Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana

So, its this time of the year again, just before the exams start. That period of your life, where you wonder where the year has gone, and how much time you wasted doing absolutely nothing when you could have been doing so much more. In previous years, this has stressed me out big time, and unfortunately this year is no exception, Im stressed and beginning to feel like there is literally nothing I can do to fix the mistakes old me has left for this me. All those times I put off doing work to hang out with friends gossiping and talking, instead of just getting down and working are coming back to bite me in the ass, but in my defence, and yes I have one of those, life is short, and while ensuring myself a positive future doesn't mean cutting myself out of having a life, it does mean understanding when to get serious, and to cut down on the socialisation, which is now.

The last two years, I got stressed and turned to TV and food for comfort, through a tough time I continued to make worse, this year, no this year I get serious and actually do the work to ensure the grades, but in all honesty I am not even sure how to do that. Yes thats right, I don't know how to study properly or as its commonly called 'study smarter'. Interestingly enough, something most people fail to do effectively. Because there are two ways to study, pouring over books until two in the morning and retaining less then half the information or studying efficiently for short periods of time, meaning, if I learn to study, I can retain more information in a shorter period of time, leaving myself time to, well honestly study another topic, because there are 12 topics I need to study for.

The earlier you start the better your examinations will go and also making a study plan, and trying out different studying techniques until you find the one that works for you, will all lead to more successful examinations. This means every second from now on in, is time I could be spending studying, first though, I want to discuss ways of studying, yes maybe there is little bit of procrastination here, and I regret it all ready and am a little disappointed in myself, but let me try and justify it, this will help me in the long run. The general idea for studying is that it is about more then just sitting down and reading, there is more you have to do. It is actually important to keep both mentally and physically healthy, that does mean socialising and that does mean keeping fit, eating right and drinking lots of water. If you are more mentally together and less stressed about your personal life, your studying will be more efficient because there will be more room in your brain to absorb information. 

1. Improve your study mindset:

    -aim to think positive

    -avoid catastrophic and absolute thinking (example: ill never have enough time to study for this test and i always mess this up.)

    -Don't compare yourself to others, who cares what they are doing or how they are doing, because it doesn't effect your future, or your out come. 

2. Finding a good place to study:

    - I study on my bed, with a very loud bird, because I am part of a very busy, full and loud household, although not ideal, I do go and study everyday at a library, but when my options are scarce, studying here, is better then not studying at all.

3. Only studying with the necessities around you:

    - Not your cellphone a TV, good book, or anything else that my be more interesting then the content in front of you, leave it behind. You cell phone especially is better off being no where near your study area. 

4. Creating a schedule:

   - A realistic schedule you will actually stick too, study in short bursts, to better retain information, and during your breaks, so something that isn't mindless, so that your brain has to continue to work, just on something different. 

   - And don't spend to much time writing the schedule, it doesn't need to be pretty and colourful, it just needs to have the vital information, although I know how hard this is. :)

5. Try the reward system:

   - Rewards reinforces good behaviour, understand parenting now, a reward trains your brain into thinking, if I do this study, ill get to do this (whether that be your favourite food, or a favourite activity, it doesn't matter.)

6. Studying isn't the same as homework
    - Homework is to reinforce what you have just learnt in the classroom, practicing to refine the skills and knowledge of that weeks work, it is usually set work by the teacher and assignments.
    - Studying is going over class materials and making sure you understand and don't fall behind in the class work.

7. Time Management
    - The amount of time you spend studying is dependent on the number of subjects you take, for me I only take 4 so I will spend an average of slightly more on each subject. Although the general rule of thumb is two hours a week you should spend right from the start of the year on each subject, but be careful, going over board is counterproductive, (such as long hours studying with out a break.) 

As for the actual studying

1. Outlining and Rewriting Notes:

    - this allows you to bring all of your topic, close together, thus connecting notes and classing all of the important information for a topic together in one location.

2. Memory Items:

    - Usually things like common words, and remembering small pieces of information

3. Practice Practice Practice:

    - So you have learnt the content, written notes, now you need to apply the information to practice questions, especially in the style you will get in the exams. I really don't think I need to explain why that is a good technique.

There is a lot of things that is recommended you do right from the start, but that would be actual procrastination to go over those, because they cant help me right now, but next year I will definitely go over them. See if I was younger the applicable truth would be I was right on track and going to have a bright future due to foresight and planning, but I am older and I made things very very difficult for myself now and in the long run, but by changing things now there is still hope, its never to late to plan and have a good future, and it is never to late to turn things around when mistakes have been made. So its time to make a start, its time to be the person I want to be and the things I want to do, See here are some things that for me, that would significantly improve my learning, Discipline (stopping myself from doing other, more distracting tasks while studying, and yes this includes the distractions inside your own head.) Emotional intelligence, (Controlling my emotional and unfortunately sexual desires and impulses, knowing that maybe now isn't a good time for a relationship, and now isn't a good time to become emotionally connected to someone.) Sacrificing (For each person this different, for me it would be about understanding that for good grades, you cant always be the best friend, you cant always go to the parties, and I cant always have fun, sometimes I need to sit down and work, knowing that there would be time to party later) passion and motivation, (this isn't something anyone else, can teach me or show me how to do, this is something I have to find with in myself, because I have to find that one thing that truly motivates me to work for dreams, and I have to have the will power to stick to it no matter how hard it may seem because if I have the motivation to go for it, I will succeed.) Being more selective in my friend choices (Finding people for their ideas and motivations that are going to bring you up not tear you down that go with you, not go their separate ways, because you need strong people around you, not weak, you need people who are willing to fight for their dreams, like i am going to fight for mine.) Teaching others (the only thing better then knowing the content is teaching and helping others, its a pretty bleak view if while you make it to the top everyone else falls around you, I want to help others achieve their goals, I want to help motivate others to get there, to be able to help someone struggling and there are lots of reasons to do this; 1. one day you might need help and if you shit on everyone on the way up, its bound to be a scary drop ;) 2. teaching is actually really beneficial to your own learning, 3. there is absolutely no harm, its a nice thing to do, and for me, its what I want to do.)