How to Get Ahead at the Start of a New Academic Year
The new academic year is the perfect time to set some new goals and aim to get ahead of the game. You don’t need to be poring over books day and night to improve your grades, but there are some things you can put in place to get you ahead of your peers and acing your classes!
Start assignments the night they’re set
As much as you might want to head straight to bed for a nap after your first day back or switch on the Xbox for some much needed escapism, discipline yourself and spend at least an hour completing any homework the night it’s been set. You might be able to leave it for a couple of days without consequences, but soon enough, all that set work will start adding up and that’s when it can become overwhelming and unmanageable.
Make sure you tick off and highlight tasks that have been completed in your planner, so that you can visually see that you’ve achieved something. Completing all your assignments throughout the week also means you have a free weekend to do as you please without having to worry about homework!
Keep your planner and files organised
Keeping your planner and any files (online and physical) tidy will save you lots of time in the long term. If all your work is unorganised and messy when it comes round to revision or assessments, you’ll have to spend vital time trying to find and rewrite notes, so it’s definitely worth organising as you go. Try dividing your subjects by colour or alphabetical order, and keep all notes in date order or in modules.
Ask your teacher questions about content you don’t understand
If you don’t understand something, don’t suffer in silence. The only person that loses out here is you! Always ask your teacher for clarification where needed. Nobody will think any worse of you for asking, but if you’re uncomfortable asking a question in front of the rest of the class, try to catch your teacher at the end of the lesson or pop them an email afterwards. Understanding content as you go will help you much more when it comes to revision!
Set yourself goals for the term/year
A new year means new goals, and as it’s back to school / college / uni, now is the perfect time to set them. You may already be given predicted or target grades for each subject, but if you want higher then go for it! Write out a list of your goals and keep them somewhere you can see them everyday, like the front page of your planner or above your desk at home. They don’t necessarily have to all be grades, but they could also be things that you want to improve on, like: ‘Be able to finish all my exam papers in the set time limit’ or ‘Understand how to solve quadratic equations’. If these are things that you struggle with and that you want to overcome by the end of the academic year, seeing these goals should motivate you to put in the work needed.
You could even set yourself some rewards! For example, if you were to complete all your exam papers within the set time limit during exam season, you could buy yourself something that you really want or allow yourself a completely lazy weekend.
Fill out a RAG sheet for each subject
RAG stands for Red, Amber, Green, and it’s a way of monitoring your progress and understanding for different topics. The idea is that you colour code how you feel for each topic (green for great, amber for mediocre, and red for not at all), and then you work on the amber and red topics until they are green. This is a great way of seeing where you need to focus your studies and which areas you need to improve on. If you’re unsure on how to revise or study for topics, ask your teacher. They are there to help you, so make the most of it!.
