Study Progress - Blog Posts
Weekly Goals
I've been really lazy these past two weeks since summer break started so i think this is a good way to track my progress and productivity.
Complete a course on digital marketing (which I was ignoring for a long time)
Finish atleast 2 books
Complete atleast 5+ lessons in Arabic
Start attending summer course classes (also Arabic)
Clean my closet
Wake up alittle earlier (it's not gonna happen but let's believe it will)
Watch a movie
When the teacher asks you if you have any questions and you have the urge to say "The whole syllabus"
Study Tip - 3
Something I've seen quite a lot nowadays is people studying with timers, like, I still don't understand it... I've asked many people and they're like "It helps us to finish the goal while managing time and we complete our revision sooner"
But the main thing is, they don't remember it for more than a few hours or days... for me the goal is to complete the task perfectly and not to complete it faster than anyone.
Because when you keep looking at the clock, you're worried more about the time than the work. You're more excited about getting a break after that specific time than the actual studying. That is why, when i study, I face towards an empty wall and I can easily work without worrying about the time.
Don't set a time limit for any work, you'll realise how much work you'll actually get done when you're not looking at the clock.
Of course, this doesn't have to work for you but I think that this could help you expand your average study time.
No harm trying it :)
Tips for understanding complex topics
I've struggled with this but I'm adapting, you know? So here are some of my tips I use for this :)
If you can't understand it at once, do not think that it is hard
Many times, the topic itself if simple but the way the textbook has described it is complex so go and search for related videos and Google about it until you've got a hint about what it is.
If it's complicated, divide the sentence.
When you find yourself getting completely lost in a topic while banging your head against the wall because it's so confusing.... separate each part of the sentence while you write each part as you say it out loud. It'll help you to atleast get a short idea about the subject.
Read! Read! Read!
Read it over and over again and underline the words you think are important, write them down, explain it to yourself, draw small diagrams around your notes, connect them through visual representation. The more you use different types of senses, the better you understand it.
Give yourself time.
Let yourself grasp what the whole topic is about, do not under any circumstances have a time limit for difficult topics. I took days just to understand how Javascript loops work and I'm still not fully clear about it but i can explain the general, very basic purpose of it.
Explain it to someone or yourself
The best way to learn is to teach, this actually does work. It helps you to put your understanding in words and clear any underlying questions. And lastly...
Handwritten notes!
I cannot stress this enough but things that you've written down generally stay in your memory for longer durations. I also prefer handwritten notes to digital ones cause personally it works better.
Hope this helps! :D
The one thing that school definitely did -> Mess up my sleep schedule.
25.03.24
Day 8/ Day 8
I know it was a 9 day thing but it was because I had to go to school tomorrow but now I don't need to cause I just dropped by picked up my things and certificates etc etc... so my break starts here!!
The exam was alright, kinda unexpected paper but it's done now!
So what am i gonna do for 2 whole months?
Finish a course that I've been ignoring for way too long
Read as much as I can
Post some study related content here
I'll be posting a weekly reading challenge later on, like cause I wanna actually see how i complete it xD
24.03.24
Day 7/ Day 9
Okay, only 1 more day until suffering kinda ends for like 2 months? Anyway, it was a productive day but I still have a ton of stuff to revise.
Completed:
Part IV of 17 lessons out of like 33 (T-T)
Revised MCQs
Need to revise:
Part IV of 16 more lessons
Gonna be a long night
Total hours of study: 6 hours and still counting (Updated: 8 hours)
23.03.24
Day 6/ Day 9
It was a really productive day to be honest, i completed:
Part I - III in about 29 lessons
Revised notes
Wrote some new notes
(An overall, we have 4 parts in each lesson and totally we have about 33 lessons T-T)
Total hours of study: 8 hours {I shocked myself too, I'm damn tired}
Discussion after an exam:-
Friend 1: You know, for the first four MCQs we got only C! Friend 2: I got D for everything.... Me: uh... I got an A,B,D,C *The three of us staring at each other realising we are in deep trouble* A classmate: I got A,B, A, B *Silence*
22.03.24
Day 5/ Day 9
Not a very productive day but I did:
Glance through the important questions and case studies
Revised MCQs
Total hours of studying: 1 hour 30 mins
21.03.24
Day 4/ Day 9
I completed my exam today and nothing else unless reading an extremely cringey e-book counts xD
So yeah... and my exam was meh... not too good, not too bad. I still have like one exam left and then I'm done with junior year!
20.03.24
Day 3/ Day 9... It's the night before my 2nd last exam, gosh, I want to get it done T-T
Despite my exam being tomorrow, I ended up reading an e-book for the majority of the time but nevertheless i revised quite a lot...
Things i completed today:
Finished almost the whole textbook
Revised MCQs
Watched an hour of lectures covering important topics
Need to complete:
Review the notes one last time today (✓)
Revising MCQs again (will complete early in the morning)
Revising 4 important lessons again (✓)
Review 8 important questions/topics (✓)
Total hours of study (still counting): 4 hours
Updated: Total hours of study- 6 hours
19.03.24
Today was a lazy day, I just slept and studied for only sometime... But Day 2 is done!
Day 2/Day 9
Today i completed:
Two lessons in accounts
Revised MCQs
Reviewed notes
Total hours of study: 2 hours
18.03.24
I'm gonna start a countdown till my last working day of junior year which is 26.03.24 so...
Day 1/Day 9
Over-all, a productive day, i studied for six hours (still counting) and completed:
Revised 7 lessons in Business Studies
Revised some important questions
Did some previous year questions in Accounts
Reviewed notes
Things I have to complete in Accounts:
Review more notes (✓)
Revise 3-4 lessons (✓)
Revise MCQs (do not have the energy T-T)
Updated:
Total hours of study: 7 hours 30 mins
16.03.24
Today was kinda productive to be honest, i finished:
Four lessons in accounts
Completed a previous year question paper
Reviewed notes
How do you actually use previous question papers?
Here's the thing, I've read a whole lot of things tips for this but none have worked for me, so this may not work for you either but, there's no harm in experimenting, right?
Get the question papers
Now, look through the papers...
You need not set a timer and practice these questions but instead, check for a pattern or any format.
Like, a question is being repeated for every damn test and you haven't studied it? It's likely that it will be asked for the next test.
You see questions from certain lessons being repeated only from the same section? Focus on it.
And for this, you don't even need like previous year papers, even the mock tests or suprise quizzes can be used to identify which lessons are important.
Search for a pattern, focus on it and shape it
Then, when you've mostly gone through all the papers, go through the questions which they've repeated like once or twice and be sure that you can answer any question from those papers you have. You can go through the rest of the material a little slower.
Mind this that all tips may not work for you and that is completely fine :)
Exam Revision Progress
I swear, sometimes revision is the most exhausting phase in any high school year T-T
Please don't mind my messy notes, for some reason my brain cannot just process neat notes. It's like we're enemies but nevertheless, I managed to finish quite alot and tomorrow is another long day :")
For some reason , you get to remember every single chore, every task, every embarassing situation, your future goals, daydreams and whatsoever just the moment you sit and start to study with actual focus and then it's not focus anymore T-T
Study Progress
(Just saying, my notes are not so aesthetic and they're kinda messy so xD)
An over-all (and first) update on my study progress today...
I revised about 7-8 lessons in Computer Science
Did a short revision of MCQs in Economics.
In general, it was an alright productive day and yeah.
Study Tip - 1
Well, the first study tip I'll be posting is definitely this, i don't think I've seen this before but it's something I've definitely scored better with.
Know your question paper format and marking schemes
First with question paper format, by that I mean, how your question paper is going to be... Like, how many MCQs? Number of explanatory questions? Total marks for each question and sections etc etc.
Marking scheme basically refer to how you'll gain marks in your answer sheets. Suppose you have a question for let's say, 3 marks. Then you should find out how much you need to write for those 3 marks, if it's three points or half a page etc etc.
Some things that definitely carry extra marks:
Definitions
Diagrams
Graphs/tables (if there are any)
Codings
Additional info like Criticism, Applications, Exceptions etc
Formulae
Examples !!!
I cannot highlight this enough because it shows you how you have to portray and answer each question. The more you write your contents, the higher chance there is to get extra marks
Where can you get your marking schemes and paper formats? The most accurate and precise way would either be your subject teachers or previous question papers or asking your seniors.