Academic Counsellor News

Changing habits about study- start small

Last week I spoke to the year 7 students about creating positive study habits. Most students in year 7 believe that they don’t have to do any ‘study’ – that this is only for students in Years 11 and 12. The truth is that good study habits need to start early and the good news is that these habits can start really small.

Different to homework which is the work that you need to complete because you have not completed it in class or assignments, such as writing an essay, study is a vital part of academic success.

I challenged the Year 7s to first make sure they have a desk to complete work at home. It doesn’t need to be fancy, working at the kitchen table is perfectly fine. I then asked them to just go through in their mind each of the classes that they had that day and to record just one thing that they did/learnt in that class. This is a small step to reviewing the content that they covered so that it becomes knowledge that stays with them and knowledge they can recall when needed. The next step to is to go through what they have coming up the next day, being prepared for what needs to be brought to each and every class. This process may only take minutes but it is a basis that we can build on for the future and because it is quick and simple it has more of a chance of becoming a habit and leading them to become confident, independent learners.