I need help.

[Suaad]

Hello, so I’m currently a year 11 student who is very very stressed about year 12. This year, I began with Methods,chemistry,biology,HHD (3/4) and English. At first I dropped methods because I just didn’t believe myself to be capable of doing such a hard subject and picked up general math. Throughout the year my marks stayed consistent in all my subjects biology (50’s), chemistry (50’s to late 40’s), English (75-85), general (80’s) and hhd (poorly). I didn’t study much when I realised the consistency of my marks which made my motivation for school drop significantly. My hhd exam is in 23 days and I’ve just accepted my inability to do well but my problem is, I don’t know how to study. I studied for hours a week in the beginning of the year but my marks did not show an ounce of studying as shown above. How do I study for less but more effectively. Next year I am doing psychology, biology, further, English and text. Also how do I motivate myself to study.

[DBA-144]

Hello, so I’m currently a year 11 student who is very very stressed about year 12. This year, I began with Methods,chemistry,biology,HHD (3/4) and English. At first I dropped methods because I just didn’t believe myself to be capable of doing such a hard subject and picked up general math. Throughout the year my marks stayed consistent in all my subjects biology (50’s), chemistry (50’s to late 40’s), English (75-85), general (80’s) and hhd (poorly). I didn’t study much when I realised the consistency of my marks which made my motivation for school drop significantly. My hhd exam is in 23 days and I’ve just accepted my inability to do well but my problem is, I don’t know how to study. I studied for hours a week in the beginning of the year but my marks did not show an ounce of studying as shown above. How do I study for less but more effectively. Next year I am doing psychology, biology, further, English and text. Also how do I motivate myself to study.

hey buddy,

Welcome to ATAR Notes! I am sorry to hear your situation. First of all, I think you may benefit from making some goals. For example, I understand that your exam is in 23 days. What do you want to achieve in the exam? Surely, by giving up, your situation will not improve. Therefore, make a big goal, of what you want to achieve in the exam.
Next, you want to break it down, into how you are going to achieve that goal. I recommend starting by ensuring you understand the examinable content. You also need to break this goal down into other smaller goals, and set yourself a time by which to achieve this goal. For example, within the next 5 days, I will have revised over chapter --.
For your other subjects, I think you need to just relax a little. Your scores are just scores, and they may even be good scores, if you go to a school with harder SACs. So just calm down. You still have a full year and some more to get through these subjects. 
Re; motivation
Just try to find some balance. No need to study for hours and hours, it won't help.

Hope this helps! If you have any further questions, then leave a reply! 

[dashnog]

I posted this in another thread, but have abridged it to better fit this context . I hope this helps.

“By the end of Year 9, I certainly wasn’t happy with how I was doing, but I learned a lot, not just about subject content, but how to manage myself time-wise, health-wise, study-wise and social-wise.

Organisation of your material is critical. Make sure you have notes taken in a concise and logical format for every subject. If you like to take your notes digitally, assign folders for each subject and title every document  accordingly. Have things accessible at all times, and keep things orderly. The sum amount of time wasted by a disorganised person just to get their act together is enormous, so try to remain organised to the best of your ability.

Time is also of the essence. Make sure you are at the very least trying to be productive in the majority of classes. This just goes without saying. When doing homework, make sure you are concentrated on the task at hand in bursts so as to not tire yourself out. Distractions not only waste time, but they also fragment the mind; not allowing you to consolidate information adequately. Do you have extracurricular activities? If so, consider how much time they take out of your day and time to study and plan accordingly. If you think it would be more beneficial to skip something and have the option, then by all means do it. People have to respect that other people have different priorities, and it is completely within your right to focus on your studies if that’s what you so wish.

And the most important thing about you is your health. I see health being one of the most neglected aspects for students, and I definitely still struggle with managing this myself. Eventually, I always come across a point during my studies (especially when being bombarded with homework and assessments) where I experience mental fatigue. It that feeling where I’m hitting my head against a brick wall, trying to force information in, but it just doesn’t work. In my experience, the only thing that can be done for mental fatigue is to stop, relax and go to sleep. There is no point trying to force yourself to study if your mind isn’t ready for it. If you’re tired, losing sleep or just frustrated because you don’t get something, stop, relax, go to sleep and try again the next day or the day after. Yes, it’s very hard to do that especially in times like these leading up to exams, but you’re better off risking screwing up one or two low-weighted assessments than burning yourself out on everything.
And for that matter - sleep is crucial. Dear god, sleep is absolutely imperative. Studying until late at night and getting little sleep for the morning is probably literally the MOST UNPRODUCTIVE thing you can do. Ensure at all costs that you get enough sleep for the next day, even if you feel like you haven’t done enough.

Having a social life matters for both your mental health and studying. Use other people as resources for advice. You have siblings who are in very similar boats as you, and apparently they seem like they’re coping. If you haven’t already, explain to them what your issue is and ask how they manage things. Also ask your parents, friends, teachers and the people on this forum as well, as it could only benefit you.
Form study groups, or otherwise study collaboratively with people frequently. Having two minds is better than one, and you can test yourselves on the subject at hand. Teaching people is probably one of the best study methods as well. Famously said by the Roman philosopher Seneca, “while we teach, we learn.” If you can explain a topic verbally to someone else and they understand you, you have learned the topic. Also by putting into words what been learned, you form new connections in the brain, stringing together why things work as they do. This works far more effectively than rote learning, and you can certainly read tonnes of articles about this.”