Welcome back to school! It’s time to start thinking about how you can put your best foot forward in the first semester of this new year.
But why bother, you might ask. Well, taking extra effort to prepare helps set the tone for a productive semester and puts you on the right track towards achieving your goals.
Here we’ll share tips on how you can do so. We’ll also show you how to combat your back-to-school blues and get a less stressful start to the academic year.
Welcome back to school! It’s time to start thinking about how you can put your best foot forward in the first semester of this new year.
But why bother, you might ask. Well, taking extra effort to prepare helps set the tone for a productive semester and puts you on the right track towards achieving your goals.
Here we’ll share tips on how you can do so. We’ll also show you how to combat your back-to-school blues and get a less stressful start to the academic year.
Back-to-school shopping is a great way to get excited for the school year. It gets you excited to use the new school supplies and it feels like a fresh start.
It can be surprisingly motivational to prepare all the essentials before school such as your textbooks and stationery. Remember to stock up on some Post-It notes and get a notebook/planner too.
Basically, prepare anything that might come in useful and that will make your day-to-day studies easier and more enjoyable. This also starts making the idea of going back to school a concrete one.
During the holidays, you might stay up later or wake up later than usual. Now is the time to reset your body clock in preparation for your school schedule.
Practice your school routine at least 2 weeks before it starts. Go to bed a little earlier each week and practice setting alarms to wake up earlier.
Devise an organised procedure for packing up your school bag and clothes at night before bed too.
Also practise getting out of bed, performing your regular daily tasks (such as brushing your teeth and eating breakfast), and setting a time limit for yourself to leave the house.
For example, depending on how complicated your morning routine is, 30-45 minutes is a reasonable amount of time. This gives you time to transition from the less-demanding holiday routine and understand what is expected of you on the first few days back at school.
The life of a student is tough when you have a lot of obligations. The first step to managing this is to be in control of it.
This is also why we advise getting a notebook and planner. It helps you keep track of all your schedules, test dates, homework due dates, and extracurricular activities.
A planner is also useful for taking notes in class and jotting down other information. This will ensure you know how to effectively manage your time amidst all of the things you have to do.
Sticky notes can also be used to summarise the key takeaways from each lesson. By pasting them on your notebook, you can revisit the concepts again quickly when you study them.
By staying organised, you can keep track of all your responsibilities so that you don’t end up feeling stressed or overwhelmed halfway through the semester.
Adhering to such routines will surely assist you in managing all of your activities ahead of time.
It’s important to have a plan with clear goals in sight. Early on, set a few short-term and long-term goals that will keep you motivated and focused even when things get tough.
Consider your academic goals. What grades do you want to achieve? Write them down and take them seriously.
Examples of short-term goals would be completing all of your homework for a week, or studying at least an hour each day.
Examples of long-term goals, on the other hand, would be achieving a specific grade for a subject at the end of the school year, or learning a new language to the point where you can carry out a normal conversation in it.
After setting your goals, plan a few feasible steps to help you in achieving them. After all, goals are useless unless they’re achievable.
Regularly remind yourself of these goals and monitor your progress. This will help you adjust as needed to keep yourself on track throughout the year.
This is a step that can help you gear yourself up mentally for the new term. Review your work from last year and make any necessary revisions.
Start small by reading through old notes and assignments from the previous term. This can help jog your memory.
From there, it will be easier for you to pick up where you left off and can give you a better foundation for the upcoming topics.
Lastly and most importantly of all, start nurturing a positive mindset about the new term even before it arrives.
The start of the school year may be very stressful and often represents an “end to fun” from the holidays. But it doesn’t need to be if you start thinking of it as a beginning instead.
Think of it as a time to learn new things and meet new people. To sharpen skills and competencies you already have in fresh ways worth exploring.
If you adopt a positive outlook, you may well find yourself enjoying the new year better. This can help you deal with the first challenges of the new term better too.
The tips we provided above should help you get a solid start on the return to school. If you find that you need a little more guidance, specifically with your studies, we can also help.
At Aspire Hub we have tutors who can not only take you through academic topics but also keep you motivated at school. And we keep our class sizes small so you’ll have more personal attention from your tutors in class.
Explore our programmes now to see if any of them can help you gear up for the new term.
