There is no doubt a few small changes to a routine or environment can make a huge difference to anyone’s ability to learn and retain information. Here are a few tips to help both yourself, if you work in a home environment, and your kids make the learning experience more valuable and better.
- Create a comfortable working environment. Have a particular room or part of a room in which to work. Make sure the area has a good work surface, is well lit and has plenty of room to place books and store required equipment
- Have a study planner in clear view. This can either just be a schedule to follow or may be more interactive as a white board to mark progress or notice board to add notes and reminders
- Sometimes adding music can be very beneficial to learning but make sure it is not a distraction! Some classical music is brain friendly including Bach, Vivaldi, Handel and Pachelbel
- Use a calendar, alongside your study planner, to mark days for upcoming tests and organise study schedules. Here you can expand on the study planner notes. Mark specific topics that need to be studied for a future test, etc
- Work at your best time of day. It is often good to allow children a short time (1/2 hour to 1 hour) after school to “wind down” before starting homework. However, some people actually work better in the morning and can get up early and study. Morning workers need a good routine though and must stick to it, no extra lie in!
- Make it clear when you are studying to the rest of the family to avoid interruptions
- Track your progress and make sure you are on track. There’s nothing worse than getting to 2 days before an exam and realising you are only half way through your curriculum revision! Work out at the beginning how long each topic should take to study and plan accordingly. Tick off topics as you reach certain levels and track this against your time left
- Make it easy on yourself. Always over allow for time when studying – if a topic needs at least 2-3 hours to complete allow 3-4 hours. It is far better and more conducive to have extra time!
- Be honest with yourself. If you have a test or project deadline approaching don’t kid yourself you can go out late the night before and still get it completed! Especially around exam time give up those social nights (or at least some of them) – don’t worry they’ll still be happening when the exams are over!
Follow these tips and we’ll see you at the top!
Also check out our blog post: Effective Study Tips for Exam Success
