Last time you got a bad result!

Now and then you get handed back some work on which the grade written is so awful, it takes you by surprise at just how bad it is.  It could have been graded A, B, or F, depending on what you had expected and, maybe, just how important the subject is to your future.  How rotten did it feel to get that bad result?  Almost sick inside?  You wonder if there is some mistake.  You try to think of excuses, blame something, or someone, for what lies on the desk in front of you.  But, really, the result is down to you.  Remember that you earned it.  That grade has been recorded against your name.  Do not be mistaken by the idea that your teacher gave it to you.  No, your teacher merely added the points up that you gained for the work you submitted.  Most high schools have standards drawn up for each assessment item so that students are graded fairly and with equal chance of excellence. 

There is nothing you can do about it.  You can, however, use that low feeling.  What you need to do is hold that bad feeling  as a constant beacon reminding you that you will deliberately work to avoid such results in the future.  That grade has been indelibly recorded against your name.  There for you to disprove.  Disprove again and again.  Make it a target; a target not to be hit again. 

Did you know in your heart that you really could do much better?  Was there really a good reason for your poor result?  If yes, then you may forgive yourself.  Think very hard before you let yourself off.  Otherwise, begin the repair job right away by thinking deeply about the feelings you had personally on seeing that result.  Plan a bit of time to sit and plan a way for this not to happen again or at least to be less likely to happen again.  Take your time; find time alone, quiet, no ipod, use paper to write or sketch your thoughts.  Doodle, let the ideas flow.  Do not force it, just relax and follow your thoughts.  Be sure to keep them on track.  The time you take will be determined by how relaxed you can get during the process.  Make sure the whole picture is only be about you.  This part cannot be influenced by what happens or has happened around you.  It may be that you felt: frustrated, ill, inadequate, that you let yourself down, stupid, had too little time, not good at studying this subject, you took poor notes or absolutely anything else that comes to mind.  It is well worth spending as much time as you can on this reflective process. 

This is not about beating up on yourself but knowing your how your emotions interact with your results.  A very, very valuable exercise.  Do not rush.  Expect the best from it.  What do you want to get out of it?  A single piece of paper.  It most probably will not be the first draft.  If it is, you need to work a bit longer to make sure everything has been drawn out.  In the end, done with time to relax, the paper will guide you to your next step in the planning process:  'How to prepare better for my next assessment'.  It will reveal some of the flaws in your current strategies.  Put this revealing work somewhere prominent in your study area.  Make sure it holds at least one key to those bad feelings you experienced when you saw that awful grade.  It will be another good prompt for future prevention.  Like an insect spray for bad grades.

Starting with this process will take you beyond individual subject boundaries and gear you for strategies that are useful across the whole academic structure.  So that's the end.  Now to you.  Begin the travel to your future success at school that waits for you with this simple exercise.  Go for it.

Have a great day.  Good luck with your studies.

Turn good into excellent

Why should I plan? Why should I finish assigned tasks early? I can do it the night before and still pass. Here, I must ask, is just passing really what it is all about?

Once you have finished a large piece of work, spend some really valuable time on it and review it. Valuable? Yes,valuable, because it will give you more value than just another passing grade will give. If you have basically finished an assigned task, then you have done all the hard work; researched, reviewed sites and articles, sorted the information and written it into something that flows reasonably well, found definitions and put it all down and then transformed all this into your report. If you get this far, you have done all you need to do to get high grades. You may, however, still get a low grade. Even after the hard work, missed fun with the gang, loss of sleep and even stress, your mark may not stand out. Why? How can this be?

Success is measured by how well we do. But who is the judge? Too often the high school 'system' is the judge and that is the cause of much grief. You may be judged 'satisfactory' with a grade of C and 'excellent' with an A grade. How bad is that? What if, in the past, you could only manage a D for a subject? What if you tried really hard, put in lots of extra hours, worked on homework and notes, and finally got a C grade. Surely that is worth much more than a 'satisfactory' type comment? It sure is. To do that is awesome. To repeat that result is outstanding.

We should measure ourselves against measures that give a true picture of our achievements, not by 'perfection is great but less is questionable' but by how we stack up against ourselves and people similar to us with similar opportunity and similar support. So to step above satisfactory on that scale is where we really want to go. If that can be done, the other kudos and awards will follow.

How to do it on the assigned task we are talking about here. Well, firstly, be proud of the work you hand in. Be honest about what you put into it and what grade it should be awarded. If you finish well on time due to good planning you will be able to submit work that really does represent you at your best. After all, it will be how you are judged. Not by potential but by what you put in front of the teacher. What you submit that says 'this is my level of ability'; because that is all anyone has to go by. No use arguing because the thinking is: 'why would anyone submit stuff that does not show their best?' So in your mind you are an A level student being awarded a C-. From the employer's point of view or the College's point of view, you are a C- student who is making excuses for bad marks; less than 'satisfactory'.

Do something about it. Now.

Firstly, the reason to finish early is that your brain is now full of all the information it needs. Your brain knows all the hard work is done and so it can relax to assemble a better representation of that information. This is what it does best. If you just hand in work straight after it is finished, there is no opportunity for polish. So, let your brain go into automatic and work out better sentences, reasoning, structure. It will do this in the background; while you eat, play, dance, sleep. While it is doing that, try to get someone to read through your submission. Not to understand but to see if it seems to flow, to see if explanations read well, to see if it answers the question(s) put to you by the task. The easy bit is to make make good, excellent. You will find yourself readily deleting waffle and adding quality. As you do this, automatic learning about structure is taking place. This is hard to teach but such skills will strengthen your future submissions enormously.

Re-read. Re-type.

Submit something of high quality that truly represents work matching your capabilities. You will know that what sits on the teacher's desk awaiting grading reflects something you are proud of. What they do with it is up to them. You know at this very point you have done what you can. Relax and wait. There is no more you can do.

Good luck with your high school experience. Find successes

Have a great day

Taking notes II

Read  the earlier Post about note taking and reviewing. Why is note taking so important? Why is regular review so important? These two very simple processes are absolute key to Success at School. Your high school years are full of maxi and mini events. What you do every day is almost always influenced in some way by the requirements of the school system. They are often tough to fulfil. They are often unclear. They often lead to stress. Getting properly organised for note taking and reviewing can reduce stress to manageable levels and give you a better chance of improved exam grades. If for nothing else, that must make these skills worthwhile.

Surely taking notes is just copying off the board? Get down what the teacher writes on the board. There's even time for a quick chat. No need to listen too hard, it will mostly be there for later reading, usually much later. If you miss a few bits here and there because of distractions, you will have most of it and should be able to fill the rest in later. Not a good plan. The bits you missed? Filling those in will get harder the longer it is left. Get good notes at the time they are given. You're mad if you don't. Your notes are essential to success at high school. Some students seem clearly proud about how scruffy and full of graffiti and other artwork their notebooks are. Scraps of words from the lesson, mixed with scraps of words from another lesson, another subject even; days all mixed up with work put into any available blank space; ripped and crumpled pages all go against good grades. Best use for these notebooks? Starting up the Sunday barbecue. They are next to useless as tools for learning.

Anyone can copy. Anyone. Ask a student from a very early grade, who can basically write and copy shapes, and they could do a reasonable job of copying. They will be a bit slow because they are not familiar with the style and the symbols. Their writing will be a bit more basic but it will be there. Do they understand it? Almost certainly not. You see, the thing about copying is it requires almost no thought if we are familiar with the numbers and symbols. That's the trouble. Too easy to copy. Too easy to think we have it all. Do not kid yourself. Copying without thought is pretty much a useless exercise. Copying has nothing to do with learning unless it is done with thought and commitment.

OK, 'I get it' I hear you say.

We have talked about the importance of a separate notebook for each subject and using few colors of pen. For a ruler, you can use almost any straight edge. Just writing and highlighting, no extra bits. If you like to doodle take a doodle book with you to class and keep the sketching and arty thoughts there. The cleaner the page is to study, the better.

The photo above is the bare minimum I use. I like a mechanical pencil because I never have to sharpen it and it doesn't leak ink all in my pocket. Use a soft lead (I use 2B) that will make dark lines which are easy to read when you are tired. Leads harder than this are too light and will cause unnecessary eye strain if you have to read a lot. The small notebook is for incidental information for every part of high school and holds a wonder of information about when stuff is due, if I am running out of things or if I need to remember to do something, graffiti and odd bits of artwork even. This has taken many forms over the years but this one can easily fit into my pocket. As you can see I travel light to class. To highlight, I circle. To emphasise, I double underline. The eraser is there for show. I usually just cross something out if I change my mind about it. This set up has the other advantage of being cheap. Of course, there are smaller books you can get. I recommend a fairly large size to fit any sketches or long bits of information on one page, rather than breaking it up. Remember, one notebook for each subject. Judge the size of the notebook by asking or by last year's volume of work in a subject.

Make sure your notes count. Look at them as you go. If the teacher says something to fill in a bit of information, get it down. They cannot possibly write all they say in a lesson on the board. Make sure you know what is on the page. Put a * next to bits you are not sure of as a signal to get extra information here. Ask a question, if you want. If that is not done in your group; google, other students, the teacher, the library could all help. If you had a bit of difficulty following some reasoning, again add * to go back and fill in more until you are happy with it. The * will also be clues for when you study as you will know you had some difficulty first time going over it and so you can make sure you feel comfortable with these weaker areas. Study is not about what you know but what you had trouble with or are a bit fuzzy on.

A bit of hard work in class will pay back generously when you come to review and study.

Good luck with your exams.

Have a great day

Get the prize of prizes

Throughout our high school experience we watch many award ceremonies; best this, highest that, fastest, most, greatest, top, longest, shortest; on it goes. Awards are a constant reminder for some of us that the passage through high school is filled with evidence that we are not of the highest calibre; that there are always others in front of us. There is no doubt that many of us find school hard. We struggle with math, creating the most basic of essays, writing a science report and understanding the complexities of art. Sometimes, many times, it all seems too much. For those of us not very academically or athletically inclined nor talented, there are twelve or more years of struggle, culminating in years of heartache in high school. How do you keep your head held high under such a repressive system? How do you keep smiling under the constant highlighting of those who are better?

Do not be discouraged. You are worthy of praise and prize. The praise can come from doing your best; the prize is that you give yourself every advantage to take opportunity of further training and improved career prospects that would not ordinarily be available to you. Best not to concern yourself with the flight of the gifted, talented or better supported. It just happens that way. Some are born already advantaged, some are not. Make the best of who you are and where you come from. Focus on what you need to do, what is best for you. Others fade, you must not. Be sure that some of us who struggle the most will rise to high posts in this world.

As early as you can, start to research as many College, University and other training institution entry requirements as you can. This will give you a good idea of what is required and, importantly, how to apply for entry and for scholarships. Practise writing a few applications. Get a teacher or family member of friend to read through it. The more you do this, the better will your applications become. Immersing yourself in this knowledge will also empower your schooling. You will know which subjects you should put more effort into. The further into the system you go, the more importance this information and strategy takes.

Post high school training is not the only path to success. Entrepreneurship, on the job training and experience will also bear fruit. Never, ever get too despondent if one of your strategies for success does not go according to plan. Every successful person will tell you there are many trails to follow on the way to the top; some more direct than others, some easier than others, some more clearly signposted that others. No matter. The trail to your success will be there and will have your own name attached to it. Your task is to find it.

Enjoy the journey, knowing that persistence will get you there. The prize at the end is far more rewarding than those gifted at long and often boring high school ceremonies. What can be better than such prizes of recognition and prestige? The awesome gift you give to yourself and future family; freedom from hunger, a safe home, a secure life.

Enjoy high school with the vision of how it is set up not to praise others but to help you step into a wonderful life.

Have a great day

Success at School also means better comments: II

'Success at School also means better comments.' What do we mean by this? In an earlier post we saw that even if we do not get on well with teachers, we can begin to improve on our future prospects by working in our local community and how that small contribution can spiral outwards to leverage opportunity. We saw that it can link us with potential employers or other contributors to a more successful future. It gets positive comment flowing around us. That is valuable.

All well and good. 'How do I get more postive comments from my high school? Are these not very important too?' Absolutely. If your school gives you a lot of bland comments, employers can easily read into this that you have not really tried to do much, just cruised, did not join in, were not a team player, needed to be pushed all the time. All these conclusions can be reached from bland but non-negative comments. Most schools these days brush over the truth of the matter with bland, beige, non-personal, half-truths so they do not offend. Trouble is, then everything has to be interpreted by parents, by employers and by higher learning institutions.

What can you do to make the situation reflect better on you? First thing to remember is that teachers like to write positive comments because it reflects well on them. If they have a class full of hard working, attentive, curious, homework doing, organised, pleasant, polite, respectful, collegial students, the thinking is that it is they who have worked hard to create such a utopian classroom. If they can use these and other, similar, adjectives to describe students in their classes, they will tell everyone, knowing it positively influences their reputation. In high school that environment is very much down to the individual student.

Above all, remember it is the teachers standing in front of you each day who contribute those comments next to your name at the end of each semester. It is those comments that build a picture of you for people you may need to impress. Do not wait for too long to get those comments going because you want a consistent, non bland, picture of you to emerge. As always do not rush it, or the job will seem too big but also because you want an emerging, not static, picture as this creates a sense of growth in the person. It's just a perception thing, as most of what we do is.

What are your favourite two subjects? What sort of comments did you get on these? Were they strong, descriptive and complimentary? Did they reflect you in your best image? Did they faithfully represent you in that class? If they did, go to the next two and ask the same. Wherever you find that the comment is not as good as you would like it, take it on as a challenge to improve by the end of semester. Your target is at least two more clearly positive comments.

It is easy to do. Your teacher can hate you but must report factually. Use this. Here's how. What sort of comment would you like to see added to your next report? Some comments to get you thinking: works hard; works independently; asks questions if needs clarification; is polite; helps others in the class; submits excellent reports; is respectful of others; has a positive approach; finishes all set tasks; is organised; work is of high quality; cheerful; attentive; always prepared with equipment ready. You get the picture. There are a lot more we could keep listing. Now pick the two you want to work on. See, two will do because teachers do not write about each subject endlessly so they write about the things that stand out most.

Now about once per fortnight during the semester you have to follow up. The time in between each confirming action in the middle could be slightly longer but I would not risk it because teachers are very busy and so need constant affirmation of their thoughts about students for it to be embedded in a positive manner. How do you get '[insert your name] respects the needs of others in our class' next to your name? Show it. 'Morning sir/miss'; or whatever the standard greeting in your area is will start the process. You can do this around the campus out of earshot of those who may tease, if you are worried about that. So, not necessarily in the classroom in front of everyone. Then the real confirmation comes in the class itself. Look for it. If a student has no pen and you have a spare, ask through the teacher if the student wants to use yours; '[insert penless student name] can use mine sir/miss, I have a spare'. No loss of face there. If two students have no text to share and your buddy sitting next to you has one, offer your text. This does not need to happen often. What does it say? It says to the teacher that you realise that some people need a hand, that you value the learning of others, that you are courteous, that you respect their right to learn ... There are many conclusions a teacher may draw from this but all must be positive. Do this only a few more times during the semester and you are a stand out for a great comment. Impossible to ignore. If you need help with other ideas, email me.

Attack only two at a time, or you will give the teacher overload as they can only write about so few. Add another next term/semester.

Good luck with your studies. Hope you start to get more positive comments now you know how easy it can be to get them.

Have  a great day

Exam stress

Just found this on a friend's Facebook post. Remind you of anyone?

Have a great day. Good luck with exams

Relaxing for exams II

From the first second of your first class of the high school semester, your work load starts to build up. It builds up quickly, exponentially if you are mathematically inclined, quicker than flies around sh.. on a hot summer day if you are not. Take control early, maybe from the second second. I liked writing that 'cause it sounded neat. At the end of the first day, take a look at what has happened in all your subjects. Did you get a guide to assessment in anything? Did you get outlines of courses? Were there any events mentioned that would mean missing classes? Keep track. You need to know everything that is going to affect your learning. Don't think you will always be able to fix things up as they come along. Not so. At least, not always. The further through high school you get, the more risky it is to leave things go.

Again, keep track. Get a small, cheap but durable notebook for this. The importance of noting down has been emphasised before. This book can be strong enough to last for a couple of years or for the whole of high school. Get one. Its content will be a recipe of what to do, when to do it. It will be the best planning tool. Write 'to do' lists, comments by teachers that relate to assessment and content, important ideas, thoughts about how you are going. Do not confuse it with a diary.

A 'to do' list is a seriously strong ally in keeping the growing mountain of requests and requirements down to a volume you can keep a clear picture of in your head. If the pile grows too big, your head will start to spin with the workload. This creates some serious blocks to clear thought and creates doubts about your ability and stamina to finish off a workload, growing virus-like in your head and in your school room. Your back starts to bend and groan under the load. Don't let it get this far. Remember you are starting to keep the load down from the second second :) Still like that eh?

So, the 'to do' list. Keep it really simple. A priority column and a description of the job to do. That's it. For priority, I use I, II, III, IIII and so on so that as one job is done, I can update priorities easily. You'll invent your own as you go. If you get to the end of a page, take all unfinished jobs off that page and put them onto next page, with priority. If there are several large jobs to do, get some sort of order to them, broken down into do-able bits if necessary, and write them as first to do and absolute must do on your page. It is better if you can clear at least one large job from your list each day, especially if you have several queued up. Feel good when you do because you know some of your buddies and some of your competitors will be looking at that same task, waiting for divine inspiration to get going. Smallish, do-able chunks is what you want. Stay on top of the pile to keep it from growing beyond the possible as deadlines become exhausting, brain fuzzes over and will fades.

How does this help relax for exams? Well, because you are less stressed the whole semester as you stay well in control, your brain will be less tired, your thoughts clearer and your ability to do well under stress will be stronger. It is the stress and strain of trying to overcome the multi-task mountains that leave us tired and frustrated. If we stay on top of things with a few simple strategies, we remain more relaxed. This comes from knowing everything is under control and by being able to take a break during the semester; playing sport, going to the beach or just chilling with friends. It all improves our health in both body and mind.

Take charge in the second second. Stay on top of the load. Have more fun in doing so. Watch others struggle and stress. Help them out if you can.

Best of luck with your studies. Have fun.

Relaxing for exams I

How would you like to go into the next exam feeling more relaxed and ready to go?

Want to find out how to get to this idyllic state? We'll have a look at how that may happen. It will take a few articles to go through but any one of these will give you ideas and help.

The thing about the brain is that it can work well under all conditions. It performs better as the conditions become more familiar. It performs better if it is not stressed too highly. It should come with a well rested body. It also performs better the more easily it can retrieve and use its vast storehouse of information. Ohhh. That sounds like a lot of pre-conditions. Luckily you can set this all up with not much, if any, more total effort than you currently use in the lead up to exams. So let's get going. Working towards best results at high school.

Personally, I think the best thing is to be ready well ahead of time. One of the absolute must do exam preparations is to go over the information you have covered on a regular basis. This does not mean you spend hours and hours each week on a single subject and multiply that up to get a huge total number of hours for all your subjects. You can sneak small portions of spare time. It will probably, but not necessarily save you a few hours when exam cram comes by. Sneak. Surreptitious study. Oh that sounds so cool. So how to get so cool? You need only to go over the material you met very soon after you meet it. Tidy it up. Your notes, I mean. Fix up the pages and numbers on the pages. Put important information into the back of your notebook. Read through the tidy notes twice. First time to refresh what you did and organise the bits you did  not understand. Second read through, comfortably this time because you know it and know where it is in your notes.

This will help store it in the same way you got it. In a tidy manner, ready for easy retrieval. How much time do you need? Little. You could do the information for one subject in much less than a lunch hour break. This could be the tidy up part as it does not need to be an area of calm and, if you get interrupted, you can get back onto it. You will get used to the timing you need very quickly. You do need to do the second run through quickly. Most lessons should only take a few minutes to review. Add some homework to this and you will be surprised how quickly you can get on top of your learning, ready for improvement in your grades and more success at school. Find time between classes, on the bus, at home, before you go out, in class down time such as when the teacher is absent. You get the idea. You will soon find your own ways to sneak time and increase your chance of success at school.

Go over each subject often in small doses, rather than wait until just before exams when stress and other demands on your brain and body start to snowball, and finding you need to do massive hours. You should be better prepared if you do small sections at a time over a long period rather that try to get it all done in one block. Your brain will be a bit scrambled from so many and so untidy pieces of work. Retrieval will be difficult in such unordered material.

OK, so you now have some repetitive structure happening to your learning. This will help you learn the information so it can be retained for longer and retrieved more easily. Make sure to go over all the work covered to date that will go on exams another two or three times. Constant brushing through each subject will truly enhance your learning as will some of the other ideas you can see in other posts to follow.

Help others and help yourself

High school is no different from life. In fact, it is an intimate part of it. You are in it up to your notebook and pen. Just as there are needy people in the community we live in, so there are needy students at school. They are not bold enough to ask for help. You see them struggle. They may always be lacking even the most basic equipment. Their pen is often broken, they are forced to use one scruffy notebook for every subject. What do you do about it? Nothing? Do you comfort yourself with sad feelings of regret for someone who is really in need of a helping hand, rather than your lame guilt-ridden sympathy? Get off your butt. Get a few friends together and see if maybe you could come up with one or two ideas to give a supporting hand. Only needs one or two. It sure does not need a whole book filled with ideas to give someone the lift they need that turns failure into success.

It is those few caring, helping and supporting gestures that really make the difference, not the grandiose waffle of those who talk a lot about how it is a shame that some people are not so fortunate and who have the means to do massive good but content themselves with the ephemeral. Champions of the world and its ills, blown in the dust.

But you can do something. You can easily help with very little cost in either time or other resources. If you do it will strengthen you as a person, it will create a positive ripple around you. There are so many benefits that come with helping someone out. A good feeling accompanies your effort, knowing you can actually improve the life of a fellow student. If you support them with your knowledge by going over material they are unsure of, your capacity to learn will advance in leaps and bounds as your brain explores alternatives within the same content and stretches to boundaries it never knew. Sometimes even a friendly gesture is enough to get people through to the end of the day feeling more positive about their life. Positivity can snowball out from you. It does  not have to change you in any way but if you let it, you will find that increased opportunity and strengthening knowledge are just two of some wonderful benefits.

It doen't have to be much; share a few tips, show them your study planner or time management planner. Could you spare a notebook, pen? Could you help them out after school in the library? Maybe you could give up a burger and buy a notebook you could take along and allow this person to use it. That would be awesome, giving up a small pleasure to help someone out. They will be grateful. The help will always be remembered in a world where too many are too focused on self.

Those who do give back a little in this way will tell you they get back tenfold what they selflessly give out. Give it a go and improve the life of someone who is within your sphere; enjoy the consequences.

Good luck with your studies and enjoy a successful future
Have a great day

Don't try to jump too high

How well did you score on your last piece of assessed work? Did you like the score? Do you really want a better future, secured by exam results that more truly tell everyone what your ability actually is? OK, say you do, then how much better does your result have to get? How much better can it get? Sometimes we get too enthusiastic and try to jump up our marks too quickly and are disappointed when it does not happen. If you have been getting D's or E's or F's or whatever your school uses to show grades lower down the scale, then you are working from a relatively weak foundation. The first bit of the challenge is to get things going. Aim for a couple of small successes and do not be too hard on yourself about progress, for reasons I will show you below. Celebrate small improvement, even if just means you have turned the corner and you feel you are setting yourself up for success. You know you are worth it, you know you can give it a go, so just go with it and try.

Why should you not worry too much about improving your mark too quickly from not passing to passing with flying colors, especially if you have a history of low achievement in a subject? Just think of the following for a moment. To jump from an E to a D is a very big jump so don't be too disappointed if that does not happen on the first one or two attempts. Say you go from mid E around 12% to a low D around 30%. You need to get two and a half times your results to make this massive jump (a 150% improvement in your marks). And, you must do this from a fairly weak position. So you need to make up an awful lot of ground to do this. When you make it, you can be hugely proud.

So now it becomes easier.
From mid D around 36% to low C around 55%, the jump is only about one and a half times (a 50% increase in your marks). You will also be working from a much more sturdy platform of results. Even easier is the jump from mid C around 60% to low B around 72%. This is a mere one fifth bigger score (a 20% increase in your marks) from a position where you were already passing and so had a fair idea of the subject material. The higher grades are more about perfection of presentation of argument, structure and small changes. We will get to work on this too but not right now.

Now you can see why your early efforts may not result in the grades you wanted. However the improvement will be going on and gradually building up as you put in the effort, get organised, sort out the correct equipment and so on. They all add, little by little, until they become invincible; your grades start to creep up, your confidence starts to grow and you feel better about the whole high school experience. Once you get it all happening, slow though this may be, you will find that your own frame of mind plus your better background knowledge will help you climb even further but with lowered barriers as things start to fall into place. It may take time. Please do not give up before you give yourself a chance. You deserve the result. Be a bit patient.The first few strides take time. The momentum will build. You will feel great pride in your growth as you lock in a future with an enviable track to follow.

So you can see the biggest jumps are in the lower grades but they are also the easiest to organise for successful stepping up. You can ramp everything up as you get settled into each step in progress. So try to get going with that. Follow ideas you see here and watch your grades grow.

Try for gradual improvement, not massive. Your grades will be able to stabilise and maintain at each level as you grow at a slow and steady pace.

Good luck with your studies
Have a great day

Homework. How much should I do?

How much homework is enough when you are in high school? This is a tough question and, seriously, it is up to you, not up to a teacher, to judge. How can you tell when enough is enough? Do all your grades have to be A+ to tell you have done enough? Do you have to have a nerdy image? Do you have to sit home all weekend studying while your friends are out enjoying themselves? These are not good ways to judge how much value you are getting out of homework. More, more, more is a poor strategy and a dreadful way to use your time. It is definitely not a wise use of time. Remember that in high school your biggest asset and biggest adversary can be time. We want to use it in the most efficient and balanced way. Balanced is important.

OK, what then should you do to judge the amount of homework necessary for success at high school? How do you know when it's enough before exams and will let you reach better grades and further Success at School?

Do the right amount. What? Yes, the right amount. You may do a bit too much, but only a bit.

Try to judge your own need for homework. You must do what the teacher sets or, if you regularly find the work too targeted at students less able, negotiate with your teacher to leave out some of the easier tasks and replace them with harder ones. Remember that you may do the easy (easy to you) ones much quicker than others in your class. Do not do 10, find them easy and set out to do another 10 at the same level. There is little benefit in this. It is time wasted. You should stop or make better use of the time. You actually get to choose. So this is one area where we have actually made time where we can use it more flexibly. Take less time and use it for other pursuits or use it to work on more difficult subjects or use it to reach higher grades in this subject. That is a pretty cool set of choices. Let your teachers know you are trying to improve your grades, that you are developing a plan to do this. Try teacher by teacher as you feel more confident with your strategy. Get them involved in your plan. They may even join in and begin to set two levels of homework to help out. In high school, teachers tend to be more approachable as you get older so take advantage of it and go see them.

This applies to any subject. You know the level the class is working at because you are in the middle of it. Read on from where your teacher left off. If it is a subject you enjoy, google information to see what you can do to expand your knowledge. Add an edge to set work to enhance your learning. Again, be honest. Do not do it to make yourself look good. It will come undone at some point, maybe disastrously. Do you really have a strong enough foundation to move on up? Do you have the time?

How do you know if you can do more? On your next assigned homework task (some problems for math, a short paragraph for English, a sketch for art, and so on), work unaided by notes, texts, Google, Facebook, friends etc. ... In other words, no reference material. Do the task with just pen/pencil and what you remember. Can you do it? Can you do it well? If you can then for that topic or skill you are ready to move on and add more to your knowledge. Do it. Learn how to judge when you have done enough homework.

Good luck with your studies.
Have a great day

Measuring your success. School report suck? Really?

Can you run 100m in under 10 seconds, swim 100m in less than 50 seconds, jump higher than 2.4 meters? Me neither. Most of the world cannot even achieve one of these, certainly not all three. So why at school do we insist on similar comparisons? We are not all world record holders, we are not all 'A' students in every subject we study. Should we be? Can we be? No. How we reflect on our success at school should be an internal measurement. Measured against our own potential, how well are we doing? If we are really honest with ourselves, how well does our school report really reflect how well we have done? Does it represent me working at or near my potential? This is what you think about to discover your real measure of success.

Some subjects just click, some never do. Some students are devastated if their usual A+ appears as an 'A', others celebrate with all the bells and whistles when they earn a barely passing grade. So reading a 'C' in History next to your name can be an event worth celebrating and making public or one that requires significant disaster control. Being honest with yourself is one of the keys to your Success at School. Don't kid yourself that you have worked hard or studied adequately when, in fact, you have clearly missed your targets. Study needs a structure to support it. It is not something you just pile on right before exams and hope for the best. Some sort of plan becomes more and more necessary the further you are through your education. Establish good habits early in life, the earlier the better.

Be kind to yourself, as well as a little strict. More importantly be determined, backed up by your vision to be a Success at School as part of a better future. Do not excuse your poor work habits by blaming anyone else or your environment, do not accept marks below your potential either; pointing at teachers, the school, facilities, resources and so on. Take your success seriously and tackle it with energy. We do live in tough times and sometimes we have to suffer less than ideal conditions; conditions which influence and, in some way, direct our learning. If you listen, dozens of people, texts and videos will bore (inspire?) you with stories of hardship overcome. Heard a few of those? Hmmm.

You do not have to leap tall buildings or commit to the training regime of a world record-holding athlete. You do have to set up a scheme that both suits you and works for you. One that gradually improves your current grades, one that gradually makes your future a better place to be. Hold those thoughts as your results turn upwards, as comments improve, as study and exams become more doable, as homework is done well within time as your Success at School becomes more certain.

Good luck with your high school studies. Have a great day

Sit near the front for more Success at School

Why sit near the front? Why will I do better and improve my grades if I sit near the front? In some classroom situations this may be hard to do. Some students may harass those who sit near the front. They may be teased as nerdy or trying to be the teacher's pet. It can be a fine and risky balance. Is it worth the risk? Sit as close to the front as possible; even if you move one row forward or one seat closer to the centre of the classroom. If your class is already underway, maybe you have to wait until the start of the next semester to claim your seat. The move will be worth it.
Why move? Next time you go into your classroom, if you do not sit at the back or far away from the teacher's desk, imagine yourself in one of those seats. Note some of the barriers to a smooth learning curve. The things to look out for? Anything that would distract a clear focus on the learning situation. Picture you from the back and the impact of mini events like:

• The person on your right throws some paper over their shoulder
• Diagonally to the left is a conversation going on as soon as the teacher turns away
• Right in front of you is someone signalling another across the room
• Further to the front is someone drawing on their desk
• I'm sure you can add loads more

All these just slightly distract clear thought patterns. So at, or near, the front? Well, you are closer to the action and tend to get a bit more involved both in the real purpose of the lesson and with what you do to record the academic truth of the lesson. The teacher often sees students close to them as their support group and may rely on them that way for input to the discussion and for feedback on the lesson.

If you become a friendly face, even by the default that being involved gives, you are more likely to get favours determined by the de facto relationship due to seating. This may take the face of sympathy for awarding those marginal marks, more generous extension to due dates, even the chance of the reference that teachers are reluctant to give.

That aside, the main advantage is the academic advantage you gain. You may hear more tips than those further back in the buzz zone of the class where there is often more distracting activity going on. Teacher infill comment may help you with your notes, you do not miss the spoken information, especially that inferred by work going up on the board with short anecdotes revealed as the content is delivered. You steer clear of the distractions while maintaining your valued connections with all class members. A teacher who is roaming to see if students need some help or guidance, will stop first with those closest. This is good because you do not have to stand out from the crowd by signalling that you need help. All good. All advantageous. All promote Success at School.

Good luck with your studies.
Have a great day

Someone is stealing your future

While you sit in class and daydream or chat to the student near you; as you wander through the mall looking at potential partners, new electronics; as you watch a movie for the zillionth time, saying the words as the actors do; think. Someone is stealing your future. It may be the good looking shop assistant you fancied, or the most valued player in the game you watch, or the surfer at the beach. You will never know. Not just one, but many people will be stealing your future in your idle time. The future you have laid out as a result of planning and commitment to do well is being eroded by people your age all over the country; probably the world these days.

OMG

Who are these people and what can you do about it? These people are students just like you. They listen to the same music, wear the same clothes and sit on the same beach. You cannot pick them out. In the future, you will be able to find them easily. Go to the top of a company; find leading entrepreneurs; look for champions of just causes; watch the news and hear inspirational politicians and researchers announcing cures for endemic diseases. You will find their names attached to fabulous artworks, literature and architecture. Didn't you want your name in there somewhere? Can't happen. Can't happen unless you act now to stop it.

While you goof off, there are students everywhere reading, listening, analysing, drawing, organising notes. They have their gameplan and are sticking to it. You are losing the race if you do not do the same. While we are young, even when older but less so, we are in a series of queues. Queues for jobs, training, University or College entrance, fast food. For most young people your position in each queue is determined by your Success at School. You are not competing with just the others you see in your classes at school. Every student across the State/Country in similar classrooms, gazing out from similar windows, is competing for the same things.

This is where you now have the advantage. For every one person you get ahead of in your classes, there may be thousands you get ahead of in the life queues; those really important queues you plan to be near the front of after you leave school and enter your future as a successful applicant to all you set your mind to. So listen to what is going on. Apply yourself at every opportunity. Relax and enjoy your youth, but beware of the challenge. Everyone you pass in the results of your classes is equivalent to hundreds, even thousands, of places in those important post-school queues.

Good luck with your studies
Have a great day

Prepare yourself for Success at School

So, it's the holiday and school, awful school, tests, and the loudmouths at the back of the class are far from your thoughts. You should take a break. Rightfully so, after a term of hard, often boring and irrelevant work. You deserve it. Enjoy it. Renew your energy, find some new experiences, work part time if you wish. But don't get too far away from your resolve to get as much out of school as you can. You have to go there so why not take away as much as possible.

Yes, I like to think of it as though getting the best you can for yourself actually steals opportunity and future career and lifestyle options from slackers and misfits around you,  and places them squarely in your lap like a gift-wrapped present. Those nuisances who steal your time, who disrupt your learning. They keep your teacher engaged in preventive measures rather that the pursuit of academic excellence. Every day they steal something from you that is irreplaceable. Time. Every minute lost is lost forever. Get your revenge, and make it good. They may be tough, they may be connected. But. Stay cool and their future will be in your hands or their influence will be so small in your sphere of influence that they will appear non-existent. How? Well, it's what we are all about. Success at School.

Plan. Plan. Plan. Do not forget to follow up 'Plan' with 'execute the plan'. Whenever you get a bit of time to yourself, find time in your head, firstly to relax your soul and secondly to think of yourself and how you fit into the future. 'Fit  into the future' seems a bit odd? Not so, here the challenge is to design the world around your vision. That way you get locked into your vision better that you would if your single statement was 'I want to be a ...' Add description about location, lifestyle, learning required, expected house, the people you will call friends and subordinates at work, how long each stage will take. Dream and add targets. Dreams without targets remain dreams only, so not much use. Decide on the crown jewel. ??? What? The crown jewel is one of the ultimate visions for your future that you design. It will change as you reach set goals. Changing crown jewels. How wonderful. Not even the Queen of England can do that. Where does that place you? Feels good hey?

Sometimes this exercise seems a little too large. Sometimes a bit embarassing. You sort of ask 'Should this future really be mine?' Of course it should. Make it what you want. If it's too hard right now, not to worry, we will get round to it more slowly in future episodes. What I want you to find out is that you really can control what happens. Forget that at the moment things may seem bleak. Things may seem far away and impossible. Honestly, you can change the future and make it bright and fulfilling.

Start the plan. Know how to recognise success when it arrives.

Have a great day

Don't let a question stop Success at School

Here's the scene. Your teacher is going over new work or may be reviewing past lessons, when you come across a point you do not understand. 'Understand' means you could explain it to a friend clearly enough that they could understand it too. What do you do? Put up your hand to indicate you need a better or fuller explanation? Not a cool thing to do? I wonder if that bit of information is the difference between getting a higher grade and staying where you are; worse still, going down. Do you find that you often have time left in exams; time where you could add a few valuable lines to your paper? Was that the piece of information you could have asked about?

Sometimes it takes courage to put up your hand in a class of students who are too cool to put up their hand. Academic courage is not trained or taught. School systems push us in one end and out the other, over a decade later. Do we learn enough on the way? Some care, others do not. Take heart, you are not alone. There are other ways around this problem.

Be a leader. Someone has to take control. Try to talk to some friends who may be willing, on a signal, to put up their hands, giving strength to others to do the same. Even approach the teacher to see if they will join in your scheme. Most teachers would love to have more students asking questions. Two things happen. Firstly, it makes them feel good and secondly, it's always good to have an ally in the staffroom. That can be useful to you. This 'ally' will feel more inclined to spend a bit of time extra with you to help out.

Take careful notes and hope that between you and your friends you can eventually sort it out. Maybe someone has an older brother or sister who is good at the subject. You can see plan two has a few time constraints that will eat into the time you have slotted into your schedule as 'spare', 'play', 'shopping' and so on.

Even more risky is you could just wait and hope that before next week's test the teacher revisits the topic and you actually understand it. Youtube, Google, Answers and other online sources are other time consuming ways that may give you the answer. The library? Where's that? How about you make an appointment with the teacher to meet with them for help during a break? Lots of ways to get sorted that do not take up too much valuable time.

Read Sun Tzu's Art of War. It's full of strategy that all manner of professions take from the battlefield for which it was written to their own interactions with associates and competition. That may help.

Mostly, get the itch fixed. A small point can make all the difference. At this point, not learning, not finding out is not an option. No one's worry but yours. Get stuck in and do something. Email me if it's a real emergency but do something. Your Success at School is the most important thing to get out of school, right alongside some wonderful lifelong friends.

Get that point clarified as early as you can. These small points are the ones that form really effective stops to further learning in a topic even though, in themselves, they may only need a minor explanation. They create roadblocks to assimilating new knowledge and confuse thought patterns as your brain tries to work its way around what it sees as corrupt information.

Make a plan and carry it through. Tomorrow you'll feel good about it.

Get the most from school. Have a great day.

Stop procrastinating. Sure, later.

Have you read many posts from this blog? Have you thought about what you read? Do you agree or disagree with it? Maybe a bit of both, hey? Let's say you are feeling down in the dumps about school. It could be for stacks of reasons that we all experience at some time or another. Hmmm. Wasn't sure of where the expression 'down in the dumps' came from so I just spent five minutes googling to find out. It comes from old words meaning melancholy or depression, so that seems to fit how we use it. How easy it is to procrastinate. Back to writing. Think I'll have a drink first. That's better. Now where was I?

Procrastination and this blog. Oh yes now I remember. How easy it is to get off task with things that are more appealing and more enjoyable. Like many, I have the attention span of a crazy puppy.

The school experience can be somewhat insidious, often stressful and always very busy. When it comes to school work, procrastination can slay the outcomes like you wouldn't believe. Or maybe you would, having been there. Many a time did you say? The art of procrastination is so well developed in most that it seems to be almost genetic. You may not put off intense training sessions the way others do because you like the endorphin buzz you get from the physical output but where is the buzz in four hours of English assignment you grumble. No argument here. I think we all have procrastination skills, just depends on the task and how we see it and what we envisage we'll get out of it.

What comes out of a four hour assignment blitz? Boredom? Drudgery? Stiff back? Maybe missed opportunity with that interesting and good looking new neighbour? Grrrr. Sometimes it is really hard to measure a positive anywhere in a task. True, true. Strategy? For those really absolutely awful and pointless pieces of work (let's hope they are few and far between at your school), your joy may be just that you have one less to do when it's done. Make it quality and those around you who fall by the wayside on such tasks will fall behind you in the race to secure the futures generated by Success at School. Just as in the workplace some things just have to be done. Don't put such tasks off. The longer they sit there, the more time you have to think about it and the worse you feel about doing it. Jump right in and get started. You'll have a huge chunk of it done before you know it and be well on the way to finishing when your friends are still bemoaning the fact that they are still to start. Try it, it works.

So back to my opening. Have you been reading the bits in this blog? They are written to maybe help you across the line that society draws in the sand; the line that is the 'Success at School' requirement for progress to an interesting and fruitful future. A future less filled with boring and meaningless tasks like those we are discussing here. Start to organise yourself right now. Log off Facebook, turn off your phone for say 1 hour, turn off television for that same hour. Find peace in your head, knowing that starting right now puts you on track for a better future. Pick out a couple of postings to read. Act on them.

Please get started. We need smart young people to graduate into the world and build better futures for all of us. If I can help you, let me know.
Have a go. It can't be worse than progress and situations you are not happy with.
Good luck. Have a great day

Develop a system for taking notes and reviewing II

Let's suppose you read 'Develop a system for taking notes and reviewing I' and now have a notebook for each subject. You have numbered the pages; each day you put a day, date and topic; at the back you have started to diarise important information such as topics covered, location of reference material, clues the teacher may give you as to what is required for exams or assigned tasks; lists of homework due dates; and any other important key bits of information.

What else? You want this book to help you. Why else would you go out and get it? Don't let it get all scruffy, ripped, disorganised. That's how study from it will turn out. Horrible, hard, indigestible. Write the main body of text in blue or black for ease of reading and underline or highlight in another dark color such as dark orange, purple. Don't fill your book with all colors. Again that just sends confusing signals when it comes time to study or review. Make it easier for your brain to follow what was done and find the bits it is not sure of quickly. Once found and highlighted, these fewer topics can become the center of your focus as you begin the exam process. You can easily judge where to spend more time.

If you must doodle on your page, set aside an area at the bottom or side of the page for doing this. Don't let it get all over your work. It may look creative and fun. It has no place in among serious notes. It will interrupt your thoughts as your mind drifts away to interpreting the artwork, rather that the more serious business of the notes on your page.

To let revision of your work flow smoothly put a very brief phrase or two on the top of each page, telling you what is on that page. You may forget in a couple of months' time what you have covered and this can serve as quick triggers to target the revision and study process and make it more efficient. Making better use of your time is one of the most important goals in your ambition for Success at School.

If you remember some time ago I said that we do not want to fill every waking moment with study, study, study. Yukk! If your time is used well, then you will find that you have time for breaks. Those breaks will be enjoyed more because in the back of your mind is not the worry of unfinished, even unknown tasks; you have it all under control. Proper use of time when you are young will transfer to adulthood so you will still have fun knowing that all you need to do is under control. Worry free play. Yeah to that!

Good luck with your studies
Have a great day

Good results? Always? Too easy? Beware!

So you have always found schoolwork easy. Consider yourself blessed. Many don't and struggle even in the early years. The first ten years of school often lacks any challenge and, therefore, interest for many students. They receive sound reports and comments from school, suggesting they are going well. Indeed all that you can see points to them going on to appear in awards lists in the last years of school, going on to College and University after successfully passing through the rigors of the first major part of their academic career. Are you a student like this? Time for caution. When the passage through school is relatively easy, lacking challenge, you can develop the bad habits that result from lack of pushing your brain to its limits. Those habits can become ingrained and cause hurdles in the next few years. They may reduce your chance of success at school.

Beware. Be cautious. Be warned. Those poor habits may reduce your potential for the highest grades and hobble results to the second top tiers as you struggle to overcome structures you find irrelevant. Make sure you push yourself, even if the curriculum doesn't. Be careful that you go beyond the routine required by your brain. The Senior years of school require several elements not evident in the lower years. These include more emphasis on clear, written detail of your problem solving pattern; evidence of individual research; increased volume; improved presentation structures; a larger number of theories joined into the same assigned task; much larger assigned tasks. All these serve to take your skills to a point leading to College and University learning.

If you have had a school career that has offered little challenge so far and you are about to enter the final couple of years, do yourself a favor. Listen to all the advice you hear from your teachers and act on it. Get your brain strong ASAP. Most good teachers are fully aware that students with above average intelligence often resist the work requirements of the Senior years when they find the very comfortable, and somewhat lazy, effort needed so far is disturbed as greater pressure is placed on them to achieve the same excellence in their grades.

Complacency with your wonderful ability can lead to a slow and insidious rotting of clear communication channels within the brain, particularly those used to meet with challenge and problem analysis and solving. Your brain will work like cold mush. Keep it strong, keep it flexible. Keep it creative. There are many ways to do this. Prepare well for the future.

Have a great day

Develop a system for taking notes and reviewing I

One of the easiest ways to head into higher marks territory is to organise your notetaking really well. Make it efficient. Make it suit you. Make it make it easier for you to learn the material from each class. Make it make it easier for you to keep up to date and to study for exams.

Make sure your notes are suited to your needs. Who does not want to have some success at school? If you are going to do exams and reports you will want to know what is on the exam and what to focus on in a report. Duh! Of course. So why is it that so many students have the rattiest looking notebooks with bits and pieces of several subjects jumbled together? Easier study, more efficient study, less exam stress and ultimately better grades are targets of better notetaking. Making your life more blissful; ahhh! Your notes are key.

You should never be in doubt about what to study and where to go for useful material. Write each subject in a different notebook. Doesn't matter if you can get one with eight, ten, twenty divisions so all subjects fit. Do not get a notebook like this. It will mess up your mind with what's in it. Separate books for separate subjects. If some subjects require less notes, get a thinner book with fewer pages.

In the back of your notebook goes a sort of diary. You write homework tasks; report information such as due date(s) topics, size, references, special data sources and so on; exam topics if they are mentioned; and page numbers and topics in relevant texts. Each entry needs a date. Use this in case any conflicting information comes along so you can go to your teacher ask them to clear up the confusion. Your classmates will thank you for keeping on top of things.

In the front of the book write down the date, heading and topics, and references. Number the pages in your notebook. Use the page numbers to link up with the summary information you are putting in the back of the book. It keeps everything very tight. No question about what is on the exam or what is due when.

Do not just copy off the board or image. Listen to what is being said and add notes to help your understanding.

Sometimes what the teacher says is more important to your understanding than what they write or show. Use this information to fill in gaps or answer questions you may have. Write as neatly as possible. Use very few colors. Blue, black, red, orange (only if dark) if you like. Colors must be dark so they are easily read and do not strain your eyes when exam time comes around. Work hard to get as much down as possible. Class time is is the best time to learn. Use the time wisely. It will mean you spend less of your free time trying to figure stuff out. So, good notetaking means you will have more free time. Yeeha to that!

As soon as you can, re-read your class notes to see if you understand all, yes all, that was written. Find out what you do not understand; look it up, ask your pals, ask your teacher, google it but quickly fill in the gaps in your required knowledge for each section. At least you will have the comfort of knowing you know all you need to know; :) Then once a week quickly go back over all you did for that week and the weeks prior. You will never have to read too much as exams are sort of doorways between components of knowledge. As you go through the material you may find the amount of reading becomes quite big. Now's the time to read English on Monday, Math on Tuesday, History on Wedesday and so on. The smaller subjects can be grouped into one evening.

As well as reading, do a few practise problems. This would be important for Math especially but also for Science and other subjects that need you to do problem solving. Do adequate often until you can solve most problems quite freely and do not leave your fate to Fate. Keep your brain muscle flexed and it will be ready to use at peak performance. It is vital you keep your learning up to date, day by day, week by week. Yes, people do pass exams by cramming, they do pass with little study. Is it worth the risk? Definitely no, no it is not. What if you get sick, find your family or friend needs help, you get stuck with too much work and get tired out, get too weary to study because your coach insists on extra training? Why risk your future when you can ensure it quite easily? Success at School is the key for your future success and future choice.

Work well. Do not think you have to half kill yourself with study to get anywhere. Consistency is the way to go. Do some often, not a lot in great big scary chunks that expose you to shallow learning and less chance of success.

Have a great day

Control the volume

Being a Success at School is not about killing yourself with work, it is about controlling the volume. Those who are not successful let the volume take over. We have all heard sayings like the longest journey begins with a single step. At school, life is so busy that the volume of work to be done gradually adds to a small number of tasks, bit by bit. It sneaks up on you; English essay, history reading, science report, maths problems, art assignment, sport schedule and on it goes. Sneaky, very sneaky until the pile is so big you are swamped and don't know where to begin. Have you seen the pile of work build from something easy to take care of to a vast and complex pile of pain? You are not alone.

We agree that Success at School is important if we are to keep future options open and make sure we have a strong start to our career. Right? Right. So, how do we keep from overload. Time Management is one way. Time management is a skill we are already working on as we go. Another way is to track what is required of us as we get it.

Track what is required of us as we get it? That's right. How? Where? By now you should have a decent notebook you are using for Time Management. Notice I did not say use a diary for time management. Wrong purpose. In your Success at School notebook. Yes that's right. Get it out and write somewhere on it 'Success at School' so your brain will know the purpose of the book and the purpose of putting stuff in it. This book is where you can get creative if you wish. Remember we simplified all stationery in getting ourselves organised? Here you can let your hair down a bit. But keep it simple.

Go to the back of the notebook and start using it to record everything you are given that will take your time and require some effort. Get a list going now. Have a small column on the left for priority, next column to describe the task, next for any due date. That's all you need. When a job is done tick the first column. Record detail carefully each time something new is given to you. When I get to the bottom of a page, I like to take everything not done onto the next page, so that nothing is lost. The idea is to get rid of stuff on each page as quickly as possible. Your list stays fresh. Rewriting has the reinforcing effect of another reminder that something may have been on the list too long. Time to do it. Go on. Feel good about your successes, reward yourself each time something is taken off the list of 'to do' and becomes a 'done'. Sweet knowledge that is. Small reward, don't get too carried away.

 Keep a close eye on the volume of work you have been given. Stay aware of it by writing it down. Keep the record of it for future reference. You never know when it may prove useful. Keep the notebook with you, so it will not be huge, but will be of good quality. A quality book makes you feel that what you are putting in it is important. Locks your planning skills onto getting it done. Just buy a nice notebook but well within budget. Read and update your book every day. Without fail. I'll know if you don't.

Good luck. All success to you. Have a great day

Time management II

After completing the preparation phase, move on to make use of the time and strength of purpose that follows serious preparation. Do not be happy with the first model. Experiment. Take notes of what works and what seems a bit klutzy. The favours will all lie with you. You will find time you didn't think you had, the ability to relax at times you would normally stress, and be able to produce work of higher quality and, consequently be awarded better grades. The aim is not trying to fill your time with even more jobs to do. The effort here is part of the plan to use time more efficiently and so at exam time or when large reports are due, you watch all your friends stress around you, their workload out of control, while you know you have everything ticked off ready to go. While others stress, you are thinking of the final touches to a job well done and thinking you may go to the movies as a reward. That should be encouraging for you to persist. Maybe you might just go to the beach, or have a few hours in the snow. Who knows!

So you have been recording the information you need to set aside times for. Activities such as sleep, part time work, sport, monthly meetings, weekly meetings, religious events, entertainment and party (caution here), going to library, in class time, lunch and other meals. You can be as detailed as you want. Have you got an approximate time attached to each activity? This does sound like a big job hey? Take my word, it does get easier. Once you have completed a first run through, then the future additions are just built on top, the time it takes is much reduced (is that a far off cheer I hear?).

Now comes a slightly tricky bit. Prioritise your list into four groups. (1) What must absolutely happen? (2) What is very important and should happen? (3) What do I do that is fairly flexible and not necessary to have if I need a bit extra time allocated to something else? (4) What do I do that could be totally changed or dropped easily to find time? Even if it can be repaid later. Try not to fill 100% of your time. Some time slots should be left blank for free use or for an emergency. You know what schools are like. "Do this by Thursday" sort of request, when you already have a full week.

I think now your list should be put into a computer for ease of manipulation. So you can easily re-order different activities. If you go with a computer list, make the four priorities four different colors so you can easily recognise those activities absolutely locked in and those that are a bit more flexible. You must have sleep, so put that in even in the peak exam period. You must have a break too. Allow for large and small. Use colored pencils or highlighters if you are not putting information into a computer. Make up a table to show a whole term or semester. You will be able to detail the close times while the end of semester is a bit fuzzy.

As you feel you can, begin to place the time zones into days, regular (e.g. every Tuesday and Thursday at 6 p.m.) or into monthly times where you may need three or four hours set aside once a month. Start with your school timetable as the skeleton for this project as it is the area we want to make more successful. Don't forget to take your time to do the detail at first. Make sure it makes sense. Next time you will already have a structure which you can easily change, delete bits from or add stuff to. Are your days and what you do with them starting to take shape? Did you realise any really easy activities that could be modified to help you achieve Success At School.

Do not get disgruntled. Stay fresh as you focus on the future. You want better grades. You want to set yourself up so you are more likely to have a secure future and good career prospects. You want to choose your path through life.

Next we will look at setting up your program.

Good luck with this exercise. Have a great day.

De-clutter your school setup

While you get all the information together to get some time management going, let us have a look at some other things that go a long way to gettng yourself organised in such a way that success is more likely to happen, giving your grades every chance of improving. A good next thing in that direction is to de-clutter your school setup. What? School setup. Let's go. Do you use a pen with blue ink or black ? Maybe it's green or purple or orange. Maybe it's a mix of all of these or maybe even a pencil.

What about your notes where do they finish up? A stack of loose leaf pages all over your room, locker and scrunched up in your bag? Various size notebooks. Various quality notebooks. Subjects all mixed with each other in a confusing mix of vital information that is often hard to retrieve when we are under stress such as when we are studying for exams or trying to go over a particularly hard topic. If your parents buy your stationery, how do they know what to get?

It is better to get everything you use  at school as standard as possible. Use a notebook that suits your style. Pick maybe two or three colors of pen and a pencil and use them for all occasions. Do not use light colors as they get hard to read if you are working off your notes on a regular basis. As long as the colors are dark, it will be OK. Do not write in the same color your teacher uses to mark or comment on your work. They will find it annoying. It will be hard for you to distinguish positive comment and marks from your normal work. Annoyed people can't help but choose wrong if a decision is close.

What you need to do is standardise as much as possible. Funnily enough, you gain headspace by doing this. You don't have to think what color pen/pencil, what sort of notebook, what equipment should come to class, what bag I will carry it in???? It is just all right there ready to go. When it comes time to study, History notes will be in the History notebook, Math in the Math notebook ... Easy. It just puts a bit more relax in your life. When you read, the colors of ink you read will be the same for all subjects, easier because the brain does not think something different is incoming with each color change. Ink (your choice of color but dark, remember) means something important is being looked at, so let's think about it.

Does all this seem too simple? Well, it's not. Standardise what you can. Stop worrying about a stack of fancy colors or being lazy by putting four or five subjects into one notebook. Get a notebook for each subject, use only two or three dark colored pens, one highlighter, 2B pencil for easy erasure and easy reading. Get the minimum of necessary equipment. Do not clutter up your bag and desk with myriad trinkets. You need to be a Success At School. Take the line of least resistance.

Don't forget to keep collecting information about everything that uses up your time. Keep a notebook for this too. School, work, sport, leisure, time out, sleep, practise, community service; everything you can think of that takes time, write down.

Good luck with your studies. Have a great day

Time management I

Time management systems, workshops and advice earns millions of dollars for consultants. Time management applies to all activity associated with your endeavours to find Success At School. There are possibly hundreds of books printed every year on ways to manage your time. That means that it is an important topic for all of us to consider. There is an expert on every corner. We all need guidance as we go through life, especially when we have a myriad of tasks to be worked on simultaneously with due dates stacked one on top of the other as they are in school. The day to day requirements of school forms some of the most complex demands we will ever face. School life is very busy. We really do need help to cope.

How do you begin to model all that needs to be done so it is done in time, on time and represents your best quality of production? Math, English, History, Art, part time work, family commitments, sport, occasional entertainment and breaks, friends, sleep ... arrrrgggh. How will it all fit? Does fitting it all in just seem like a dream, something that has always been in the 'too hard box'? What if you heard that only a few hours of planning and preparation is all you needed to put everything into place so you knew from the outset that it all pieced neatly together? Well, it's true.

The first thing you must do is begin to record all you do outside school; include anything that uses up time, including recovery time for things like sport and late night entertainment. Try to find the key things that are repeated regularly and those that come up frequently. These can be catalogued a long time before they occur and will form a skeleton for your time management exercise. Leave out nothing. If you insist on watching television, put it down, especially if there are set times.

As you record the outside of school time eaters, start to outline the demands that school places on your time. Gradually a detailed picture of your life's time demands will emerge. Now you have some really valuable information that will help you with study, work and play. Think about its significance. It will actually help you find more time in your life because time management is not about filling your time up, it is about freeing up time. The time is freed up as you get used to prioritising what devours and wastes time. Can you give up some TV time? Do you have other flexitime which can be moved to another time slot or even used for something more pressing? Do not forget our aim. Success At School that leads to success in life; to give ourselves more opportunity to get a firm foundation for a better future. That's what we want.

If you can, keep all this information in a notebook. You can then track time wasters and time savers over a long period and make this notebook a great tool. Take it seriously, it has grand repercussions. We will explore the next part, once you have some data to work with. Go on, get going.

Good luck. Have a great day

Success at School also means better comments

As you grow into this period of self reliance and perpetual improvement, it will seem that marks become only part of the picture. They are still one of the most important parts as it is these that will get your foot in the door. Also important to people taking you on as a trainee, a student for further studies or as an employee are the comments written about you. Many places of learning have an interview process to see if the potential student is both academically able to do the course and also fits into their vision of what the student body and future supporters of the alumni should be like.

Get yourself a few positive written comments. Get them from more than one source. Ask for them whenever you think someone will write you one. Try to add them slowly. There is no rush to do it all at once. People are suspicious of super rapid change. Maybe you could volunteer for something outside of school, something close to your heart. Help out in the community in an area you can see yourself working at for a while. Do not do it just for the sake of doing it. Have a serious think and do something useful; something that has some meaning for you. Selfish purpose always shows up. Written comments from the community are powerful allies in your step into the future.

Mixing work at school with that in the community reflects someone with maturity and can do attitude. It will gradually change you in a positive way. As always, make it small and grow the commitment to suit your timeframe and ambition. You will find that people come to rely on you, will ask for advice; you will become an expert. As your skills and knowledge grow, so will your position of authority. 'Good for you', 'Thank you for helping', 'I don't know what I could have done without your being here' are phrases you will be hearing. Hmmm. Don't they sound good. Very well worth it.

You will find it quite hard at first to juggle school with this new direction but stick with it and the world around you will change. Positive things will be attracted to you. The feeling of joy within will transfer to the sometimes mundane school classroom because you know there is more to it than those four walls. Success At School within those four walls will seem to flow more readily as planning and management skills grow. You will feel well rewarded.

So you may say your teachers don't like you, especially when you want to start improving your marks and make use of school while you are there. You may not fit the image of your teacher's ideal student at the moment but that will change. Good thing is, you don't have to change much to be successful and change your future to a full and prosperous one. Community work will lead to many crossroads and will definitely give you the positive comments you need written about who you really are to supplement improving grades and comments from the school.

Good luck. Have a great day.

There isn't a switch, there is a method

You have made the choice to ignore others, to give yourself a future career and do what you need to do to make that future align itself with your vision. It will not be a future determined by circumstance and environment that overwhelms your ability to choose life's course, pushing you into that rut that so many remain stuck in. Absolutely fantastic and good job for having the courage and strength to make the choice. Don't forget, you will always be able to find some sort of support; friends, family, teacher, fellow worker, even supportive blog. Be assured that once you get going, the whole process becomes easier and more obvious the more you do to make it happen.

So, now what? Flick the switch and instantly I'm on my way to a wonderful career and future happiness. Not so fast There is no switch that makes you go from off to full on. You can't expect to go from neglect of your learning and having vague goals, from little or no participation in group discussion, to become a focussed and achieving student overnight. Do not let anyone tell you there is a quick fix. That's often the way to make things stay just as they always were. So don't be fooled. Also, don't be talked into spending lots of money on a system guaranteed to change your life around. Often the only thing these 'kits' and 'solutions' change is that your bank account looks more sad.

Not to worry, it can still be done, at vey little cost, except for a bit of time and effort. The best sort of changes you want to experience are more a gradual build up of what you need to do, little by little, in order to set yourself up for a greater chance of Success At School. The growth you envision will come if you follow a few simple steps. Do not be worried or concerned that you will make mistakes, we all do. Do not be worried that it could get a bit hard at times. You will be able to overcome obstacles if you just persist with your plan to set your future along a positive path.

The further you go, the easier the path to Success At School becomes and the clearer your goals emerge in your mind. So don't look for that magic switch or a 'guaranteed (for just a few measly dollars) system', just begin. Use your energy and learn to use all the help and energy around you. Find the support that is there. Commit to some changes. Success will be yours through sustainable improvement.

Good luck. Have a great day

Prepare, for Success At School

As you slide into your chair in class, are you ready for what's coming up next? Biro, paper, text, paint brush, calculator. Do you have what you need to make a good record of what is going on? Is your brain switched on to gathering as much information as possible? Are you willing to ask questions if you are stuck? Have you pre-read anything or quickly reviewed the notes from the last lesson? No? Well, the more of these you can tick off, the more ready you will be for Success At School, the easier it will come.

If you are working at a building site, you are not much help if you turn up to work and you don't have the right tools or the required safety gear. Have you prepared the materials you need; maybe you had to order paint or bricks or roof trusses. It they are not on site, the building can't go ahead. You lose money. What if you do not have the knowledge to complete the task in a successful fashion? The tasks ahead may prove insurmountable. Not good for the boss's opinion of you. Not good for your Success At Work.

You are that worker. Get everything ready, be ready and success will be drawn to you. Do you just copy notes straight off the board or are you cleverer than that? Do you add your own personal comments and phrases to clarify what is discussed? Makes revision much easier, so doing this prepares yourself a bit more for important exams or builds stronger notes for future reference.

Be kind to yourself. Reduce stress created by bothersome teachers harassing you because you are ill-equipped for the job. Come prepared, be comforable, be assured that success will attach itself to someone like you who works for it, plans for it and is prepared to make it happen. You will be able to work efficiently and effectively, readily absorbing new materials and seeking help to fill any gaps as they happen.

Get to know what works for your learning. Don't kid yourself about what you do now. Be prepared. Be ready for Success At School.

As you can see most of what we need to do for Success At School is not about hours of study, swotting in the library, being an obnoxious nerd. It is about being serious in what we do and thinking about where we want to be in a few years and then aiming for it. Good luck. Have a great day

Make some sacrifices

So you don't have all the right class tools, including the proper mindset. We find times in our lives when things stack up against us and we find it difficult to set ourselves up for best performance and results. Some school equipment is expensive, some is not. How will you get the things you need to work effectively in school? Make sure you have the best chance of success at school. Do not lose focus on the goal. It may prove hard but just, step by step, tread the path that secures an improved future. Sometimes a little sacrifice goes a long way.

A small sacrifice can go a long way. For the cost of a burger? Well a burger may be good for your physical and mental, even social health if you eat with friends. Forgoing that burger gives you a few dollars that will buy a good notebook, couple of biros, some pencils, a cheap desk lamp could easily be bought if you are careful with the burger money over a couple of weeks. This little inconvenience (?) could well help form the backbone of your career. You will find other ways to buy the necessary materials and pay other costs to aid your learning. Is it worth it? You bet it is.

You can go to school with all the gear you need. It will feel neat to have what helps the whole learning process. Others around you may be ill-prepared and without focus but you are making small sacrifices (but travelling the right path) to change that and give you motivation to guide your steps towards a grand future. Just do it.

Empty your brain for exams??

In the last post the advice was to empty your brain in preparation for exams. It is the working part of your brain you want to empty to leave it free to do what it does best; solve puzzles, find solutions, suggest pathways. At first you may think it's a stupid idea to empty your brain just when you need it the most. So what are we talking about here?

What comes after 3? 4. After 121? 122. After p? q. What does c a t spell? At some stage in our education we came to know this automatically, often after a lot of perseverance on your part and encouragement from teachers and parents. Still, if you are reading this, you can recognise a lot of words and without having to think, know what they mean. Some years ago you would puzzle over the answer to 5+6=? You probably know this with little thinking required. You can write sentences. It is easy to put a label on trees, dogs, the urban landscape and thousands of things you are familiar with. All this was hard at some stage but now uses little brain power. Solutions come quickly. 'Without thinking' we often say. This is what we mean when we say empty your brain. It's all there, catalogued for future use, hardwired in and ready for retrieval.

In your brain you have gradually built a huge store of information. So read the information you need well before the exam. Learn the formulae off by heart, just like you did years ago with alphabets and counting and spelling. Practise each type of problem until the stucture is familiar at least. It is the familiarity which is important. What are the correct steps for a math problem, order for an essay, style for a history report? Let yourself know these and you will be able to empty your brain ready for exams. Let your mind do its best. Don't clutter it by cramming information in at the last minute. If you do this, there are few connections that have been built between the bits of information needed, and you have to work extra hard on each problem solution to get the right pieces together.

What this means is reviewing, asking questions and consolidating your knowlege in smaller chunks, basically as you come across them in class. As soon as you can re-read the material, see if you can complete work without the use of notes or friends. If you can't do this ask questions and fill in the gaps. Let your mind do its best work at exam time. Start 'emptying your brain' from your very next class.

We'll gradually go through notetaking and study skills later. That will help with exam preparation too.

Good luck with your studies. Have a great day. If you want a hand, feel free to email.

For best exam results, empty your brain

How often do you go into an exam after a cramming session? Up till early morning. Night after night up late for the whole exam period. Poor diet. Little exercise. Feeling bleahh. Head full of a gooey mixture of math, history, art, english, language, social needs, work annoyances. Arggggh.

If you go into an exam with your brain in this condition, you will add to the stress of the situation as well as impede the information flow around your brain. All the answers, clues, suggestions your brain has to offer will be smudged and blocked by too many irrelevant signals and queries. Best to get rid of them. Just as we suggest you de-clutter your study area, you should also de-clutter the working part of your brain. Mmmmm. Yes a big Mmm because it sounds a bit hard. Well, not really. Just like the rest of this site, we are looking for doable ways to ensure Better School Marks.

So your brain is presented with a problem in a test. This is placed into an area that begins to work on the solution under the frame of key words it recognises and signals it adds to that frame to begin a solution process. If this area is full of bits and  pieces you are trying to hold there in temporary (until end of exam) storage as a result of recent cramming, then it is really hard to sort out useful ideas from all the rest. There is too much to do to make sense of the question and pull out relevant information from that mixed in with everything else. Brain goes into overload, stress builds, brain now has to cope with this too. Poor brain. Poor me. Recognise the situation?

Sounds like a disaster. Sounds like you? I think we've all been there. The fix? Empty your brain. That sounds a bit wierd. Empty your brain just as you are getting ready for testing. How does that work? Well, if you have nothing, or much less than usual in the working area, the area where questions go to be dealt with, your brain can easily view the information and draw more relevant pieces from storage. The pieces of information are then fit together easily to make up solutions. The less clutter in this working area, the easier it is for your brain to see exactly what is asked, figure out what you know about it, and retrieve what it needs to solve the puzzle and bring you a solution. Utopia. The exam becomes a more comfortable environmnent with greater chance of success.

So, how can we make this happen? You need to make it happen. Become familiar with each topic. So familiar that recall of information when you need to outside of the exam situation is relatively quick and easy. This means that the content you need is being hardwired into your brain where it is catalogued for easy future reference and retrieval. The only way to do this is through practise, review and careful reading of your notes. If you can achieve this, your mind can relax when you sit exams. In this relaxed state it can operate at its most efficient and effective best. Treat each subject as a sport you are trying to get better at. More practise gives more skills gives more success and more pleasureable feelings about oneself. Oh yeah, I like me because I can do things I found hard at first.

Just like all your workspaces, the brain too needs de-cluttering. Make its solution solving processes smoother and you will get Better School Marks.

Good luck with your studies. We wish you every success. Follow us to see if we can help. Email if you want to.