When it comes to high school's most hated subject, there is no doubt what it is. No matter where you are in the world, it's math. Chances are your teen hates math. It's their most hated subject. They don't like their teacher. They don't see the point in doing it. I have a theory that might be able to help… What is the point in math? I can only speak for my own experience, but at my high school, the answer to this question was never broached. Math was just this thing that we had done … [Read more...]
Why You Need To Know Your Teen’s Study Strengths And Weaknesses
What does getting good grades boil down to? a. Being the smartest kid in the class? b. Going to the best school? c. Studying 20 hours a week? d. None of these. Of course, the answer is ‘d’. Getting good grades really boils down to being strategic. To get good grades, your teen needs to employ strategy. You would not want to head into battle without a well thought out strategy, and you sure as heck don’t want your teen to head into study-time without one either. A CRUCIAL part of a … [Read more...]
How Much Study Should Your Teen Be Doing?
Like so many of my blog posts, the question I’ve posted in the title doesn’t really have an answer... But, it is an extremely good question to ask nonetheless. 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 … [Read more...]
3 Ways To Make Studying Fun For Your Teen
Before I tackle this very important question, I should let you know about recent shakeups at The Study Gurus. 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 … [Read more...]
The Study Gurus Go Back To School
This is a big week for The Study Gurus, as we became students once again. 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 … [Read more...]
Start The Year As You Intend To Finish It
When is the time for your teen to start thinking about reaching their academic potential this year? Well it’s NOW of course! Good study habits need to be forged early on If your teen thinks they can cruise the whole year, and then but be able to pull an A out of their, err, you know... come exam time, then think again. The students who are going to get good grades this year are going to start the year as they intend to finish it. That is, they’ll be organised from the get go, and keep … [Read more...]
How To Check if You’re Ready For Your Exams
There's not just one right way for your teen to go about studying for exams. However, there is something that every teen should do during their exam preparation. Something so effective in helping students prepare for exams in fact (we speak from personal experience), it almost feels like you're cheating! It doesn't matter what your teen's predominant learning style is or how they prefer to go about studying for exams... Every student should use Past Exams to study Past exams are an … [Read more...]
Studying 101: Study Tips Every Teen Needs To Know
We are quite familiar with the art of studying. Not only from our experience as students, but also as tutors. Along the way we've met countless students who are certainly not 'dumb' - quite the opposite in fact - but regularly struggle to get good grades. Along the way we've collected a huge amount of 'data' about how an academically successful teen studies, what work they do, how they do it, and how it pays off. Interestingly, the best students aren't the 'smartest' students Teens that ace … [Read more...]
Why Your Teen Is Lying To Themselves (And To You)
Most students are really good liars. Actually, so are we! And so are you. Humans are all so good at lying in fact, that we’re capable of convincing even ourselves of our lies to the extent that we outright believe them! The most common lies include: I don’t need to exercise more; Having that piece of cake won’t matter tomorrow; I don’t need to talk to my husband/wife about how stressed I really am; I couldn’t possibly change career directions at this stage in my life; I don’t have time to … [Read more...]
How To Help Your Teen With Their Science Subjects
We realised this week that we’ve failed to talk much about the topic we’re most qualified to talk about – the sciences. This is perhaps because it’s quite difficult to cover a science-related topic that’s relevant to most students. But today we’re gonna try. We don’t envy the job of high school science teachers. It must be truly difficult to cover what their curriculum requires them to teach in a school year. This post is not about blame, it’s just about fact. The fact of the … [Read more...]