[adrotate banner="16"]
[feather_share show="twitter, google_plus, facebook, reddit, tumblr" hide="pinterest, linkedin, mail"]
Re-examine setbacks
It’s easy to say that you didn’t do well because the instructor was an asshole, but there’s usually something on your end as well. Be critical about your study habits! Sometimes the reason is not as obvious as “I just didn’t go to class and crammed everything in the last week.” Maybe it’s because you’re studying to music with lyrics and you need to listen to ambient sounds instead. One of the best apps around is called “Noisli;” download it onto your phone and get ready to focus like never before.
Learn to adapt
There’s no one way of studying that will get you a 12 in all subjects, so make sure your study method is appropriate for what you’re trying to do. This will increase your likelihood of success and minimize wasted time. If you need to memorize a boatload of notes, you want to test yourself with cue cards (or the like) and not just read your notes. If it’s a problem-based course, you want to do as many practice problems as possible instead of focusing your time on reading the textbook.
Time to get organized
In your planner or calendar, mark down all the quizzes, tests, and assignment due dates for all your courses. This way you can plan ahead and know when you cannot afford to go to Motown. If you want to be even more detailed, set your own due dates for when you want a part of your assignment, or a reading, to be done. That way you won’t have a revelation at 2 a.m. that you have a 2,000 word essay due in a week.
Get a fresh start
If you need to get the sour taste of those 6s from last semester out of your mouth, get a fresh start by getting a new set of stationary and notebooks. Clean up your room and start a new routine. These changes require time, preparation and commitment, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t succeed initially. Actually sleep at appropriate times. Don’t fixate on your bad marks, because you can’t change those and they just add an unnecessary pressure.
Pencil in a break
Your mind tends to become petrified into stone when you continuously focus on one task for too long. Take 10-minute breaks for every 40 minutes of studying. Switch subjects every few hours. Go to the gym or even the grocery store. To ease your guilty mind when you’re not studying, know that your break can still be productive in some way. Try downloading the Pomodoro Timer on your laptop or phone, a great app to help you keep track of your work and of your breaks.
[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]
[adrotate banner="16"]
[feather_share show="twitter, google_plus, facebook, reddit, tumblr" hide="pinterest, linkedin, mail"]
By: Takhliq Amir
With a New Year comes a new beginning, new opportunities, and the traditional New Year resolution. For many of us, the start of 2016 brought about a chance to once again bring out those handy notebooks, uncap the new ink pen, and begin creating a list of everything to achieve in the new year. We sat there, a giddy feeling coursing through us, as we pondered on the aspirations of this year and all the things we could possibly accomplish.
Every year in my life that passes, however, brings about rising doubts regarding the value of these resolutions. A small number of people actually fulfill their resolutions despite many with good intentions. Listening to the radio I heard a host comment, mocking those who attempt resolutions, and how no one can ever actually be expected to carry them out. Even my chemistry professor joked about the fleetingness of these promises. And yet we seem to have forgotten that that is what they are: promises.
Regardless of whether or not New Year’s resolutions are something to be adopted, they should be considered as promises to oneself. A New Year’s resolution might be overly ambitious, but it is also a challenge and a promise to yourself to work towards achieving a goal. It is a test of your own capabilities and a push at your personal conviction.
As humans, we are programmed to make excuses for our actions and behaviours that might, and are probably, a shortcoming. Nobody likes to admit failure, after all. As well, New Year’s resolutions, as a start to the year, give us something exciting, something exhilarating to look forward to. Imagine if, by the end of the year, I visit all 25 countries on my list! But they can also set us up for failure. And sometimes, while writing the resolutions might have been an invigorating experience, the failure of not achieving something produces a greater disappointment.
Every year in my life that passes, however, brings about rising doubts regarding the value of these resolutions.
I want to ask you then to not make New Year’s resolutions if you are not serious about them. There is intense satisfaction in fulfilling a resolution, which is easily spoiled by the carelessness with which they are perceived and pursued. New Year’s resolutions have become merely a symbol that welcomes in the year, a tradition that has been carried on from past generations and will likely be passed on to the next. Instead, think about the things you’d like to achieve today, tomorrow, even in the next week or month. But don’t lose sight of the end goal. These resolutions are worth as much as the fulfilling sense of accomplishment that achieving them evokes. So be ambitious and be daring, but also keep the promises that you make to yourself.
Photo Credit: Jon White/Photo Editor
[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]
