A Student’s Block: Is it real?

You might have heard of a writer’s block, a phase that even the most avid of writers go through several times in their career. A phase where they suffer from a lack of motivation to write, a lack of inspiration to come up with new works and a lack of self-confidence that undermines their past literary achievements.

But have you heard of a student’s block? A phase that pretty much every student goes through, at least once in a year. A phase where the student has little to no motivation to put effort into studying and has a lack of academic agenda on mind. Some might say that the student is just being lazy, which could be a part of the reason but not the only reason.

It is the time when exams are pretty much around the corner. The half term was meant to be a refreshment break for those who have already studied hard all year. And, it was meant to be a catch up break for those who have slacked until now.

Either way, it is a perfect time to scan yourself to detect any presence of a student’s block. Instead of just labeling yourself as lazy, why not dig deeper to find the root cause of your lack of motivation in studies? Ask yourself these following questions and the answers that arise might help you to address the issue.

1) Is the lack of motivation for all subjects or just one or two subjects in particular?

Most students dislike a certain subject due to several reasons. Their dislike often leads to their lack of motivation to study for the subject and hence, leads to poor grades. Ask yourself what is it about the subject you dislike and why is that the case. Get help from your teacher or tutor about addressing this issue.

2) Is your lack of motivation because of a long list of pending topics you have not revised yet?

Okay, so you procrastinated studying for a subject for some time and now, you have a long list of topics you are not familiar with. The list increases as the time passes and now, you panic just by thinking about catching up with the subject. Relax, it is not the end of the world. The damages are done, but your grades are not doomed yet. Make a list of all the topics you are not familiar with and mark them in the order of their relevance and revise them in that order only. Some minor topics can be left out to revise in the future when you have spare time.

3) Is the lack of motivation because of the lack of time?

Yes, it is entirely possible to freak out about how much studying you still have to do within the time that you have and….end up not studying at all. This is as real as a student’s life can get. If you are finding yourself procrastinating because of this, you need to break this cycle and prepare a sustainable study schedule.

Our next blog article will be about time management for students and be sure to check it out.

Meanwhile, drop us an email (info@tutor-science.co.uk) if you are having trouble with motivation to study or such similar queries and we’ll respond back to help you out! No strings attached.

Using Flashcards

Being a student is a challenging thing. One must remember so much information in such a short period of time. The information can be so varied as students need to master several subjects and topics in an academic year. It’s quite a struggle and we hear our students often complaining about it.

We always try to recommend a solution that might work best for them depending on their learning style and preferences. But we discovered that there was one solution that when used rightly, helped most of our students. The solution? Flashcards.

Flashcards can help you process a lot of trivial information in a short period of time in a fun and encouraging manner. They can be adapted to support gamified study sessions, which are one of the best ways to study.

With flashcards, the choice is up to you. You could go with paper flashcards or use an app on your preferred platform. We, as teaching professionals have tried several flashcard methods and we recommend the least time-consuming method i.e., using a flashcard app with an inbuilt database. This means that you necessarily do not have prepare every set manually and you do not have to type in a lot of information. There is another advantage with using apps as most of them use spaced repetition, a form of learning that is fast and efficient as flashcards are ordered according to how familiar you are with a card.

There are several apps available that you can choose from, but we highly recommend Quizlet, especially for GCSE students as it has a wide range of GCSE topics flashcards in its database. It is available as a web app and for mobile platforms as well, so that you can review them on the go.

Another great flashcard app with a huge database is Anki. It’s also full of features to boost your memory using algorithms. It shuffles the cards and repeats them based on how well you have been doing with each card. Anki is available for desktop, IOS and Android as well.

We look forward to reviewing more flashcard apps for our students soon. Have you tried a flashcard app? Email us your suggestions at info@tutor-science.co.uk.

How to Make Study Sessions Interesting?

The dreadful feeling that you get….when you remember that you need to study but, there are so many other interesting things you could be doing instead. Such as, catching up with the latest season of Doctor Who on Netflix or playing a quick round of the game you are obsessed with at the moment.

However, you know that if you don’t study now, you will be faced with a monster-sized dread on the exam day. So, you decide to drag your feet towards your books and begin your ever so boring study session.

But have you ever asked yourself as to why does it need to be boring? We upgrade so many things in our lives and make them better. Then, why can’t we upgrade our study sessions? What can we do to make studying enticing? What can we do to our study sessions that make us not want to postpone them as much as we do? Read on then!

1) Use Gamification

If you are gaming fan, use your passion to your advantage. The thrill of scoring points, climbing up the points chart, searing through various levels….ever thought of bringing over all of that to your study sessions? Manually or by using an app, the choice is yours but the end result will definitely be something of use to you.

Dictate points for every study related task. The more tasks you accomplish, the more points you acquire. If you want to take it to the next level, add monetary value to points….100 points could be a £1, it is up to you. Set that money aside from your pocket and use it to buy that truly bring you joy, that too without buyer’s guilt.

2) Rethink Your Study Space

Without breaking the bank, your study space definitely can get an upgrade. Head to your local budget stores for some cute stationery supplies and study décor. At the end of the day, you are more motivated to do something when you are in an environment you like. If you have a desk, place it as close to the window as you possibly can.

Enrich your study space not just visually but also using music. Instrumental or classical music is known to be the least distracting music and it brings another dimension to your session. Choose the music that works the best for you and keep it accessible. It might sound unconventional, but if you have low confidence when it comes to studying a particular subject, listening to battle music while studying for it can make you feel better.

3) Avoid Calling or Making It a Routine

Our brains love and hate familiarity. Being in familiar situations makes it feel safe. However, familiarity breeds boredom like mould breeds on stale bread. Yuck!

You found your best study music playlist. Your desk looks great. You even used gamification. After a month, your study sessions go back to being boring again. What must have gone wrong? You settled and made it your routine, that is what went wrong. We highly suggest that you switch up your study sessions like the DJ switches music in the club. Find new study ideas you like and keep switching in between.

Again, none of this has to be expensive or make your parents furious with your demands. In fact, the more DIY creative you get with your study supplies, the more motivated you can get.

Let us know if you have specific ways in which you make your study sessions interesting. If you would like our study tips for a specific topic or subject you are struggling with, drop us an email at info@tutor-science.co.uk. If you want to get notified about more posts such as this one from us, please do subscribe to our mailing list!!