30 Days of Back to School Challenge
I'm not sure if this is to do with equipment or things that are essential to study/revise properly, but I'm gonna do a bit of both!
Obviously, pens - I'm all for romanticising the simple things in life to feel more motivated, so you could either go for the simple biro or get a fountain pen and pretend you're writing a letter to a loved one?
Pencils, eraser, sharpener - Really useful/needed if you're gonna annotate books that aren't yours or draw diagrams/graphs/tables.
Notebooks - Take. NOTES. Regardless of where you live, the examiners have preferred terminology and language that they want you to use in your exams, so listen to what your teachers say (and HOW they say it too can be useful sometimes - repeated and emphasised phrases are a dead giveaway) and Jot. Them. Down.
Maths equipment (only for maths I suppose) - If you do maths, make sure you have everything you need with you in the exam and for lessons.
Highlighter and different coloured pens - These don't have to be the expensive ones and you don't need lots of them. Use a highlighter to make key points stand out and use a different colour to mark your work.
A bullet journal - Can be just a normal notebook you use for this, but you need one in case your teacher tells you things you need to know unrelated to the lessons, such as due dates or exam dates.
Of course, this is different for everyone but I'll write what I think is essential for me.
Self discipline and resilience - I'm super unmotivated most of the time for reasons I've talked about previously, but I know I won't get anywhere without work so I need to study even on days I don't feel like it and this is the only way to do that.
Flash cards - I've said this before and I'll say it again, I don't know where I'd be without Quizlet right now. Flash cards have been the best way to revise for me and the read, cover, write, repeat has been the way to to for me.
Past paper questions!!!! - The only way to get good at anything is to practice effectively. The reason I say that is because you can do past paper questions and do them wrong. I don't mean get the incorrect answer. I mean get the incorrect answer and learn nothing from it. Do a question, mark it harshly, annotate it, write an ideal answer using the mark scheme on a flash card, do the read/cover/write/repeat method until you've got it, re-do the question and repeat the process until you've got full marks.
Use resources available to you - Do. NOT. Limit. Yourself. To. One. Resource. Use your textbooks, revision guides, YouTube videos, class notes, etc. Write notes on all of them. Combine them. Condense them. This is all for your future, use everything you can.
Self care - You won't get anywhere if you're burnt out. Take care of yourself. Eat and sleep properly. Put yourself first. You can always re-do the year if you need to and try again and erase everything from the previous year, but once you've got deteriorated health it's hard to get it back on track.
