Over the mid-year break it is easy to put all thoughts of school out of your mind and just enjoy the holidays. This is not a bad thing, it is important to have a good break and clear your mind. Now that students have returned to school, it is important to take some time and evaluate your approach in these key areas, writing down the changes you will make this semester so you can really focus on them.
Review of last semester:
USE OF CLASSTIME
How well did you use your time in class? Who did you sit next to? Did you work well together? Did you listen to teachers and fellow students when they were speaking? Did you participate and contribute in your lessons? What are the main changes you need to make in this area?
ASKING FOR HELP
If you didn’t understand something in class did you ask a question about it? If you were unsure about an assignment or assessment did you check in with your teacher? If you were struggling with a topic did you ask for help? What are the main changes you need to make in this area?
TIME MANAGEMENT
Did you do enough schoolwork each afternoon? Did you plan out a timeline to do the work for your assessments? When you were working at home did you remove all distractions so you could focus? What are the main changes you need to make in this area?
PREPARING FOR TESTS
Did you ensure that you were always clear on what you were being tested on? Did you make study notes along the way so you had them ready for test time? Did you test yourself on the content as you were learning it to see if it was in your memory? Did you do lots of questions to practice the skills of the subject? What are the main changes you need to make in this area?
Students and parents can learn more about how to achieve your personal best at www.studyskillshandbook.com.au by logging in with the details on the student intranet site, working through some of the units.
Study Skills handout - Evaluating Areas to Improve