Even if dire consequences await if you do.

Procrastination is a particularly common problem for high school students. Perhaps your teen is currently suffering from a vicious strain of procrastination right now?

If they are, they’re not alone.

Every single person procrastinates. And unless some drug company comes up with a very freaky type of drug to cure procrastination-itis, I’m not expecting your teen to stop procrastinating altogether.

Our goal simply needs to be to get them to procrastinate less

Procrastination is probably one of the biggest obstacles holding your teen back from getting the grades they’re capable of getting.

Unfortunately, it’s more trying than ever for a teen NOT to procrastinate, with the ridiculous number of technological distractions at their finger tips!

I battle procrastination fairly well (most of the time), but that’s only because I’ve been studying a lot longer than your teen and find it fairly easy to get into the swing of things. But I didn’t have the internet or cell phones to distract me when I was at high school!

So what is the simple solution to procrastination-itis?

When you’re staring down a long dark tunnel that seems never-ending it can all seem pretty grim and depressing. And this is the way most teens think about studying.

But when you have something to look forward to, it’s a THOUSAND times easier to launch into the task ahead of you.

This is why incentives can play a huge role in combating your teen’s procrastination.

Incentives will give your teen little beacons of light to look towards as they make their way through the otherwise very dark tunnel.

Incentives punctuate study time and make it seem much less daunting.

This is why they work so well. When a task feels daunting and overwhelming, it’s human nature to try and avoid it for as long as possible.

When you have little things to look forward to, it makes the task much easier to tackle.

The way I use incentives is simply to set myself little goals throughout the day.

For example, I’ll tell myself that I’m allowed to watch an episode of Friends if I study straight for the next three hours without procrastinating.

Or I’ll tell myself that if I study hard for the next few hours before dinner, I’ll feel great about the effort I’ve put in and feel no guilt in sitting down to a nice dinner and relaxing for an hour or so.

These small incentives work really well for me, especially when I’m putting in more study hours for upcoming exams.

Everyone is different!

Incentives that help your teen battle procrastination may very well be different. Sit down with them and have a chat about what little things would motivate them.

They will often have a few ideas that you wouldn’t have thought of that might work very well for them.

Using incentives it just one example of all the really simple things your teen can do to help transform their grades.

Maybe using incentives will be your teen’s magic bullet for study success?

Image Credit: [F]oxymoron on Flickr

Was this helpful? Similar articles:

That’s the underlying theme of everything we do and say at The Study Gurus.

With the right study techniques and a good work ethic, good grades are within anyone’s grasp.

My exams are creeping up horribly fast, only six weeks away now. But the good news is I’ve come across a fabulous exam-study technique that I know will help my study.

And I’m sure it will apply just as well to your teen’s subjects at school too!

What’s different about this technique?

A lot of students go wrong because their study has no direction.

The reason this technique is so effective is because it forces your teen to think specifically about what’s going to come up in the exam. This will focus their study without them even trying.

Some students fail to think about their study with the exam in mind.

Unfortunately this means that when they’re in the exam, they’re not sure how to mould what they’ve studied to answer exam questions. They don’t understand how what they’ve studies applies to the question in front of them.

This exam-study technique will prevent your teen from falling victim to this situation. It will help your teen tailor their study to the types of questions that are likely to come up in the exam.

Question and answers

That’s really what exams are all about isn’t it?

The idea of this technique is to come up with hypothetical exam questions, and then plan your hypothetical answer.

English Exam Example

Let’s say that for your teen’s English exam they’re going to have to answer an essay question.

Obviously they don’t know exactly what the question is going to ask. But – they should be able to hazard a pretty good guess as to what topics are likely to come up.

What they need to do is to write down some essay questions that are likely to come up in the exam.

And then plan out the hypothetical answer to each question.

Let’s say that your teen will have an essay question on a novel they’ve read in class.

Their essay question is going to (hypothetically) have something to do with the theme of the book, its characters, the setting, or an important event.

They need to head up a piece of paper for each hypothetical question. Something like “Essay question for setting” is absolutely fine.

Then they need to jot down each point they would make when answering that question. Bullet points are fine.

So for a hypothetical ‘setting’ question your teen might plan the following points:

• Introduction
• Describe the setting of the book
• How the setting illustrated the book’s setting
• How the characters illustrated the book’s setting
• Why the setting was important to the book
• Conclusion
   

Your teen needs to do this for each possible essay question they think they might be asked.

When they’re ready to crank things up a notch they can actually have a go at answering their hypothetical questions in full. This would simply mean expanding out each bullet point.

And it doesn’t just work for English either

I’ve used an English essay exam question as an example, but your teen could use this technique for all word-based subjects. (It probably wouldn’t be applicable to math or other pure number subjects.)

For example, Chris is using it to study for his med school exams. He won’t be writing out essays, but he is using questions (like flash cards) to prompt short answers.

I’m planning on using this technique a lot during my upcoming exam study, and I hope your teen makes good use of it too!

 

If you have any questions about this I’d be glad to answer them in the comments section below!

Image Credit: SLU Madrid Campus on Flickr

Was this helpful? Similar articles:

How is your teen supposed to study and retain information if they don’t even understand what it is they need to know?!

There are a myriad of reasons why your teen might not understand what is going on in class.

Just to name a few:

• They might have trouble concentrating for extended periods of time, and only tune back in once they’ve missed something really important.
   
• They might not be able to follow what the teacher is doing or saying, so need it to be explained in a different way.
   
• Or perhaps they’re being distracted by other pupils.
   

If your teen doesn’t keep up with what’s going on in class there’s no way they’re going to be able to complete their homework satisfactorily or study effectively.

What can you do to help your teen perform better during class?

Firstly, you need to try and figure out the reason why your teen doesn’t understand what’s going on in class. If this is a real problem for them, hopefully they’ll have some idea why.

If you’re not able to get what the problem is from your teen, then it might be worth asking their teacher. Particularly if your teen is sitting with others who are hindering more than helping their progress in class, your teen may not be willing to divulge this information…

If you can identify what the issue is, you can take steps to fix it

Maybe your teen needs to sit closer to the front of the class?

Maybe the teacher goes too fast for them and they need a bit of extra help after school.

Maybe their teacher might have a few ideas that might help.

Maybe they don’t like the subject.

If this is the case, you need to tell your teen to suck it up. Well, maybe tell them as much in a nicer way… But the message needs to be clear; they’re not going to enjoy every subject they do, but this doesn’t mean it’s not important.

We all have to do things that aren’t fun sometimes in life, but we’ve got to look at the bigger picture. Your teen needs to do the same.

 

It may turn out that you just need to encourage your teen and offer them a bit of help with the subjects they don’t particularly like.

If your teen is struggling with keeping up in the classroom and you’re completely stuck, let me know in the comments below. I might have a few ideas that will help!

Image Credit: Alex Bellink on Flickr

Whilst this can be a good thing when I’m trying to explain something really important, I also think it’s sometimes best if I (try to) keep things short and snappy.

So here’s me trying to be short and snappy –

5 Quick-fire must know study tips for you to relay to your teen:

1. Studying EVERYTHING  is not the answer

First and foremost your teen needs to study what is central to their subjects. There’s no point in them knowing some clever peripheral fact if they don’t understand the crux of the topic.

2. Use past exam papers to prepare for exams

This is one of the best things your teen can do to prepare for exams.

It’s been my experience that year to year, exam papers don’t change a whole lot. Both content and format tend to be extremely similar.

3. Learn what study techniques work for them

It’s critical that your teen pays attention to what study techniques work for them, and what ones don’t.

We all study most effectively in our own unique way. Some of us like writing millions of pages of study notes, others can absorb information simply by reading.

Make sure your teen takes our Learning Styles Quiz if they haven’t already.

4. Studying isn’t always fun

Let’s be honest, most teenagers hardly ever find doing school work fun.

Whilst there are ways we can try and make studying fun, your teen will deal with studying a lot better if they accept that it is going to be hard work sometimes.

But that’s just part of the deal. Anything worth pursuing involves at least a little hard work somewhere along the way.

5. Get organised!

Being disorganized is one of the biggest deal-breakers when it comes to exam success.

Your teen could have the academic potential that the Harvard admissions board is looking for, but if they’re completely disorganized they may as well apply for that supermarket check-out position now.

I find the most helpful thing for keeping organised, is simply to have a home for everything.

Papers for this subject go here. The stapler goes there. My highlighters live in that draw. You get the idea.

How was that? Pretty snappy?

I’d love to hear your take on these ideas in the comments below.

Was this helpful? Similar articles:

They’re going to get out what they put in.

But, there is something you can help your teen with that can improve their grades MASSIVELY.

Not only will this change help your teen keep up to date with their homework, it will help them study consistently throughout the year. It will make their exam study far more manageable, less scary, and more effective.

To help your teen jump up at least one full grade in their exams this semester, sit down this week with them and make a weekly timetable.

Why is this so important?

Because our brains like patterns. Love them even!

Even if we don’t want to admit it, we love consistency. And a weekly timetable will help lay out a study routine for your teen.

If your teen is in the habit of not studying and not doing their homework on a regular basis they’re not likely to break the mould.

Even if you start off lightly (and build up the number of hours towards exam time), your teen will begin to think around their study timetable.

If they know when they should be doing something, there’s a much better chance that they’ll actually do it!

So have a go at making a study timetable with  your teen

That’s all I’m asking.

You can draw it or make it on the computer, it doesn’t matter. What is important is that it includes everything your teen has on in an average week of school.

Start by filling in their school hours, then their extracurricular activities, also dinner, and any other commitments they have on during the week.

Then, fill in when they’re going to do extra study. This isn’t homework-time, this is going over stuff from class-time. Last week I talked about the magic hour of study per week. Depending on where your teen is at academically, they may need to do more than this.

I’d much rather your teen be consistently doing small chunks of study, than massive chunks sporadically. Doing this will keep them on track throughout the year, and make their exam a million times easier.

Now the REALLY IMPORTANT part is that your teen sticks to this timetable.

Sticking to a routine and being consistent in their study habits is what will propel your teen forward.

Getting used to studying and doing homework regularly is going to get your teen the grades they’re capable of.

For extra brownie points all round, make a few copies of the timetable and stick it around your house – on the fridge, on your teen’s door, and in their room – so that they feel accountable, and are therefore far more likely to stick to their timetable.

This is just another thing that’s incredibly simple to do, yet can make a huge difference to your teen’s grades.

Image Credit: Surekat on Flickr

Was this helpful? Similar articles:

• Should your teen be studying as soon as the school year starts?
• Is this what straight-A students do?
• Or do they only need to study when exams are looming?
• When they do study – how much should they do at a time?

There’s no one answer for every student.

Everyone studies differently

So there can be no set rules that will tell you how much study your teen should be doing at one time, or throughout the year.

However, there is one thing I will say for sure.

I would STRONGLY recommend – actually no, I insist – that your teen makes the effort to do some study during semester time and not only during designated study periods for exams.

Our brains are amazing organs. It’s amazing how much information we can retain in our long-term memory.

But most of us forget what we learn almost instantly unless we go over it a second time.

Your teen would easily find themselves in a higher grade bracket if they spent just one hour a week going over what they’ve learned in class that week.

Over time, an hour a week really adds up.

Most students don’t look at what they’ve done in class (apart from homework) until exams are just around the corner. This means they haven’t given their amazing brain even a fighting chance of lodging any information in its long-term memory. These students are going to find studying a much more arduous task with much less satisfying results.

YOUR teen, on the other hand, can start stuffing their long-term memory NOW by doing just one hour of extra study a week.

By the time exams roll around, they’ll have already gone over their concepts/topics at least twice already.

Just to clarify, this extra hour of study is extra, it does not include homework. Your teen should complete all of their homework, always. That goes without saying. It’s this little bit of extra effort that’s going to push your teen’s grades towards an A-grade, and away from a D-grade.

If your teen wants to split this hour up over the week, that’s totally fine.

They could do 15 minutes Monday to Thursday, going over a different subject each day.

Or they could spend an hour over the weekend going over everything in one go.

It should be completely up to them.

As with most aspects of effective study, I’m not prepared to say “YOUR TEEN MUST DO THIS!”, because everyone studies most effectively in their own unique way.

Have a chat with your teen about how they think they might want to structure this, and then schedule it into their weekly timetable.

This will be very a small time investment on your teen’s behalf, but a HUGE investment overall.

Was this helpful? Similar articles:

Chris is currently up to his eyeballs learning everything there is to know about the human body, so I (Clare) am going to be taking over the day-to-day tasks of The Study Gurus.

So just as a reminder, here are my contact details in case you ever have a question/comment/problem and would like to get in touch!

Email: clare@thestudygurus.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thestudygurus If you like these articles please like our page!

Twitter: @thestudygurus

 
Now, admin stuff out of the way – can studying actually be fun?

Studying is like losing weight and earning money…

Everyone wants a short cut.

Unfortunately – and you’ll know if you’ve tried any of the above – there isn’t one.

Sure, there are things your teen can do to increase the efficiency of their study, but there’s no silver bullet. No magic pill.

I’ve found the truth in a number of my Dad’s favourite clichés:

          No pain, no gain.

          Work hard, play hard.

          You reap what you sow.

 
I’m sorry to break the news to your teen, but they’re all true.

At the risk of sounding like Ms Trunchbull, playing Playstation all afternoon or reading the latest school goss on Facebook is not conducive with getting good grades.

However, this does not mean that studying has to be boring!

Here’s 3 really easy ways to make studying more enjoyable (and more effective):

1. If you’re not in the habit of doing it already, make time after school – during dinner perhaps – to have a chat with your teen about what they’re learning at school.

   The key to this is for it to be as informal as possible.

   It’s not about you nagging or checking up on them to see if they’re actually paying attention in class. It’s about you taking an interest in what your teen’s learning.

   Try and help them realize the real-world relevance of what they’re learning and why it’s interesting through informal banter. They’ll never be interested in what they’re learning if you’re not.

2. Educational videos. If there’s one thing that I’m insanely jealous of, it’s the fact that your teen is at high school during the internet age.
    

   The internet was in its infancy (as far as schools were concerned) when I was at high school. No cool videos to watch, no Wikipedia, no interactive exercises or games. No mathletics.

   If your teen associates studying with dusty old textbooks, no wonder they don’t do it often! Please sit down and browse the internet together. Start at Google and go nuts.

3. Get your teen to quiz you!
    

   You may end up horrified at how big some gaps in your general knowledge are (hopefully not!), but this is a great way for your teen to test what they’re learning with you.

   In the car on the way to school, around the dinner table, whatever. If your teen feels like they can get one up on you about something they’re learning about, this will boost their confidence and give them a huge dose of encouragement.

These are only three very simple ways you can get your teen more interested about learning.

I’m sure you can think of more that specifically suit you and your teen. And really, there’s an infinite number of ways you can encourage learning and studying in your household without resorting to the tactics of the Trunchbull.

P.S. If you have any comments about this article, maybe your own tips, please leave them below.

Image Credit: The Telegraph

Was this helpful? Similar articles:

We’d hazard a guess that, of the students that don’t reach their academic potential, 9 out of 10 are simply disorganized.

Disorganized is a word that describes a lot of people. Including a lot of high school students.

They’re absolutely NOT impaired by any lack of intelligence or talent.

Being disorganized prevents students who are capable of getting fantastic grades from achieving them.

Getting good grades at high school isn’t something that you stumble upon

Your teen isn’t going to get good grades by being slack all year.

They’re not going to get good grades by completing a three week assignment the day before it’s due.

This is simply not how school works.

It actually requires your teen to be disciplined and focused throughout the year. Not just at the end when exams are right around the corner.

Being disorganized is a common problem

A lot of parents ask us about strategies to help their teen get their study/life organized.

Of course there are a LOT of practical things your teen can implement to get more organized (like making subject maps), but what we’re going to tell you today is actually MUCH more important.

Being disorganized is a state of mind.

We can give your teen all of the organizational tips in the world, but if they don’t organize their brain first, there’s absolutely no point.

How many times have you nagged your teen to tidy their room?

And when they finally did clean it – how long did it last? An hour? A night? If you’re really lucky it might have stayed clean for a few days before it returned to the beginnings of a landfill.

If your teen is currently disorganized, there’s no point in them tidying their desk. It would be only a matter of hours (possibly minutes!) before it became covered with paper and everything else under the sun once again.

Students (and all people) who are disorganized need to sort out their head space FIRST before they can start to sort out their physical space.

They need to change their habits.

They need to change their benchmark of what is acceptable.

An organized student would never let their study space become a bomb site in the first place. They’d never get themselves into the position where they had an assignment due tomorrow but had only read the instructions.

Their habits would be such that they maintained a constant level of organization.

An organized student might have a system whereby they immediately put the instructions into a folder which will contain all of the material they accumulate for that assignment.

This would be instead of chucking the instructions for an assignment on the floor or leaving it in their schoolbag!

So what can you do to help?

If being disorganized is something that’s holding your teen back from getting the grades they’re truly capable of, you can help them.

What you don’t want to do is simply nag. This will only waste your breath and increase your blood pressure.

You’d be much better off sitting down and talking about what regular systems your teen can implement to help keep their life and schoolwork in order.

And, tell them WHY these measures are important.

No successful person has gotten where they are without their own systems of organization.

These systems don’t need to be anything over the top.

Just simple stuff.

A great start could simply be putting all the materials your teen has for each subject into a separate folder of some kind. It’s important to keep everything together.

Never again will your teen lose notes or assignment instructions.

But whatever you decide, the change needs to start in their HEAD. If it does, the rest will fall in to place.

If you come up with any cool organizational strategies with your teen please share them in the comments below!

Image Credit: Schilling 2 on Flickr

Do you have the same fight over and over again?

Have you gotten to the point where you simply don’t know what to do next?

You’re not alone!

Lacking motivation to study is by far the biggest problem for teens at high school.

How can you show your teen the importance of trying their best at school?

Well, it’s not by nagging.

That’s for sure!

Your teen needs to understand WHY it’s important that they learn how to study as best they can. Otherwise they have as much chance of getting good grades as they do of piloting a commercial jet.

If you want your teen to be studying as much as they should be, you need to communicate to them the importance of doing well at school.

This does not mean nagging, arguing, or dragging them to their desk screaming.

They need to understand what’s in it for them

You must try and get it through to them that trying their best at school is the best thing they can do for THEIR life.

If your teen is to study regularly and strive for the grades they’re capable of getting, it’s imperative that they are self-motivated to do so.

They can’t always have someone there to hold their hand.

We’re not saying this will be a straight forward task, but rather something you should think of as a work in progress.

Start today by simply trying to have a chat with your teen about something interesting they’re learning at school, and how this could help them after school. (You may need to take the lead on this one!)

Small steps, amazing results.

Image Credit: Callum McKain on Flickr

We’re back on the other side of the desk.

Except this time, we know exactly what we’re doing.

Just to clear up the confusion about why we’re now students again, well, it’s not because we failed the first time…

After we finished our degrees in Biomedical Science we found ourselves at a bit of a loss.

We didn’t know what we wanted to pursue, and so (among other jobs) we’ve been tutoring high school students in maths and science for the last couple of years.

About a year ago we had simultaneous epiphanies about what we thought we next wanted to sink our teeth into. So on Monday Chris had his first day at Medical School at Deakin University, and Clare had hers at Law School at the University of Melbourne.

Much to our disbelief, and in complete defiance of the oaths we swore that we’d never sit another exam again, we’re now tertiary students for the second time. (And this time we’re really excited about it!)

What we’re going to do differently this time

The good news for you here is that your teen doesn’t have to wait until they start their second degree (…) before they know what we’ve taken YEARS to perfect!

So here they are – the three things your teen can start doing NOW to get on the track to straight A’s.

1. Keep on top of things from the very first day.

When we were at uni the first time ‘round, we didn’t appreciate nearly enough the benefits of studying from the get go.

The mindset was, “We just got going! We don’t need to start studying for ages!”

We completely underestimated the power of the long-term memory.

If you don’t start revising what you’ve been taught in your lectures (or in the classroom) until exams are just around the corner, you don’t give your brain long enough to convert that information into it’s long-term memory.

Whereas if your teen starts revising what they’ve been taught in class NOW, they won’t be able to forget it come exam time.

Just half an hour a day can make a HUGE difference to your teen’s grades at the end of the school year.

We find it incredibly effective to write out or type up what we’ve learnt in class that day when we come home.

Since we started doing this, we’ve been amazed at how much we managed to retaine months later when preparing for exams.

Please relay to your teen that getting good grades at school doesn’t mean they need to sacrifice everything else in their life.

Half an hour a day is sometimes all it takes.

2. Keep study notes and everything to do with each subject in ONE place.

It took both of us a while to figure out that having a system in place to keep our separate subject stuff altogether in one place makes life a lot easier.

It doesn’t matter how they do it. It will certainly depend on how they make their notes.

But make sure your teen keeps ALL of their subject materials in once place. Whether this means using a ring binder to put all loose papers in, or writing everything for each subject in ONE exercise book, it doesn’t matter.

The important thing is just that your teen knows where everything is.

The task of studying for exams can be daunting enough without having to find and attempt to organise a years worth of books, notes, and bits of paper!

3. Make the most of different ways of learning.

Right now there are so many resources out there other than dusty ol’ text books to help your teen study.

The Internet on it’s own should be an invaluable resource to your teen’s studies this year.

Everyone learns in their own unique way, so it’s really important that your teen uses resources that help them study best. And this could be quite different to the traditional method of ‘swatting’.

There are thousands of educational videos, interactive exercises, quizzes, and practice questions available entirely for free online that can help your teen get the grades they deserve.

When we were at uni the first time around, and certainly at high school, there wasn’t nearly the same amount of information available on the Internet. And now that it’s been embraced by so many fantastic educationally-minded people, it’s hard to NOT find what you want!

Now that we’re studying again, we’re going to make use of the amazing resources available to us – online and elsewhere. (Check out Khan Academy if you haven’t already!)

There are many other aspects of studying effectively that we will no doubt be much better at now (and we look forward to sharing them with you) but the three we’ve talked about today are probably the most important for your teen to take on board right now.

These are also things you can help your teen with at home, which is a great way of showing them that they have your support and encouragement.

Image Credit: Akeg on Flickr

Was this helpful? Similar articles: