have such a broad, different range of subjects that I'm studying. So for each one, I have to have a different study method.
To study for English, I've found that re-reading and continuously improving my essays have helped with memorising the techniques for those, as well as quickly looking over study guides for my texts to constantly be getting new ideas. For the short answer and creative writing sides of things, I find that reading examples, and timing myself whilst answering the questions and writing to the stimulus's has helped the most.
For Math, I found that "study notes" didn't really work for me, so this year my grades dramatically improved for a test when I composed an A4 poster summarising the chapter in a visual kind of way. A "cheat sheet" if you like. This method I found really helpful, and I am yet to summarise a few more chapters and see if it works for this next exam. Combining this with practice exams I feel could be a very successful study technique for me.
Moving on to Earth and Environmental Science, my favourite subject! Studying for earth is honestly really easy. I get several sets of notes from the internet for a bit of extra reference (boredofstudies.org is really great!) and compose notes from those and the work that we have done in class. Structuring my notes with the syllabus dot-points also help to make sure that I haven't missed anything. These notes I have written down in small books so I can draw any diagrams if I need to.
French. A subject I loved for the first few months, and hated ever since... until about last month. I've always loved languages. They're great. The idea of code cracking enters my head whenever I think of them. However studying them at school ruined them. We were sticking to one textbook, and a textbook that didn't help either. It got to a point where I kind of started to ignore my teacher, and began studying by myself. I practiced and summarised the tenses (present, simple past, imperfect, future and conditional), revising vocabulary lists, speaking in it as much as I can, and translating English to French in my head on an everyday basis. I've also been keeping up with duolingo, memrise and several textbooks to help me absorb and review the language on a frequent basis.
The key to learning a language is study every day. Even if it's only a little bit, 10 minutes a day listening in that language, or trying to read a passage, something is still better than nothing.
The last subject is Ancient History. It's my worst subject. Even though I love the content of all the ancient societies and religions, I find it so hard to analyse the artefacts or answer the questions they ask me in exams. To study for Ancient, like earth and environmental I get both notes from class and the internet to help me make my own. What I'm thinking to do to help me with the writing aspect of things, is reading tonnes of examples online, and trying to write my own and getting feedback from my teacher. Hopefully, this will help me for my exams.
Last but not least I wanted to address stress. The HSC is a very stressful time for everyone. Everyone should be aware of this and have some time to themselves at least once a week. Have a rest, run a nice bath, even treat yourself to a nice chocolate if you've done well.
If anything at any point is getting too overwhelming, step away from it for a bit and slowly begin to attack it more tactfully. Use to do lists and planners to keep up with the demand of work, and if at any stage you are too stressed to function, try writing it down. A list of what you're stressed about can help you form your thoughts and find ways to address each issue.
On a side note, don't be too stressed about your grades. If you don't get what you aim for, that's okay! You can always improve for next time! And if you don't get your desired final mark or ATAR, there are so many pathways to get you where you want to be.
I personally don't know what I want to do after school, I'm not sure if I'll go to uni or TAFE, or even go to work for a few years, but I know that whatever I decide to do with myself, I am aware that there are multiple pathways to get me there and if I want it that much, I will achieve it.
Thanks guys for reading, hopefully, it won't be such a long time until my next post.
Until then, I hope everyone is staying safe and happy.
Jenny xx
I'm still disappointed that it's taken me so long though.
So currently I'm in the last week of school holidays before I go back to school. I have been studying like a mad idiot for about a week, summarising everything, writing essay paragraphs, doing practice exams. I think the worst part about it all, is that even though I've accomplished so much, it's taken me this long to get around to writing study notes that I'm still so behind.
I have just under four weeks until my exams. I'm hoping that I can have everything done, or most things completed by then.
In my HSC, I have such a broad, different range of subjects that I'm studying. So for each one, I have to have a different study method.To study for English, I've found that re-reading and continuously improving my essays have helped with memorising the techniques for those, as well as quickly looking over study guides for my texts to constantly be getting new ideas. For the short answer and creative writing sides of things, I find that reading examples, and timing myself whilst answering the questions and writing to the stimulus's has helped the most.
For Math, I found that "study notes" didn't really work for me, so this year my grades dramatically improved for a test when I composed an A4 poster summarising the chapter in a visual kind of way. A "cheat sheet" if you like. This method I found really helpful, and I am yet to summarise a few more chapters and see if it works for this next exam. Combining this with practice exams I feel could be a very successful study technique for me.
Moving on to Earth and Environmental Science, my favourite subject! Studying for earth is honestly really easy. I get several sets of notes from the internet for a bit of extra reference (boredofstudies.org is really great!) and compose notes from those and the work that we have done in class. Structuring my notes with the syllabus dot-points also help to make sure that I haven't missed anything. These notes I have written down in small books so I can draw any diagrams if I need to.French. A subject I loved for the first few months, and hated ever since... until about last month. I've always loved languages. They're great. The idea of code cracking enters my head whenever I think of them. However studying them at school ruined them. We were sticking to one textbook, and a textbook that didn't help either. It got to a point where I kind of started to ignore my teacher, and began studying by myself. I practiced and summarised the tenses (present, simple past, imperfect, future and conditional), revising vocabulary lists, speaking in it as much as I can, and translating English to French in my head on an everyday basis. I've also been keeping up with duolingo, memrise and several textbooks to help me absorb and review the language on a frequent basis.
The key to learning a language is study every day. Even if it's only a little bit, 10 minutes a day listening in that language, or trying to read a passage, something is still better than nothing.The last subject is Ancient History. It's my worst subject. Even though I love the content of all the ancient societies and religions, I find it so hard to analyse the artefacts or answer the questions they ask me in exams. To study for Ancient, like earth and environmental I get both notes from class and the internet to help me make my own. What I'm thinking to do to help me with the writing aspect of things, is reading tonnes of examples online, and trying to write my own and getting feedback from my teacher. Hopefully, this will help me for my exams.
Last but not least I wanted to address stress. The HSC is a very stressful time for everyone. Everyone should be aware of this and have some time to themselves at least once a week. Have a rest, run a nice bath, even treat yourself to a nice chocolate if you've done well.
If anything at any point is getting too overwhelming, step away from it for a bit and slowly begin to attack it more tactfully. Use to do lists and planners to keep up with the demand of work, and if at any stage you are too stressed to function, try writing it down. A list of what you're stressed about can help you form your thoughts and find ways to address each issue.
On a side note, don't be too stressed about your grades. If you don't get what you aim for, that's okay! You can always improve for next time! And if you don't get your desired final mark or ATAR, there are so many pathways to get you where you want to be.
I personally don't know what I want to do after school, I'm not sure if I'll go to uni or TAFE, or even go to work for a few years, but I know that whatever I decide to do with myself, I am aware that there are multiple pathways to get me there and if I want it that much, I will achieve it.
Thanks guys for reading, hopefully, it won't be such a long time until my next post.
Until then, I hope everyone is staying safe and happy.
Jenny xx
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