study habits- how did you guys do it??? (1 Viewer)

karoooh

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1/5kiwifruit said:
i heard at one of those study workshop thingys that sticking to a timetable is a negative motivation to study..
:D AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I made a study timetable after being advised by one of those workshop people - who went to USyd and was a student from Sydney Grammer - that one of the best ways to study was to make a study timetable... Went home and tried it a few weeks later, with, sadly, little success.

Listen to 1/5kiwifruit everyone - Studytimetables are a bad option!
 

^CoSMic DoRiS^^

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yes, study timetables = bad karma, evil council, not cool. they do not work. they just stress you out when they dont go to plan. besides, being really really super organised is not necessarily a good thing. i find that when i get too organised i start to get obsessive about it and dont want to work because i dont want to disturb this perfect order i've laid out. casual organisation of study works better because then you can study the subjects you want, the way you want to, without having to feel obliged to stick to a schedule. going to the library is a great idea to get you into a working mood - the weekend librarian where i go is a real dragon lady so she sort of keeps everyone quiet, its good :D
 

Riviet

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I find the dining room a good place to study. No distractions, the only thing in there is a table and some chairs lol.

*goes to study*
 

shortie_89

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some ppl in this thread hav suggested getting rid of the radio... but for me the radio was the only thing that kept me sane! (i <3 u triple j) as long as its not too loud and the radio presenters aren't talking all the time, i think its ok. but hey everyone is different in that respect one of my friends couldn't have any noise at all
You can stick to a timetable if you want, sometimes that helps when you're just starting out and trying to get into a habit of studying... but i think the best thing to do is before you start each study session write out a list of goals that you are going to do.. for instance 'learn page 3 of japanese vocab' or 'summarise water quality section for chem' or 'collate english quotes' 'do maths qs 1-9' etc etc etc that way you're not just struggling to find something to do to fill in time, you're actually doing something purposeful. measure how much study you've done based on tasks like these not '3 hours'
i got 98.05 so whatever study i did worked apparently better than i had thought it would. oh.. and if you play sport, don't give it up! same goes for music, other hobbies... you may have to cut back a bit (i didn't but hey)... it's the best release of frustration, stress, anger and 'the fidgets' as well as keeping you healthy and on track for studying
good luck!
shortie
 

mazarina211

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shortie_89 said:
some ppl in this thread hav suggested getting rid of the radio... but for me the radio was the only thing that kept me sane! (i <3 u triple j) as long as its not too loud and the radio presenters aren't talking all the time, i think its ok. but hey everyone is different in that respect one of my friends couldn't have any noise at all
You can stick to a timetable if you want, sometimes that helps when you're just starting out and trying to get into a habit of studying... but i think the best thing to do is before you start each study session write out a list of goals that you are going to do.. for instance 'learn page 3 of japanese vocab' or 'summarise water quality section for chem' or 'collate english quotes' 'do maths qs 1-9' etc etc etc that way you're not just struggling to find something to do to fill in time, you're actually doing something purposeful. measure how much study you've done based on tasks like these not '3 hours'
i got 98.05 so whatever study i did worked apparently better than i had thought it would. oh.. and if you play sport, don't give it up! same goes for music, other hobbies... you may have to cut back a bit (i didn't but hey)... it's the best release of frustration, stress, anger and 'the fidgets' as well as keeping you healthy and on track for studying
good luck!
shortie
so approx. how many hours did u study a day???
 

KeypadSDM

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mazarina211 said:
hey all,
i got my hsc in 2006 and was wondering how did u guys study??
did u cram?
did u not leave ur room an lock yourself in for like 6hrs?
and what did u guys do about distraction? i mean, when u get distracted from study, how did u get back on track?

maz
I started studying 4 weeks before HSC & 2 weeks before trials. Good luck with whatever you do, but I don't reccomend doing that.

[For the record, that's not including maths. I loved that, so I did 2-3 past papers a week. No homework mind you, I had TV shows to watch]
 

hopeles5ly

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KeypadSDM said:
I started studying 4 weeks before HSC & 2 weeks before trials. Good luck with whatever you do, but I don't reccomend doing that.

[For the record, that's not including maths. I loved that, so I did 2-3 past papers a week. No homework mind you, I had TV shows to watch]
and you still got 99.75? damn your my idol ! i remember my friend who did his hsc in o3 barely studied as he was helping his friends out most of the time and studied the night before for his eco exam and still ended up getting band 6 in it and a uai of like 97. damn people naturally smart, wish i could be like that ! ><*
 

shortie_89

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mazarina211 said:
so approx. how many hours did u study a day???
the closer it got to the HSC the more i studied (obviously i spose)... for most of year 12 it was never more than 1 or 1.5 hours a day but in the weeks before, so in the holidays when ur not actually at school, it got to about 5-6 hours a day weekdays and on the weekends maybe 4 hours a day
i also wouldn't suggest studying for longer than blocks of 3 hours. none of your exams go for longer than that (i think?? correct me if there are some that go for longer), you'll start getting tired and distracted. get up and have something to eat, go for a walk, have a shower, etc. etc.
start early and build up to it. don't jump in and try and do 5 hours a day now. but make a start even if its only an hour a day. if ur actually making an effort to figure out ways to study it sounds like you should gun the HSC anyway
:) shortie
 

mazarina211

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wow, u guys make it sound so easy:
study the night before and get band 6
study 4 weeks before and get a 99.75
and study 5-6 hrs a day- geeez lol

im so lazy, i better get my act together (i wish i was intelligent)
 

rnitya_25

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its not a matter of being intelligent, its a matter of how you spen your time. a person could study for 10 hours a day and get a uai of 85 and a person could study for a 3 hours a day and get 99. other people's methods are not a representation of how you should study. well that's wat ive learnt atleast.

study your most effective way.
 

elisabeth

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I look back and don't remember the studying. Either I blocked it out or I didn't do too much. I just did whatever I felt like, whenever I felt like. Timetables didn't work for me.

Biology I really wanted to do well, so I read ahead in the textbook and wrote dotpoints every day or so. Probably did the most revision for bio.

English I did too little, too late. Our class was advised to do practise essays regularly all through the year and of course, none of us did. Come stuvac, we were cramming, writing 3 essays a day to be marked... not good. If I can offer one piece of advice, do 1-2 essays a week from the very start, get them marked and build on it until you can do your 3 modules ones in 2hrs and do damn well. Seriously, it will help so much. Essentially, you're always writing about the same thing in English, so think how well you'll know your shit if you do that!

General maths OK, I did practically no work for this course, just a couple of practise papers before the exams, because I was making stupid mistakes. But I won't pretend to regret not doing 2u - it like having the workload of 10 units but still having a safety net.

Modern history OK, you do a history subject, there is a fuckload of stuff to learn. And not just learn, but analyse... you can write practise essays, but there is just so much that they could ask you, unlike English. Really make sure you know your facts, figures, dates, terminology, key figures - start really studying and learning as early in the year as possible, because there's too much to cram for.

Geography I wrote some good notes for my subjects and learned the essay content very well, but I overlooked skills and that was a big mistake. Sure, they're not extremely difficult, but it's easy to get arrogant or overwhelmed by them when you open that exam paper. You could still lose enough marks in the multiple choice to miss a band 6. So do lots of skills practise.

German cont Again, I didn't do too much work here, probably because I'd absorbed a lot of German into my life - reading HP, watching tv and listening to music. So I just did the send-away work (OHS), which counted as classwork and exam practise. Nifty, eh? You can't cram so much for languages - I'd say have a decent vocab but really know your grammar. Because you can always look up a word in the dictionary, but if you don't know how to use it, it's no good.

Yeah... looking back, I maybe did an hour or so a day. I usually did assignments a day or two before, which I do regret, as do I wish I studied consistently through the year for trials and the HSC. Cramming isn't as effective as knowing and understanding all your work. But I still got lucky and I'm happy with how things turned out.

Good luck c/o 2006! Study consistently but don't feel the need to do a time limit - get a few tasks done and then go enjoy yourselves.
 

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Oh my god... and you got 99? That is amazing.... :eek:

Congratz with the UAI too. ;)
 

elisabeth

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Thanks :) But like I said, I probably blocked a lot of the painful memories out of my mind. And there are a million other little things you can do that add up, like on the bus to school every day, I read over notes or learned German vocab. And hey, if you're using your holidays, you have a huge advantage over everyone from the start. Read your English texts! You can do so much!
 

k_m

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shortie_89 said:
the closer it got to the HSC the more i studied (obviously i spose)... for most of year 12 it was never more than 1 or 1.5 hours a day
:) shortie

how'd u spread ur time in for 1 hr of study????

ive tried 2 do dat but ive had 2 much of hw 2 do. i start hw at 5 n i finish like 7..lol den i watch home n away ...lol n den im 2 tired 2 do nefin!
 
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Riviet

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Maybe you don't get enough sleep k_m, that is one of the factors that affect how much energy you have for the day.
 

Trebla

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Some people have natural talent for some subjects and thus require less study time devoted to those subjects to do well in them.
 

lilkiwifruit

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Thanks for the advise and good luck everyone.....i guess everyone has their own ways of studying and for me, i wouldn't be able to study like a night before the exams coz i would be way too stressed out and anyways i think its associated to an IQ thing although i have no proof yet, I think smart people generally dont need to spend so much time studying.
 

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