its not abt studying hard, its abt studying smart. There are only 24 hrs, so u cant do everyhting..
- prioritise, what are ur weaknesses? study that subject first, a lot of ppplz tend to study subjects that they lyk....and the subject they lyk usually reqires least amount of work in contrast to the subjects that they dont lyk
- consolidate, do plenty of pratice papers etc. it is ptless if you study hrs end from various txtbooks and dont test urself. this is especially helpful for english.......i find doin praticie papers is better than summarising notes....with enlgish, because the range is so great, the process of summarising is really endless, hence just do praticies papers then you know which area u gotta work at.
- write dont type. when you do practice papers/essays, don't type them up, do them under exam condition. AFter a while, you will find ur ability to structre essays/answers under examination conditions will be better.
- use study cards. you can get those from newsagencies or u can get your little sisters/bros to cut them up for ya. If there is a particular method that is bugging you or if there is an error that u make on a frequent basis or if you just want to memorisie formulas then write them on these cards. when you go out, shove a couple in your pocket. Read them on buses/trains/when ur bored. With these cards, you gotta be general, don't write specific questions on them, otherwise you will end up with wayyyy too many cards which will lead to info overload and hence it mgiht turn u off from studying...
- stickies and charts. this is sorta similar to the sstudy cards, but i do them on sticki post-its, i have them all over the house, i spend a lot of tiem eating, hence its all over the fridge and the pantry. i also have them front of my mirror (so i can look at them when i do my hair in the morning), and u can also have them behind toilet doors or whereever so u dont waste time..hhaha
- mind maps. To help you to stay focus on the big picture nad not nitty gritty details, do a mind map for each topic. So maths for example, with each topic i have a chart, and each mind map has branches of only the important things eg: formulas and methods.
- summarise your notes. don't make 50-page notes and by the end of making it you would have wasted a lot of time and you would be overwelmed by the amoutn of information and hence will not look at it again. Basically keep on summarisign your notes (write them up, don't type), after 2 times, you will find that you would have rmemberd the majority of it.
- teach someone. get your sisters/brothers/paretns/beginners and teach what you have learnt to them. Reading is only 10% effective in terms of consolidating your info, in contrast, teaching it to someone is 85% effective. When you find yourself dunnot how to teach someone, then work on it, becuase if you cant teach somone, how can you show the examiner u have the knowledge in an exam situation?
- external help, get ur teacher to go thru ur exam papers etc. After knowing where u went wrong, you should redo that essay/quesiton and hnd it bk to her.
- be drastic, i am really bad at studying cuz i have short attention spam, always going to the kitchen and wants to listen to music at times. so what i do is i get my parents to lock the study when i am in it, they will open it after 1 hr, i take a break for abt 10 minz, then i get bk in. i know it is really drastic, but sometimes i relaly do need it, and it works, so its all good.
hope these tips help!
truly