Organized and On Time
First day and teacher interaction
How to reduce stress for exams
On the first day of school, every teacher hands out a paper called a syllabus, which gives a description of the material to be covered in class, what is expected out of the student, and information regarding how they weight test and quizzes. Look over the syllabus thoroughly and ask the teacher what you can do to receive an A out of their class, this will put you in good standing with the teacher. If the teacher hands back a test or a quiz and you did not receive a 100, then you should go up to the teacher and ask why they took off what they did and how you can correct the mistake instead of just accepting the grade that you received. Another thing to follow is to make sure you ask questions. If you do not have any, try your best to look interested in class. Teachers are always willing and ready to help a student out by rounding up a grade or taking a late paper, if they feel that the student is really trying hard in their class and interested in the concepts that they go over.
Many students only memorize information while they are studying, but this method has actually proved to be ineffective. Instead of memorizing, you should understand the information. Not just what happens, but you should know why it happens. These tools will help with critical thinking on tests and quizzes. A useful tool that could help with this new method of studying is learning information and then explaining it to yourself in your own words. Another useful tool can include learning the information and then composing your own questions on the information. In classes, especially such as science, principles should not be only looked over but take some time while studying, and think about why these laws would make sense. In history while you learn what happened also learn why it happened. Surfers only memorize information, snorkelers phrase things in their own words and ask questions, and deep sea divers think about why things happen and why it would make sense for it to work.
Most students put off homework because it’s too long and boring. This type of thinking can lead to low performance in school. Instead of trying to plow through homework all in one sitting, a better idea would be to finish one subject and then take a 15 minute break to relax and do whatever you wish and then go back to finish another subject. This should be repeated until all subjects are done. This will help alleviate some of the pressure of doing homework all day. Another important key to remember is to force yourself to become interested in any subjects gone over at school. Studies suggest that the more interested a student is in a topic the higher the scores tend to go. This may include tricking yourself into thinking that the long novel the Literature teacher is forcing you to read, contains fascinating themes with extraordinary plots. It could also include thinking some of the new principles and theories that science teachers go over are interesting new topics waiting to be learned. However you trick yourself make sure that you are taking an either forced or natural interest, in the topics gone over in class.
One common mistake made by students, is waiting until a few days before the exam, to start their finals review. This method only adds stress, and most likely will result in below-average performance on the exam. As time passes, students tend to forget concepts and information gone over in class. Usually these students do not have enough time to relearn all the things gone over in the semester. A good strategy to use would be to start exam review only one or two weeks after school has started. An important thing to remember is never throwing away quizzes, test, notes or assignments, as teachers will use this information to create their final exam. Throughout each week, a set amount of time should be set apart from regular homework, to review older material and ensure that it stays fresh in your mind. By the time finals week rolls around, students should only be reviewing the material that they had been going over all semester, not relearning concepts that they have forgotten.
Around classrooms in America, many students lose points off of lost or forgotten assignments due to un-organization. In order to avoid this, students must always organize their papers into the correct section of their binder and also keep an agenda that keeps them updated on assignments, tests, and quizzes. Many times students that do this lose points in other ways such as turning in a late paper due to a power outage or some other technical malfunction. In order to avoid this, students should always finish papers at least one day before they’re due. An advantage to finishing papers the day before is an increased time to proofread and make edits. Also if the power goes out when you are finished, then you can wait until the next day to send it to your teacher. Another tip is to make sure your paper is saved as you are typing, because it is possible to be near the end of a paper without saving it, and as you finish up, the power goes out completely erasing your paper. Finishing early can also help with this, because if this does happen, you will have more time to rewrite.
