There are three possible reasons why students do badly:
(I) They did not work hard (e.g. did not study, did not put in the necessary effort). They lacked the discipline or/and were not motivated. If you are one of them, the rest of this page is not much use to you. You have to resolve this yourself.
(I) They did not work hard (e.g. did not study, did not put in the necessary effort). They lacked the discipline or/and were not motivated. If you are one of them, the rest of this page is not much use to you. You have to resolve this yourself.
(II) They encountered some personal problems and couldn't concentrate. For this group of students, we hope you will have the strength to overcome your struggles, and have loved ones and great friends to help you pull through.
(III) They worked hard but lacked a smart systematic approach to revision. This group of students has the greatest chance to succeed by studying smart.
Study smart by:
(1) Paying attention during lecture and tutorials first. Better to spend 1h productively during lesson than 3h trying to figure out alone at home. Why spend the extra hours for nothing?
(2) Before each revision time slot, put away anything (esp. mobile phone, computers and TVs) that distracts you from concentrating. Don't msn, sms or surf net/FB while studying or during lesson. You are better off doing each one separately.
(3) Before the revision time slot, make sure your notes and other resources are available and organized.
(4) While reading the notes, understand that not everything is equally important for the A level exams. Refer to the learning outcomes before and at the end of revision slot.
(5) Always verbalize (need not yell; just loud enough to hear yourself) and visualize the concepts in using pictures or diagrams. This is esp useful for lengthy essay answers if you do not want to find yourself stuck on the 1st page after one hour!
(6) Use post-its to tag any areas/page you do not understand. Clarify with your teacher or tutor within the week.
(7) After understanding the concepts, commit the new terms or selected essays to memory. Some of our answers in the worked solution book are lengthy, so we summarized them in point forms for you in this blog. Great for quick 5min revision while traveling or waiting. Every min adds up.
(8) It is common to forget. But you don't forget your name or mobile no. do you? Why? You are constantly reminded! Likewise for the essays you just committed to memory. How do retain the answers long term?
A guideline is:
(i) Write down the main marking points of the answer. As you sieve out the points, you may end up referring to your own notes too. This is good. It's part of your revision. (Don't forget to visualize and verbalize!)
(ii) Cover the answers and main points. Attempt to jot down the main points from memory again.
(iii) Within 24h and 3 days later, verbalize the main points and then the detailed answers again. Better still if you write down the main points. You shouldn't spend more than 10-15min per essay question. Use your mobile phone to do these!
The essay answers will start to embed in your long term memory even if you forget some of the points in the 2nd or 3rd round.
(9) Get hold of several practice questions with model answers to revise for each topic. Exchange your school's test/exam questions with your friends from other colleges. Do not just read your notes when preparing for the exams!
If you do these consistently, you are on your way to success!
