Hey! Seeing as we started back at school last week, we thought now would be a good time to share some of the tips we've learnt throughout our twelve years in school - some when we were young and some recently. We hope you can take something from this post and it would be great if you could share your own tips and ideas in the comments!
(We'll be taking these tips vice versa, Sabrina with the odds and Alison with the evens).
Thank you for reading this, we hope that those tips will help you in the future! Don't forget to leave a comment below with any other tips that you think will help others too!
See you soon with another blog post,
Alison and Sabrina
(We'll be taking these tips vice versa, Sabrina with the odds and Alison with the evens).
- Don't get too caught up in drama. It goes without saying that at some point during your school life, you’ll come across drama. Whether that’s an argument with a friend, or the latest school gossip, or just any other forms of negativity in general. Sometimes drama can be interesting, but if you get too involved by trying to fix other people’s problems, then it can easily become terrible. You may start to get too emotionally invested in things that aren’t worth your time, especially when you need to prioritise your grades. So, when you do notice someone trying to pull you into an argument or take sides, maybe offer them a bit of advice and support, but if they don’t take it/try to make the whole situation worse, then don’t get involved. 95% of the time it really isn’t worth it.
- Learn from your mistakes. This applies to all of school life - from maths work to friendships, we all make mistakes. This is not and never will be a big problem, unless you refuse to learn from these mistakes. Sometimes it's little things like adding one and one and getting three (little maths mistakes like this being brought up at every parents night, every year, for me...) and other times it's being a bit too blunt with friends. For the maths, all you have to do is read your work over carefully in future, and for your friend, try and be a little more tactful - it's all simple stuff that will lead to you doing better and being happier.
- It's okay not to be as good as someone else. This is something that I have really learnt over the past couple of years. I have now realised that it’s okay to not understand things, it’s okay to ask questions (even if you think you’ll feel dumb), but it’s not okay to compare yourself to others to the point where it makes you feel awful. Don’t get me wrong, it can be a good thing to be a bit competitive, as that’s what drives you to do even better! But remember that everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. You are good enough, and I highly doubt that it’s physically possible to be the best at everything. Be comfortable with the fact that you might not be in the same position as you were 5 years ago. Use the people that excel more than you in certain subjects to help and motivate you, rather than get you down. What I’m trying to say is, if someone you know is really good at maths but struggles with French, and you struggle with maths but are really good at French, then make the most of that! Help each other out, you’re probably doing the same exams and everyone needs extra support every now and then. Rather than spending your time moping around thinking that you’re not good enough, spend your time improving yourself, it’s a lot more productive!
- Ask questions. We're pretty much talking school work here, and with that work, you're allowed to not understand everything! No one is born with all the knowledge in the world already sitting there in the back of their brain, so you're under no pressure to know everything for a class straight away, but your teachers are there to help you so ask them questions if you are unsure.
- Have a planner/diary and use it. Each year at our school, we are all given a new planner. This has the entire school calendar in it and has plenty of space for you to write down all of your assignments, deadlines, exams, and any miscellaneous school-related things. I really think this is a good idea, as it allows you to look at all of your assignments in a bird’s eye view, and gives you a clear understanding of what you have to do. If your school doesn’t provide you with a planner, then you can buy a diary for not too much money, and write down everything in there. Make sure you listen to the teacher when they are talking about the homework, and ask any questions if you’re not sure about it!
- Make revision fun and do it in advance. Leading up to my first lot of exams I had no idea where to start with revision. In our 7 Ways to Get the Grades You Want post, we talked about finding a way to revise that suits you - whether that is by listening, writing, reading or any other way. One way to make it more fun, for someone who learns by writing, is to have pretty pens and colours to make revision cards. Anyone will love a good looking notebook as well, so you can buy some nice ones for notes and the patterns or pictures will make revision that little bit better than the boring grey one would. Apart from this, setting up a study plan is also useful as it lets you revise way in advance, getting the information in your head in time (I've already started revising for exams that don't hit until May).
- Prioritise homework and do it as soon as possible. This links back to point 5 – organise yourself! Use your planner to set out exactly what you need to do and when. For example, if you have a big history assignment that you need to do (which I’m definitely not putting off right now…) and it needs to be done in a week, then get started on it as soon as possible! If you also have a few simple maths questions to do within that time, then you know which one you should focus more on. I find that writing everything down on a whiteboard helps you to look at the big picture, and you can easily schedule when you’re going to do your homework and when. Do stuff that your future self will thank you for, if you organise yourself well enough then you shouldn’t need to pull all-nighters. Take things one step at a time. However, if you really are struggling to meet a certain deadline, then you can speak to your teacher about extending it, as they should understand, especially if you explain your whole situation.
- Get support if you are struggling. This goes above and beyond just asking questions in class. If you feel you are repeatedly struggling to understand or keep on top of your work, speak to your teachers about getting extra support. Many teachers run lunchtime sessions in order to go over work that pupils have struggled with. Your teachers are there to teach you - it's their job, so most are more than happy to give you some help.
- Positivity is key. I cannot stress this one enough. When it gets scarily close to your exams and you feel like you’re not doing well enough, you need to try your best to remain positive. It sounds really cliché, but it’s true! When you have a growth mindset, you can allow yourself to look at the positives of a situation, weigh up the negatives, and handle it in a way that will benefit you in the long run. If you don’t get a grade you were hoping for on a test, then look at why you got lower than expected, and learn from it. Tests are there for a reason, and even if you feel a sense of dread when thinking about them, you will eventually realise that they really do help you prepare for your exams. Think positively, and generally you get positive outcomes from that. (And here's a little bit from Alison) When I was younger, maybe about seven years old, I had a teacher who went through our classroom rules on our first day back. Rule 10 always stuck with me (mostly down to the fact that it was written in rainbow colours and Comic Sans font, so I hated it), but it was 'Have Fun'. This was something that I most certainly didn't do that year, but have tried to more and more after hitting high school. They say that these are the best years of our lives, but they will only be that way if we live them to the fullest and enjoy ourselves. There's no point moping about that you're stuck in school - make friends, put in your best effort and you'll be thankful for it in the long run.
- It's okay to do things differently. This applies throughout life really, but with so many people in the world, there is no way we all have to act the same way, like the same things etc. You are allowed to differ from those in your friendship groups, and if anything it's healthy to have your own opinions, likes and dislikes. However, sometimes it can put up barriers. If this is the case, remove negativity where you can, but do this without nastiness. After all, we're all on the same boat, with exam stress, general stress, difficulties etc, so be as nice as you can to people and reach out to them if you see them struggling - it's more likely to give you and them a happier time in school - and as we're there for so long there's no point living it out in sadness!
Thank you for reading this, we hope that those tips will help you in the future! Don't forget to leave a comment below with any other tips that you think will help others too!
See you soon with another blog post,
Alison and Sabrina