Competition raises the standards for entry requirements admissions
teams for oversubscribed courses now often look at extracurricular activities
and achievements to distinguish between excellent candidates. This can be
daunting when applying to higher education institutes not only are you
required to meet minimum grades, but perhaps play an instrument, be a player on
a sports team, have another hobby, volunteer and/or fundraise for charity.
These are all commendable pursuits, but doing so much at once can cause
motivation to wane. The last thing an applicant wants is to jeopardise their
academic grades, but it is not unusual to lack motivation on occasion.
Self-discipline can be difficult in the face of so many
distractions. Social media, smartphones, FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and even a
sunny day outside can all offer more attractive alternatives to studying. It s
easy to say to yourself,
I ll do three hours studying tonight, but I ll just
scroll through my phone first and before you know it, half of the study
time has gone. Feeling guilty for not studying, you give yourself two options
Rush the study session now to try to recuperate lost time, or Give up and try tomorrow,
because I ve already missed out today. Neither of these choices are
ideal.The first step for not feeling guilty about distraction is
to set realistic goals. Be honest with yourself pragmatically, are you going
to study for five hours after a full day in the classroom and an hour s
athletics session? Or will you be too tired and disappointed if you don t pay
full attention to your revision? Even if you do work into the night, you may
tire yourself out and jeopardise sleep which will only create a vicious
cycle for the next day. It s okay to have breaks and interests outside of
academia. This makes for a more well-rounded student. But having a flexible
plan which accounts for last-minute changes- gives a structure you can stick
to. Having the self-discipline to stick to the plan (and not make excuses for
neglecting it) is also important, and working backwards from your deadlines
allows you to optimise your time appropriately. For example, if it s now
February and you have A-levels are in May, it can be a good idea to give
yourself a break over half term (if you ve just sat January exams) but plan
hard work week-by-week according to your syllabus leading up to the exams (
disclaimer
this structure may not work for you, and you may wish to utilise the half-term
for revision the example is used to highlight one of many revision structures
so please don t feel you need to follow this example necessarily). You may have
12 weeks until your exam and have 7 short chapters of a textbook to cover an example
revision plan could be covering one chapter per week, then the remaining 5
weeks will be reviewing areas for improvement and practicing past papers. The
final two weeks could be review sessions where you test your knowledge under
exam conditions and really focus upon subject areas that you feel could do
with further improvement. Giving yourself a realistic timetable helps to review
progress and build confidence, whilst attempting to reduce stress levels
because it s important to relax and feel refreshed when entering the exam room.But what if you re seriously lacking motivation? What if the
subject you once loved is becoming a burden, and you re counting down the days
until you can finally close the textbook? It s important to realise that many
students hit the wall psychologically at some point it is normal to feel
overwhelmed if an exam or coursework is important to you. Breaking the subject
down into digestible chunks is a really helpful technique. Try not to think
I ve
got so much to do, and so little time! (and make sure you don t leave
revision/deadlines to last minute). The 10 minute rule is a really helpful tool
for when you know you need to revise, and you really don t want to. For when you d
rather be out in the sunshine or playing Xbox, but you know you ve got mock
exams around the corner. Lay your learning resources (textbooks, posters, cue-cards,
notes etc.) on the desk in front of you and choose the topic you re most comfortable
with. Set yourself a timer for 10 minutes of complete focus (no browsing the
internet or scrolling through your phone) and begin writing down about the
topic of your choice. You could write a paragraph, or a bullet-point list the
purpose is to dedicate 10 minutes to mental focus on your subject, rather than
the actual form of writing. Once you re settled into a task, it is possible to
find that you want to continue with the revision session and it took 10
minutes to re-align your concentration. After all, 10 minutes isn t long, and
even if you end up not studying afterwards, it s a quick memory refresher of
your subject. But usually 10 minutes of concentration is enough to find
motivation and tackling issues one step at a time can turn a revision marathon
into something much less daunting.
