Take the stress out of studying!
If someone asked me to tell them it was September without telling them it was September I would say these four little words: BACK TO SCHOOL PICTURES! My timeline is flooded with them at this time of year and, while I completely understand why proud parents like to do this, I can’t help feeling a little sorry for the people in the pictures. This is because I remember how nerve-wracking the first day of school after the long summer break is and I imagine the last thing most people want to do when they are nervous is pose for a picture!
Thankfully (for most of us at least), once we hit a certain point in our education these photos stop but that doesn’t necessarily mean the nerves do. Personally, I’m already having the odd stress dream about starting uni again in October. I’ve not had an assignment deadline since May so how am I going to fit studying in alongside all of the other commitments I have collected since then?
Of course I will get back into the swing of it just as you will get into your own routine but in the meantime, here are my tips for reducing the stress of going back to school/college/uni after a long break:
Get a diary and block out time for studying/homework - Personally, I try to block out a certain amount of hours every weekday afternoon and if I have an assignment due I set a goal to write a certain amount of words each day until it is done. I find this helps because if I can see the time is physically blocked out in my diary I am less likely to fill it with something else. This prevents me from procrastinating and it also means that I don’t tend to study too late into the evening or at weekends meaning I can also see when my rest times are. Plan what times work best for you to study, block them out and stick to them!
Your tutors are there to help you, talk to them - If you are worried about anything when it comes to your studies don’t bottle it up. Your tutors are there to help you succeed with your studies and remember, there is no such thing as a silly question. I speak from personal experience here - last year I handed in an assignment not quite understanding the question. Basically I winged it. Whilst I just about scraped a pass for that assignment I didn’t get a good mark for it at all and my tutor wrote in the comments “you clearly had some doubts, why didn’t you speak to me?”. That was my lesson and since then I have made sure that if I’m unsure of anything, I ask.
Get a study/accountability buddy - My study buddy is called Jemma and she is AWESOME! For our last assignment of the uni year she came to my house, with snacks and we wrote most of our assignment together (by together I mean with each other for company, the content of each of our assignments was very much our own work so there was no chance of plagiarism). This motivated me so much more than just sitting and doing it on my own and it was great to have someone to pull apart the question and learning outcomes with so we were both confident that we were covering exactly what the person marking it would be looking for. We both got a really good grade for that assignment.
Don’t compare your progress to other peoples’ - In my very first month of uni I read a post from someone on our course Facebook group who claimed to have already completed the first three assignments (we know what all of our assignment questions for the module are from day one although I choose not to look ahead - one step at a time works better for me!). We hadn’t even had our first tutorial at that point and I’m not sure I had even got my first sentence down on paper. For a short amount of time this sent me into a mini panic. Why were others so far ahead?! Looking back, I actually think this person was silly. I mean, why would you write a whole assignment out with hardly any of the information you need to do a good job of it? Remember, you don’t need to be ahead as long as you’re not behind!
Take regular breaks, don’t deny yourself sleep and make sure you eat and drink properly - These all seem like cliches but they are necessary for good mental and physical health. We’ve all been in a situation where we have left it to the last minute to revise or study but doing this too often will result in the quality of your health and your work taking a nosedive. If you need to set alarms for break times and when it’s time to down tools for the day. Try not to over caffeinate yourself, the odd coffee is fine but remember that water is better for staying hydrated, and don’t skip meals. No one does their best work when they are hungry.
I am a firm believer that education should be enjoyable and if you are studying for your GCSEs, A Levels, a degree or any other form of education past year 8 secondary school, chances are you have chosen subjects that you enjoy and that you hope will lead to future opportunities. With this in mind, structure your study routine in such a way that doesn’t suck the joy out of it and, most importantly, remember a less than perfect grade or mark is not the end of the world so try not to start the new term feeling like it is. Sometimes, less than perfect results provide the lessons we need to do better on the next assignment/exam.
