How To Start The School Year Well

It’s upon us – January is known for its humidity, sunburn and days at the beach. It’s also the last days of freedom before the school year begins. How you start the year can often determine how the year goes. If your studies didn’t go well last year, you can turn it around.

Here’s my five top tips for having a good start to the school year.

CULTIVATE A POSITIVE, CONFIDENT ATTITUDE

You can improve your experience. You can learn.

Whether you feel good about your studies last year or not, this is a brand new year.

Confidence and positivity give us the mental ‘fuel’ to help us learn and enjoy it at the same time.
Studying takes effort, but your experience depends so much on the attitude you bring.

Being able to motivate yourself is a useful skill for studying and for life in general.

Do what you can to cultivate and to grow those good feelings about school and studying. Think about what you enjoy about it. Think about what it can help you to do. You don’t have to be fake to do this. When you come across something frustrating, unfair, hard work, or unpleasant, do what you can to make it better. If you can’t, and you have to do it anyway, try and make it work for you. Can you get friends to help? How will doing this benefit you?

DECIDE ON YOUR STUDY GOALS

Be honest about what you want.

Do you want to pass each assessment so you have less pressure at exam time? Do you want to excel in something particular? Do you want to try and enjoy the school year? Are you aiming for entry into a university course, apprenticeship or job?

Whatever your goals, think about what steps you need to take to achieve them.

Write those steps down and put them into action.

BE PREPARED

Review the subjects you are doing this year.

If you have notes or texts on the subjects from last year, consider keeping them. It’s easy to forget the basics.

Consider getting resources and study guides on your major subjects.

Whether you are doing NCEA, IB or Cambridge, these are intended to guide you in getting good marks on each assessment and exam you will do. If you struggle with the subject, knowing exactly what you need to know is helpful.

Ask for tips!

Ask your teacher or other students who are successful for recommendations, tips and advice.

DEVELOP GOOD STUDY ROUTINES

Review your study habits last year.

What worked for you? What didn’t work? Look at study skills resources for tips.

Start as you mean to go on.

Don’t wait for your first assessment to decide you really need to pay attention in class. Try to keep understanding and remembering what you do in class each day and each week.

GET HELP

If you are struggling in a subject that is important to you, consider finding help from study groups, extracurricular classes, online forums or tutors.

Studying is not just a solitary sport. There are lots of students out there doing what you are doing, and people who know the subject well and can help. Find them.

Don’t wait until a month before final exams.

FINALLY…

Remember school is meant to help us grow into healthy, happy adults, as well as teaching us useful knowledge. Don’t start your year unprepared, grumpy and slacking off! Make this year the way YOU want it to be.