Crappy Exam Results? (1 Viewer)

[mockingjay13]

I don't know about you, most of you seem to be brainiacs on here but as of this year, I've been putting quite a lot of effort and time into studying for tests and exams..

I just haven't been getting very decent results! I spend so many hours after school in the library, sometimes I even come to school at 8am on my 11am start to study and am just feeling very disheartened with my results. Is there anyway I can stay motivated and get back on track with my 80%+ goal for exams?

Or even better, do any of you have any study tips and habits, because I fear it's my study methods that are failing me here.

 

[iSplicer]

I don't know about you, most of you seem to be brainiacs on here but as of this year, I've been putting quite a lot of effort and time into studying for tests and exams..

I just haven't been getting very decent results! I spend so many hours after school in the library, sometimes I even come to school at 8am on my 11am start to study and am just feeling very disheartened with my results. Is there anyway I can stay motivated and get back on track with my 80%+ goal for exams?

Or even better, do any of you have any study tips and habits, because I fear it's my study methods that are failing me here.

Have someone take a look at HOW you are studying. Are you doing past exam papers and making sure you can answer all the questions in a given amount of time? Are you getting these papers marked?

It's great that you're in Year 11, perfect time to get it fixed.

All the best!@

 

[mockingjay13]

No I haven't been doing past papers! I'll have a decent look into that. Thanks

 

[Drongoski]

Follow iSplicer's suggestion. Maybe get a sympathetic teacher to have a look at the way you are doing your work; she may have some useful suggestions. Make sure you make a special appointment for this - so she can spend a reasonable amount of time with you. Luckily you are in yr 11; get it fixed early.

Good luck.

 

[Magical Kebab]

Yeah I find this with chemistry.
You must solve this problem before year 12. As previously said, do go and speak to ur teachers and let them help u. Explain what's going on and asses how you can capitalize on this. Just practice and learn. Do past papers, and get them marked, find your weak spots in exams etc.
Fnd where your weaknesses lie and strengthen them.
Once Michael jordan said , "you must learn to fail before you succeed"
Learn from your mistakes.

Good luck bud

 

[OzKo]

Have someone take a look at HOW you are studying. Are you doing past exam papers and making sure you can answer all the questions in a given amount of time? Are you getting these papers marked?

It's great that you're in Year 11, perfect time to get it fixed.

All the best!@

This is an important point. The number of hours you put into study does not correlate with increased performance.

OP, what is your current approach to studying? What strategies are you using?

 

[iSplicer]

This is an important point. The number of hours you put into study does not correlate with increased performance.

OP, what is your current approach to studying? What strategies are you using?

A shocking number of kids I tutored last year came for help with their results, as they were putting in 6+ hours of study a day and still getting mediocre marks. You'd be astounded as to how badly the term 'study' is interpreted. 'Study' does not mean you spend 6+ hours doing easy, repetitive questions from a textbook where you learn nothing. It doesn't mean copying text from one book to another (I was FLABBERGASTED), nor does it mean spending most of the time copying the maths question to your book and keeping everything neat and tidy so you can spend the remaining 60% of your time doing the easiest questions.

Study efficiently. Push yourself to learn what you don't already know. Challenge the past papers, learn from the questions you got wrong, and don't make them again.

good luck!

 

[mockingjay13]

At the moment, I'm spending roughly 2 hours at the library in the afternoons around 3 times a week. So no, I'm not one of the people that do 6+ hours every day.. that's insane! I space myself out and do it little by little I guess, but I do believe it's a decent amount of time to actually be studying.

For maths, I tend to do chapter reviews from my textbook as revision and occasionally I do go on board of studies to do past exams.
Biology, I try to memorise a lot of things with analogies or just picturing my notes in my mind.. (visual learner. I use a lot of coloured pens) which may be the wrong approach, and I'm open to ways of improving this type of study.

Thanks for all the input so far, though

 

[mockingjay13]

Another question just quickly, how much, or how long (I know time isn't always equal to the quality of your studies, but I just want a rough idea) should I be studying in a week? What kind of studies should I partake in? I'd like to start revising all throughout the year instead of just the week of the test, which is why I probably don't do as well as I could.

 

[theind1996]

Another question just quickly, how much, or how long (I know time isn't always equal to the quality of your studies, but I just want a rough idea) should I be studying in a week? What kind of studies should I partake in? I'd like to start revising all throughout the year instead of just the week of the test, which is why I probably don't do as well as I could.

1. Set yourself goals to achieve within a set timeframe.
2. Make them realistic, so as to not feel like giving up because they're "too hard".
3. Make sure that ALL concepts are clear before attempting past papers - do some "medium difficulty" questions in your textbook to test conceptual understanding, and only then hit up past papers.
4. Don't stray away from completing your tasks because you've spent too long on that task. Finish it, or it'll often be left unfinished.
5. This should (for year 11) result in a maximum of ~ 20 hours of study per week.

 

[mockingjay13]

1. Set yourself goals to achieve within a set timeframe.
2. Make them realistic, so as to not feel like giving up because they're "too hard".
3. Make sure that ALL concepts are clear before attempting past papers - do some "medium difficulty" questions in your textbook to test conceptual understanding, and only then hit up past papers.
4. Don't stray away from completing your tasks because you've spent too long on that task. Finish it, or it'll often be left unfinished.
5. This should (for year 11) result in a maximum of ~ 20 hours of study per week.

thankyou for your advice! I'll get started on studying this way

 

[LoveHateSchool]

All the guys have given great advice but I'll just chip in.

From Yr 11 to 12, some of my test marks shot up stacks. So there's lots of time

 

[editav]

Past papers , revision of syllabus notes and practicing every possible textbook question I found that for the humanities , if you could memorize the dotpoints/provide a lot of in depth information from your own findings , you're bound to do well!