Are you ready for school?

Yes, it's back to school time...

Are you ready?

No doubt some of you have gotten new clothes, new bags, new shoes or fortunately for others, the ones you had from last year are as good as new and can be re-used!:)...but what about a change of attitude towards school and your schoolwork?

Who me? you may ask...yes you! :)

Let's review a bit...were your study habits so effective and efficient last school year that you got straight A's?

Did you understand your courses well enough to build on your foundation of the last school year?

Did you participate in any extra-curricular activities?

Even if the above is true, you still need to read this. :)

School can be fun and it's meant to be...you just have to know how to prioritize, manage your time and be disciplined in your studies.

Here are some tips to make school fun!

1. Ensure that you review you work at the end of the day. This means reading over your schoolwork, as soon as you've rested,to revise what the teacher taught. The sooner you do this the more you'll remember what was taught for the day.

2. Don't skip your revision time or waste that time goofing off...the longer you take to revise is the more likely you'll forget what was taught and the more schoolwork you'll have building up, thus giving you more stress.

3. Do your homework...this not only cements what you should have learnt..teachers love giving quizzes from the stuff they've given for homework!

4. Have a set time to study and stick to it! (Please see my upcoming post on study-tips).

5. Read over your schoolwork for the past week, on the weekend, so you'll be ready to add new knowledge in the coming week!

6. Clarify any topic that you're unsure of with your teacher within two (2) days. Make an appointment to see your teacher if you have a problem understanding anything that he/she's teaching. Let him/her know exactly what the problem is.

   This means that you will have to look over your work and pinpoint exactly what you don't understand. Sometimes, by looking over your work and/or reading the textbook (both referred to as revising) things become very clear and you may not need to see your teacher. But do see your teacher if things are still unclear after revising your work.

7. Ensure that you participate in extra-curricular activities you're interested in, or that may be important in helping you to decide what career path you'll take. So for example, if you want to become a lawyer, join the debate team.

   Not only will debating help you overcome the shyness of speaking in front of a crowd, it will also help you to put your ideas together and present them in an orderly fashion, giving you lots of confidence when you address an audience!

   If you want to own your own business, join a Junior Business Club or play a team-sport like football or netball or volleyball...you'll learn a lot about working with people by playing team sports!

8. Exercise! Exercising pumps more blood to the brain..helping you to release stress, so that you're relaxed and ready for your studies, and as a matter of fact, for life in general!

9. Do, make new friends and deepen the great friendships you had last year. (Please see my upcoming post on making new friends).

10. Do something wonderfully different this year, like wear your hair differently or wear clothes that really make you unique - Just make it your special project and make sure it happens!

It's my wish that you all do well in school/university, or wherever you may be in life!

Please let me know how you're doing and if the above-mentioned tips worked for you! Feel free to add any more tips or comments below!