As we go through our school years and reach high school, it gets gradually more difficult to manage our workload. As an IB student, I had to create a good strategy to schedule my studying sessions otherwise I probably would have been failing my classes considering all the homework and presentations required from my classes, and I bet most of you guys can relate!
Because of that, I brought to you today a quick guide on how to manage your time and successfully plan your study sessions - I hope it can be helpful! :-)
Firstly, and most importantly, when writing down your study schedule, avoid adding things like “Biology revision from 15:00-20:00” because it is not very realistic to assume you will actually sit down for five hours straight to study one single subject - unless you’re cramming for a test or exam, but that isn’t that effective either.
Instead, think about your limits realistically, what you really think you’re capable of doing before starting to get distracted, tired or unmotivated. It is much reasonable to add a study session for a particular subject that lasts from half an hour to one hour and a half (sometimes even two if you’re disciplined enough), without including the small breaks you’re advised to take from time to time, otherwise you won’t stick to your study schedule, and the time you will spend planning will go to waste.
Even if you are disciplined enough to sit through it, after a certain amount of time the information won’t really sink it. It’s important to have breaks and limit your sessions; sometimes one hour of revising can be more effective than an entire afternoon of it.
If you really want a way of managing your actual study time to maximize your productivity, I really recommend the Pomodoro Technique!
Plan according to your schedule
This is something that I do for my own study schedule and it happens to work pretty well for daily revision. What that entails is planning your sessions according to that day’s lessons or the ones of the next day; it depends on what you find better, or you can mix the two.
For example, let’s say that I’m planning my study sessions for Tuesdays, and I happen to have Physics on that day, and History on Wednesdays. What I’ll do on Tuesday then is study what we did for Physics on that same day so the information remains fresh in my head, and then I finish it off with a History revision of the topics from the previous lessons.
This way, I’m constantly revising both new and old content simultaneously, while having the time to write down my notes and go through things I didn’t really get during class without falling behind.
Do not fill every single slot on your schedule! Remember you will be assigned homework and projects, and since you can’t really predict when these will be assigned most of the time, the best solution is to leave some blank space every day in order not to have to skip study sessions that were already scheduled.
Even so, sometimes you’ll have to take an entire day to finish a certain assignment and consequently lose revision time, but that’s okay! Sometimes we have to prioritise certain things, and it’s important to remember that.
Help your future self by writing down specific chapter titles, textbook page numbers, article names, or whatever you need to get going with that revision session. Sometimes it can take you a long time to do this stuff, so make sure to optimize your time by getting rid of these tasks before actually starting to revise.
You can write these things down when planning your schedule, but if you’re always updating the topics you’re revising, you can write them down on a paper while in class for future reference.
Don’t be afraid to make changes
There will be times you’ll have to modify your study schedule, and that’s perfectly fine! At first we’ll write down our ideal schedule, but we have to admit that sometimes what we want to do is not realistic. We need breaks; life can always interfere with work; sometimes we won’t feel as motivated; and these are all perfectly fine reasons.
Don’t stress too much about it, and plan it the way you think will suit you better! :-)
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