A lot of the time when students sit down to study they feel like they’re about to climb Mount Everest. A long and painful time awaits them... This is hardly an inspiring circumstance to be faced with. It’s easy to see why a lot of teens are suffering from the motivation blues. Unfortunately, the victim of the motivation blues is almost always productivity. It’s incredibly difficult to engage in a productive study session if you’re not feeling motivated. So, how can we fix this? We’re … [Read more...]
How To Help Your Teen Organise Their School Notes and Keep Them Organised!
The reason that a student doesn’t reach their academic potential, and doesn’t get the grades they’re capable of, is hardly ever because they didn’t have the ability to do so. One of the main reasons students don’t get the grades they’re capable of getting is because they were disorganised during the school year. Sometimes it’s the really little things that make students disorganised – books not in order, losing bits of paper, forgetting to hand in a piece of homework… Does this all sound … [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...]
Timetable Magic – The Simple Tip To Rule Them All
Exams in New Zealand are about 3 weeks away, so we’re now well and truly in the countdown stages. [Clare] A few days ago, while tutoring one of my regular students, something struck me… He simply isn’t doing enough to pass. Because spending an hour a week with a tutor isn’t study! Yet, despite my complete honesty about the fact that he isn’t doing enough (or actually any, for that matter) work outside of our lessons, he still hasn’t got the message. And if he keeps this up (with his math … [Read more...]
You’re Not Alone – The most common high school struggles
Last week we asked you what your teen struggles with most when it comes to school and studying. We want to say a big thank you to everyone who wrote in. We were thrilled by the number of you who got in touch and shared your story with us. Perhaps not so surprisingly, the vast majority of questions had something to do with motivation. Well... really lack thereof... Other common questions brought up the topics of stress and time management. We hope that our responses shed new light on … [Read more...]