High school can be very stressful at times, and even something simple like being organized can take away a lot of the stress. Organizing your work from this and the past marking periods is crucial to your success. Until recently, I became aware of how easy it is to make time for studying, and working on long term assignments or papers.

Many students have not realized it, but your agenda given to you at the start of the year is helpful to schedule activities outside of school. This may come in handy if you are on a certain night. It is safe to say that if you study for an hour for each test, you should have enough time for other homework, and you should understand the information on the test if you spend your studying time wisely.

Note taking is key to doing well on any test too. If a teacher gives you information and does not tell you to write it down, it is still a good idea to keep your notebook handy. When you take down notes, remember to write in a clear and understandable manner – This makes it easier to review class notes when the information is on a test. In many cases, a teacher will use PowerPoint to present notes to the class. Some teachers tend to go through slides pretty quickly, while students are still trying to copy information. To prevent this from happening to you, remember that only you will use your notes, and as long as you can understand it , you can always write in incomplete sentences, leaving out words that are unimportant to the information, such as the word “the” when introducing a historical document.

At home, there can be many distractions that prevent you from studying for a test. This includes social networking websites, cell phones, TV, and many more. I’ve found that the best location to work is at the kitchen table, where there are not too many distractions. It is recommended that you do not study while sitting on your bed because studies have shown that it makes it harder to fall asleep if you spend a lot of time awake sitting in bed. If you have found a location to study and are still distracted by electronics, find a place to put them until you finish your work.

A few days before the test, it is always a good idea to ask the teacher about the format it will be in. This is helpful to you because you have a better idea of what way you should study. It is also a smart idea to reread chapters in your textbook to refresh your memory about the information that was covered in class. If you are studying for a math exam, studying is more than just reading how to solve a problem in your textbook. You should go back to the chapters included on the test, and try some problems that you have not done before. Most of the time, you can test yourself by practicing the odd numbered problems, and seeing if you got them right in the back of the book.

Hopefully these tactics help you to do better in school. They have helped me this year, and I know that it will be helpful to so many more that follow the steps correctly. School can get really difficult, between homework, projects, and tests, but organizing yourself will help you out in the long run.

Michael M