Sian Maher |
Studying: the act of texting, eating and watching TV with an open textbook nearby.
“I’m stuDYING!!!” I say this almost every day to anyone who will listen. Do you sometimes feel as though you’re sitting in the middle of a burning pit of stress? And with every worry and past paper added to mix, the burns become more and more severe? Even although my form of studying is contemplating life whilst blankly staring at an open textbook, I believe that I have 3rd degree burns.
Studying is a vital task that every student must partake in, however, it isn’t always the most appealing activity for us teenagers to fulfil. Stress can overwhelm us and sometimes it feels as though the burden of studying is just too much. With heaps and heaps of homework rapidly accumulating daily, we all can lose track at times.
School- Six Cruel Hours of Our Lives?
Sometimes my outlook on school is that it is “six cruel hours of our lives” and my pessimism worsens. Nevertheless, I have come to recognise that sometimes our work load just ignites the fire inside of us. With each of the flames within us allowing our fire to thrive.
Without our stress and our mistakes we would be incapable of ‘thriving’. They tell you “don’t fight fire with fire.” I disagree. Without a fight to get through it, we’d get nowhere.
And so when I claim that I am studying (with emphasis on the dying part), it is just that- emphasised- because I do actually appreciate the opportunities I am granted with. And if studying doesn’t work out then I suppose I can just marry into wealth.
5 Tips to Study Better
1. Break it up! Make a plan and chunk up your study time into half hour blocks. This makes everything a bit easier to handle.
2. Take breaks! Make sure for every hour you work, you take 15-20 minutes break. In S4 and S5, give yourself one day off a week to recuperate and enjoy time with your friends and family.
3. Do something productive with your notes! Turn them into bullet points, lists, illustrations, cue cards, flash cards… whatever works for you!
4. Drink plenty of water, eat well, and get 8 hours sleep a night. Treat your body like a machine. Machines need fuelled and maintained well to operate.
5. Invest time in your hobbies, particularly those which relax you. Yoga? Rugby? 30 minutes shooting zombies? Anything that works for you.
