studying but not doing it right :(

vale95

Ok, so since the beginning of the school year I've been trying to get down and actually study. Most of the time I lack motivation, but that's because when I try to study I can't... today I went to the library thinking that I was gona have a lot done, I was there for 6 hours and I barely did anything!!
First of all I stare at my stuff for ages but nothing goes in my head, then to make myself think that I'm not wasting my time I start organising my things and doing pretty flashcards that I never even go back to...
Every day I go to bed feeling that I'm completely wasting my time, unfulfilled and thinking that my time is running out and just thinking of the LC makes me soo anxious because I'm not ready and I'm not doing enough!!
I really don't know how to go about doing this but I really wona do well in my LC. ;(
Also, I've notice that I sometimes try to avoid doing anything to hard for me lol.. and it takes me ages to finally do it like english essays and stuff like that.
My subjects are:
English -HL
Maths-OL
French -HL
Biology-HL
Chemistry-HL
Bussiness-HL
Italian -HL
Does anyone have any suggestions about how I would go about studying these subjects ?
Sorry for the long post lol and thanks for your answers

Leinsterr

vale95 wrote: »

Ok, so since the beginning of the school year I've been trying to get down and actually study. Most of the time I lack motivation, but that's because when I try to study I can't... today I went to the library thinking that I was gona have a lot done, I was there for 6 hours and I barely did anything!!
First of all I stare at my stuff for ages but nothing goes in my head, then to make myself think that I'm not wasting my time I start organising my things and doing pretty flashcards that I never even go back to...
Every day I go to bed feeling that I'm completely wasting my time, unfulfilled and thinking that my time is running out and just thinking of the LC makes me soo anxious because I'm not ready and I'm not doing enough!!
I really don't know how to go about doing this but I really wona do well in my LC. ;(
Also, I've notice that I sometimes try to avoid doing anything to hard for me lol.. and it takes me ages to finally do it like english essays and stuff like that.
My subjects are:
English -HL
Maths-OL
French -HL
Biology-HL
Chemistry-HL
Bussiness-HL
Italian -HL
Does anyone have any suggestions about how I would go about studying these subjects ?
Sorry for the long post lol and thanks for your answers

Go to your room and study aloud. If you are learning notes for English, divide it into sections and repeat them like 3 times and make sure you know it off by heart. Once u learn each section, just repeat them in order. For maths, just do the questions in the book/exam papers until u know the technique in certain questions.

mixery

There are so many ways to study. You need to find the one method that suits you. I think you're fairly motivated. You can find the time and will to sit down and do something. I suggest that at the start of each session just make a plan and stick by it. If you struggle at something than write it down and find out about it later from teacher/friends or even parents can be of help sometimes. I think being organised is essential. I do not have an everyday study plan per se, but I tell myself right, today you're doing 1 full English question, and flashcards for soil science. And I do it. Personally I don't set myself crazy plans, chances are I wouldn't complete them. If I fill like doing more I just do it.

To be honest we don't have many subject in common but-
For English I do flashcards for the learning off stuff, and exam questions for P1.
In Maths I'm absolutely crap. I get loots of help from my teacher and friends, and do lots of questions myself, but when the test comes I forget everything. it's fffing depressing, so here I can't really help you.

Learning languages can be hard as well as entertaining. What I do is watch german(that's my chosen language) clips and read articles that look interesting. I also have a little copy dictionary where I put down handy phrases. I translate every piece of text in my textbook, and do the long questions in it. I didn't even get the exam papers yet.

Probably this was of no use whatsoever, but I felt like writing .

Good luck with the study!

BrownBear11

I know you've probably heard this a million times but here's a million and one anyway exam papers Exam papers are the best way of ensuring productive study. Pick a section, revise it, do papers, repeat. It's the only way really. You'd be surprised how far papers can get you. If nothing else, they'll provide a focus for your study

Also, find out what kind of learner you are; visual (reading, highlighting, etc.), audio (saying things back to yourself aloud, recording stuff on your iPod or whatever) or kinetic (actively doing things when you study like writing things out). It may take a bit of experimenting to figure this out but it's worth knowing. Try different things out and see what works best for you. It may be a combination of things so just give everything a try and see how the info sticks for ya

If your low on motivation any time just start by studying the subject you like best. It gets ya going with the books and getting stuff done is always a great boost I find, gets the confidence going Try to do the harder subjects when your fresh and rested, if you do them when your tired you'll just be working against yourself.

Don't get frustrated with it vale, I felt like this alot last year. Remind yourself of the progress you've made already and that should give you a boost Be persistent with it. Plague your teachers with questions if ya have to (that's what they're there for :pac:) and use all websites available to ya and just keep going with it all

If you've anything else to ask just stick it up here, the people on Boards are a great help. I'm always open to a PM as well btw, I'll try and help ya out as best I can (which might not be alot )

Hope that helps a bit an best of luck with it all

spurious

It's quite possible that flashcards do not suit how you learn - maybe mindmaps would be better? As mixery said, you need to find the method that works for you.


Some people spend hours 'studying' reading books and actually learn nothing, whereas two seconds of an 'aha!' moment on the bus home from school where you actually 'get' something you covered in class that day can be far more productive in terms of learning something.

Canard

For English paper 1, I'd advise you to read things and note interesting ways of expressing yourself. That helps with the entire exam, and if you're doing the short story it makes it extremely easy, but I know not everyone likes that option. You can't do a whole lot else for that besides practice. For paper 2, do sample questions on everything but keep it nice and broad - i.e. don't go writing about some extremely specific points that will never be asked in the real exam. Comparatives are a good one for that, it's 70 marks and honestly it's one of the only things in English you can essentially rote-learn.

I see you're doing French and Italian - I did French but I'm now learning Spanish in college as well as it, and I find it really fun and useful to find things that are similar in the two languages and note them, or to write notes for one in the other language. I don't know much Italian but what I mean is you could write things like trouver = trovare, or avoir besoin de = avere bisogno di. I think it's really interesting to see the similarities, but I guess that could also really confuse some people. You could also try translating all your written pieces into both languages for twice the practice. :P

A lot of people study for LC French by rote-learning. I get the idea that you don't do that (since you're studying 2 I assume you have some aptitude for them), but if you do, don't do it! Just learn the grammar rules inside out, useful phrases that can be used everywhere (a personal favourite was always "tant va la cruche à l'eau qu'à la fin elle se casse", a fancy and conveniently long-winded way of saying "enough is enough", which you can always use!). It's much easier to do this after a while and it works so much better for things like the oral too. French music was an excellent way for me to study too, personally.

Good luck!

biohaiid

Try and do all or most of your study in the same place. If you change study areas too much then you'll keep finding distractions, but if you keep to the same place eventually there'll be nothing new and you can focus better.

Recite your notes aloud. You learn better from your own voice. Sometimes recording yourself and putting it on your ipod or something can help too.

Saying things 3 times help it go into your long term memory.

Write out your own written notes, it's easier to learn from your own handwriting, and it helps exclude any irrelevant information.

Writing things out over and over usually helps too.

Don;t listen to music while you study. If you do, on the day of the exam any little noise will try and distract you. I'm actually studying Psychology in College now and we learned about mood congruency and memory. You're more likely to remember something on the day if you're in the same mood you were in when you learned it. Similar principle to the music thing.

I found flashcards very helpful for me. I created a rough, non-detailed summary of whatever topic it was. The morning and nights before exams I usually just flipped through them. I only had key words written on them so it helped jog my memory as to what else I had to remember. So maybe the way you;re using flashcards isn't right for you. I would suggest this method, but it's not all that useful untill really close to exam time.

Even if you don;t do flashcards, break everything done into bullet points. Learning blocks of text is not easy.

Timetables for me don;t work, and you sound a lot like me. I made so many and when I didnt stick to them I got really anxious and worried about not getting everything done. I just had a rough idea of what I wanted to get done, that I made the morning of study. Say 3 topics of Biology and 2 English or something like that..

I also liked to spend longer at fewer subjects than say one hour of each subject per day.

When you're doing more than one subject a day make sure they're not too similar. For example, don;t do French and Italian on the same day. Maybe Chemistry and Business.


These are really broad and general tips but they helped me so hope they can help you too.

Mayo_Boy

I always found that reading things out aloud to myself was the only method that helped me to remember stuff. But everyone is different

Bionicle

Mayo_Boy wrote: »

I always found that reading things out aloud to myself was the only method that helped me to remember stuff. But everyone is different

This is particularly helpful with things like the aural because you not only read the words but hear them.

Also, I would advise drawing out important diagrams in Biology with the aid of a book atleast three times. Then try again without the book. It should get lodged in your memory. :cool:

vale95

biohaiid wrote: »

Try and do all or most of your study in the same place. If you change study areas too much then you'll keep finding distractions, but if you keep to the same place eventually there'll be nothing new and you can focus better.

Recite your notes aloud. You learn better from your own voice. Sometimes recording yourself and putting it on your ipod or something can help too.

Saying things 3 times help it go into your long term memory.

Write out your own written notes, it's easier to learn from your own handwriting, and it helps exclude any irrelevant information.

Writing things out over and over usually helps too.

Don;t listen to music while you study. If you do, on the day of the exam any little noise will try and distract you. I'm actually studying Psychology in College now and we learned about mood congruency and memory. You're more likely to remember something on the day if you're in the same mood you were in when you learned it. Similar principle to the music thing.

I found flashcards very helpful for me. I created a rough, non-detailed summary of whatever topic it was. The morning and nights before exams I usually just flipped through them. I only had key words written on them so it helped jog my memory as to what else I had to remember. So maybe the way you;re using flashcards isn't right for you. I would suggest this method, but it's not all that useful untill really close to exam time.

Even if you don;t do flashcards, break everything done into bullet points. Learning blocks of text is not easy.

Timetables for me don;t work, and you sound a lot like me. I made so many and when I didnt stick to them I got really anxious and worried about not getting everything done. I just had a rough idea of what I wanted to get done, that I made the morning of study. Say 3 topics of Biology and 2 English or something like that..

I also liked to spend longer at fewer subjects than say one hour of each subject per day.

When you're doing more than one subject a day make sure they're not too similar. For example, don;t do French and Italian on the same day. Maybe Chemistry and Business.


These are really broad and general tips but they helped me so hope they can help you too.

thank you soooo much this was really helpful

biohaiid

vale95 wrote: »

thank you soooo much this was really helpful

No problem
I actually posted these tips, plus a few more in another thread. Some other past Leaving Cert students added to it too, take a long if you want!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056846423