When,How Long And How Much

One of the biggest issues students struggle with is not knowing how much to study, and when. How much studying is enough? How many hours a week should you be studying to ace those exams? The answer is not a definite one. All students have different habits and attention spans. Here are a few tips to help you develop YOUR own way of managing your studies:

• Keep your studying hours consistent i.e. try to study at the same time every day. This will help you develop a steady study habit. For example, 2 hours every night after dinner and 3 hours every afternoon on weekends. Whatever you feel comfortable with. HOWEVER, it is also most likely you will have other things going on (a budding social life) so it is good to keep your study times FLEXIBLE. Find ways to make up for hours lost during the week on weekends and vice versa.
• So how many hours should you be studying? I was told by my teachers that I should be dedicating 20 hours (minimum) per week to my studies. At first, I thought that was ridiculous! But when I started organising my timetable, I found that 20 hours meant 2.5 hours a night on weeknights, and about 4 hours on weekends. Hours can increase or decrease depending on your workload but make sure you always have some content to revise (more on that below).These hours should also always allow for breaks in between so you break up the hours into smaller sessions. But be careful to stick to your breaks and not get distracted.

• Okay, so here’s the twist: Studying more hours does NOT make you more prepared. It is actually WHAT you’re studying that counts. There is no point having a study timetable if you don’t know what you’ll be studying. At the beginning of each week, you should have a list of topics and exercises that you need to be doing. Spend time organizing your notes and assign times to revise them. Allocate more hours to subjects where you need more practice. Also remember to leave time to revise weekly exercises at school.

So basically, ADD DETAIL to your study timetable and hours. Be CONCISE about what you’re going to study and don’t waste time procrastinating. Practice sticking to your schedule and keep your studying ORGANISED. For those of you not yet doing your HSC- NOW is the time to form these good studying habits. Those doing the HSC coming up, make sure you MAXIMISE your study vacation. Relax, but also find time each day to look over your notes (make sure these notes are well organised and concise) and do lots of practice questions.

GOOD LUCK!