| A new school year has begun once more. Perhaps you were eagerly waiting for the semester to start, or maybe as September drew near, you were dreading the new school year and wished it would not start. Either way, the 2022-2023 school year is now underway. And many students are wondering how they can have a successful semester/school year.
Gold Star Tutors is dedicated to helping students at all levels excel in Math, Chemistry and Physics and here, we will share with you some important tips to help get your year going in the right direction.
Fix Your Schedule
The start of a new school year is the time to change your schedule from a “summer one” to a “school one.” You may have been going to bed at 2 am during the summer and now you have the reality check of having to adjust your bedtime to 11 pm during the school year. Ideally, you would have started transitioning during the month of August. However, not to worry, you can start to change now.
Start going to bed a half hour earlier each night until you’ve changed to the new bedtime for the school year. Our minds and bodies function optimally if we maintain a consistent bedtime during the school year (even on the weekends) and when we get adequate sleep consistently from night to night.
De-clutter Your Schedule
If you’ve enrolled in full time studies or near a full time schedule for courses at your school, you’ll want to make sure your schedule is open enough to allow time for you to attend classes or lectures. You also want to allow for adequate time to attend labs, tutorials, time to work on and complete homework, and adequate time to study and prepare for quizzes and tests.
If you’re signed up for 3 different sports teams, you’re volunteering at the nearby soup kitchen, and you’re in the marching band, you might want to consider how many hours you have left to work on your homework, study for quizzes, tests, and midterm exams. (We’re not saying it’s a bad thing to volunteer at a nearby soup kitchen.) However, after the school year starts, it may be the time to curtail some of your extracurricular activities and give yourself the time you need to succeed in your academic life. Most students find that the time required to do their homework is more than they had anticipated.
Review Past Material
Perhaps you’re a keener and you spent time this past summer reviewing some of the math concepts you learned last school year. Or maybe you didn’t do any review at all, and you’ve simply launched into the new academic year like most students. The semester is still fresh and there is still time to go over and refresh some of the ideas and formulas that were taught last year.
There has been a trend among many teachers and instructors to spend some time reviewing concepts from previous years to refresh students’ recollection. This is always a desirable way to start a new class.
Reorganize
Some students have actually found that it’s a good idea to open up their backpacks, turn it upside down, dump out all of its contents, then throw away papers and items that are outdated and no longer in use. Next, wash the backpack, organize the pencil/pen case, restock notebooks, binders, paper (lined, plain, 3-hole, stapled, graphing, etc.) It can be a good thing to start fresh but if you find you’d prefer to stash your documents digitally instead of on paper, then try storing your documents in the cloud using Drop Box, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.
Get Rid of Distractions
If you’re a student who is easily distracted, you might want to try strategies that’ll turn off the distractions for periods of time or block them altogether. Consider turning off apps or blocking website(s) that tend to take your attention away from your teacher or lecturer, from reading or studying and preparing for tests. It’s a good idea to put your phone on silent mode during classes or labs. You can always turn it back to vibrate or full ring mode after the lesson.
If you want to know how to do this, try searching for “how to restrict apps while studying” in Google and follow the instructions. Don’t worry; when you’re done studying, you can restore the blocked apps to active status once again. Just search in Google for “how to restart certain apps after study time” and follow the steps listed.
Reflect on the Why
From time to time a student may lose sight of, or forget about, their goals. If this happens to you, it could mean that you’ve momentarily forgotten why you’re taking a certain course or maybe you’ve forgotten about the goal you’ve set for a career. So it could be advantageous to stop and reflect on your goals, reflect on the bigger picture of your life and where you want it to go, reflect on why you’re enrolled in a particular course or a particular program. When you take time to sit and reflect on why you’ve chosen your path and think about where you want your particular academic road to lead you, you’ll be re-invigorated with more force, more energy, more determination to accomplish your goals.
Write on your journal board, create memes on your Pinterest page, find or create pictures that motivate you to keep trying and keep achieving. These are some of the methods that many students have used to help them keep motivated and keep moving toward their educational goals.
If you feel that you need a little help to speed up your learning, to be better prepare for quizzes, tests and midterms, to attain better results in your current course, then feel at ease to reach out to Gold Star Tutors and inquire about one-on-one tutoring. We aim to help you succeed in your course, whether it’s Math, Chemistry, or Physics. We’ll help you with your homework and more. | |
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