Planning
Why planning helps
Planning is not extra work, it takes pressure away. When you spread your studying over a few days, you remember more and your evenings are calmer.
Topics
All topics
Choose a topic. Every topic starts from a question, shows a picture to play with, explains what works and why, and gives you one thing to try tomorrow.
18 topics
Planning
Why planning works, a weekly plan, splitting big tasks, planning backwards from your exam, and putting things off.
- Planning
Making a weekly plan
First put in what is fixed in your week, then find the free bits and plan short study blocks there. Keep some evenings free too.
- Planning
Breaking big tasks down
A big task feels heavy and vague. Cut it into small, concrete steps that each fit into one sitting, and start with the first one.
- Planning
Planning your exams
Plan backwards from the exam day: how many study blocks do you need, where does your rest moment fall, and so which day do you start?
- Planning
Breaking the habit of putting things off
Putting things off is not laziness: you escape an unpleasant feeling. A small first step and a calm space break the loop.
Processing
Active reading, smart highlighting, summaries and diagrams, and taking notes in class.
- Processing
Active reading
Reading a text is more than letting your eyes slide over the lines. Look it over first, ask questions, read, say it in your own words and look back.
- Processing
Smart highlighting
Highlighting on its own helps little. Read first, find the one key sentence in each paragraph and highlight little. Only then does your highlighter really help.
- Processing
Summaries and diagrams
You write a good summary in your own words, with the book closed. A diagram shows how the parts fit together. Words and pictures together help everyone.
- Processing
Taking notes
In class, write briefly and in your own words. With a sheet in three zones, notes, questions and a summary, your notebook becomes a study tool straight away.
Remembering
How your memory works, quizzing yourself, spacing and mixing, focus, and sleep and movement.
- Remembering
How your memory works
You forget fast at first and then more slowly. If you pull something back out of your memory in time, you lift it again each time and keep it longer.
- Remembering
Quizzing yourself
Close your book and ask yourself what you still know. With cards in boxes you often practise what you do not know yet and less often what has stuck.
- Remembering
Spacing and mixing
Study in a few short sessions over several days instead of all at once, and mix kinds of exercises. It feels harder, but you remember it longer.
- Remembering
Concentration
Concentration is not a character trait but something you set up: one task, your phone out of sight, working in blocks with short breaks in which you move.
- Remembering
Sleep and movement
While you sleep, your head fixes what you learned, and moving makes you fresh again. Teenagers need about 8 to 10 hours of sleep.
Tests and exams
Preparing for a test, staying calm in the exam, learning from your mistakes and asking for help.
- Tests and exams
Preparing for a test
Feeling sure is not yet proof. Quiz yourself, do a practice test without the book and put your time into what you cannot recall yet.
- Tests and exams
During the exam
Read everything first, divide your time by the points, start with what you know and keep time to check. Breathing calmly helps.
- Tests and exams
Learning from your mistakes
A marked test is a map of what you can still learn. Find the cause of each mistake and choose what you will do differently next time.
- Tests and exams
Asking for help
Asking for help is a skill, not a weakness. Choose who helps you best, from looking it up yourself to your teacher, the CLB or Awel on 102.