Tip 1: Study soon
We’ve all done it. We all put off studying until the night before, crammed in all the information, took the test the next day and didn’t get the grade you wanted. Human Anatomy teacher Comron Yazgerdi has his own experiences to share about studying. “It’s all about learning to prepare. I learned that if I study for 2-3 days before the test I have enough time to ask questions in class and go over what I didn’t know.”
Tip 2: Procrastinate procrastinating
This one goes hand in hand with Tip #1. You’ve heard it a million times, don’t procrastinate. It’s true. Try to at least get things done a day or two before hand. If you are a chronic procrastinator, try some methods to break your bad habits. You may think that putting yourself under the pressure of time may help but it won’t. Make sure you allot twice the amount of time it takes to complete an assignment so you don’t stress yourself out. Maybe even make a to-do list.
Tip 3: Rethink your study groups
Study groups can make or break your productivity. Often times you get a group of friends together and they all study and stay on task right? Wrong. A good tip on study groups is to start one without close friends. Make yourself go out of your comfort zone and study with the group who got 100% on that lab or maybe the person who sits behind you in your advanced math class. Junior Brenton Keesee talks about his experience with study groups, “In a study group, If I don’t know something, someone can teach me how to do it and make sure I understand the concept.”
Tip 4: Take care of yourself
Late nights, skipping meals, or eating junk food. All these can contribute to bad study habits and more importantly an unhealthy lifestyle. English teacher Delta Fajardo talked about her views on being healthy. “If a student is unhealthy and continues to do unhealthy things, he becomes sick and has to stay at home. If he stays at home, he gets behind in homework and is stressed out which in turn can make him more sick.” It is a vicious cycle of illness. To be productive you have to be healthy and aware. Make sure you eat at least two meals a day with breakfast being optional (but highly recommended), and get at the very least eight hours of sleep. These meals should not be fast food either. Make sure you are eating vegetables, fruits, non-fatty food. It’s cliche but it works.
Tip 5: Wise words from your principal.
If you’re ever caught in a jam and don’t know what to do, talk to your princiPAL. Mr. Opperman has some of his own advice for the unproductive tiger:
Here is the greatest tip I could give to students that I give to my own children at my house. We need to redefine the words assignment and homework. When my kids say that they don’t have any homework, I say, “That’s a lie.” There’s always homework. An assignment is just one form of homework. So what I like to tell people is an assignment is a defined task that has been given to you by a teacher. It could be a report, some review questions, or a set of problems. For homework you could always review your notes, go rework a problem that was difficult, read something over again, or read it for the first time. There’s always things to do to improve yourself and to improve your performance. It would be amazing if students took five or ten minutes each night to review important notes for each class, how much that would change their performance.
