Information For Young People

As a young person in education myself, I understand the struggle of balancing education with our personal lives. Sometimes, it is easy to lose focus in lessons or lose the motivation to study. This article covers ways in which you can maintain consistent effort and a manageable routine throughout your academic year, even when it feels increasingly difficult to do so.

Start with your mindset

Firstly, our mindset is the single most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to success in education. Regardless of intelligence or skill level, we all need solid mental wellbeing to be successful.

Especially during exam season, I often feel as though there simply isn’t enough time in the day. By creating a revision timetable that also leaves room for my hobbies, I begin to manage my workload and relieve some of the pressure caused by exams.

When doing this, it is essential to dedicate a reasonable amount of time to all your subjects, even the ones you dislike. Gaining confidence in your knowledge across all your classes helps stop difficult topics from being the reason you drop marks in an exam or feel lost in a lesson.

Organise your notes

Another way to ease your mind as a student is to organise your revision and notes into different subjects or topics. There is truly nothing worse than motivating yourself to revise or do your homework, only to lose your notes in a mountain of loose sheets.

When I started my first year of sixth form, where there was much more content to cover than at GCSE, I quickly realised that the most successful students were often the ones who knew exactly where their notes were and could easily retrieve them for an upcoming topic test.

Being organised saves time and reduces the stress of trying to sort everything out when you should be studying.

Find the revision method that works for you

When creating revision materials, don’t be afraid to use trial and error. We all learn differently, and that is completely okay.

During secondary school, I found that although flashcards were my favourite revision method for science, they definitely did not help me as much in Maths. By reaching out to a friend whose strongest subject was Maths, I discovered that past papers were surprisingly effective.

I cannot stress enough how counterproductive it is to use our peers as an indicator of our self-worth.

Education does not solely teach us academic knowledge; it also prepares us for life, which is full of tests and problems to solve. By taking lots of small steps to use our time efficiently, we can approach education with a clearer focus.

Set goals that are meaningful to you

This leads me to setting goals. Whether they are big or small, long-term or short-term, having a plan helps us recognise milestones and see our progress.

Your aspirations should be unique to what you desire and should not simply reflect somebody else’s goals. When we experience setbacks, we need to keep pushing, because dwelling on them will not move us closer to where we want to be.

With a finish line in mind, visualisation can logically remind us why we are doing this in the first place.

For some people, a useful goal may be as simple as arriving at lessons on time. The first five minutes may not seem like a huge deal, but missing them every day in just one lesson can mean missing 35 minutes of crucial teaching time each week.

Protect your physical and mental wellbeing

None of this matters if you do not prioritise your physical and mental wellbeing above all else. Make time to do what you are passionate about, and make time to see your loved ones.

It can help to reflect honestly on the unhealthy habits many students develop, including habits that I am still sometimes guilty of, and consider what changes could improve our health.

These are all things we can be guilty of doing. What matters is that they do not become stubborn habits.