How do I study early in the year? (2 Viewers)

[Chiprr]

Up until year 11, I never really had to study. I was able to cruise through exams and assessments getting A's almost all the time but I moved to a larger school so there is a lot more competition. I want to study early in the year but it feels pointless doing past papers when I'm not coming up on an exam. I keep hearing "spaced repetition" and "active recall" but what am I meant to do to make sure I know the content before testing myself?

Subjects are English Advanced, 3U Maths, Engineering studies, Physics, IPT, and Economics.

With economics, I know I can see if I can answer the questions that are part of the syllabus because they are in sections rather than yearly papers. Maths is just answering textbook questions. Physics is very similar

Rewriting notes doesn't really have much benefit in remembering details and doesn't feel like a great use of time and past papers are the only other thing I know how to do. What should I do for the time when I'm not working on assessments or in the lead-up to an exam? Should I just try and find relevant questions to answer?

 

[HazzRat]

Throughout the term try and get one week ahead in terms of content. Make sure you understand the content, make notes, memorise some of it, and ensure you can answer most question types. Other than that, there isn't too much you can do throughout the term. A typical study pattern does tend to follow an exponential curve as you'll study more coming up to a task. Though, being one week ahead will allow you to begin practise papers sooner.

Spaced repetition and active recall have been very helpful for me. That being said, I've only tried them once this year, and that was a modern history test. But during that test I had lots of material to go over about the Romanovs and because of that, I was able to fill six pages in 40 mins of writing, which I thought was a pretty good effort for term one. I have begun making a portfolio of flash cards for chem and eco and I do believe they are helping. Hitherto I use Anki which is synched to my phone so I can go over my cards on the bus. I got the Anki app when it was free - now it is $40. Don't spend $40 on Anki, get another flashcard app like 'Duolingo flashcards; or something. $40 is an unorthodox amount for a flashcard app.

 

[ms_grape_taco]

damn bro thats a flex if you didn't have to study until year 11 lol.

I know people who are a whole term's ahead in content for chem/physics/math because of tutoring, which I believe is one of the most common ways people get ahead. If you would like another way, many of my friends who don't do science coaching have already had all their notes typed up in the holidays, do they have a somewhat reasonable understanding in a certain topic (e.g. arhennius theory in chemistry) and when tey learn in it at school, they make flashcards and add to their notes, making it a very comprehensive exercise.

For maths especially, there are always Eddie Woo tutorials and my teacher gives out booklet for new topics, so you can possibly do the questions before you come into class and fill up any knowledge gaps during class.

 

[Chiprr]

damn bro thats a flex if you didn't have to study until year 11 lol.

I know people who are a whole term's ahead in content for chem/physics/math because of tutoring, which I believe is one of the most common ways people get ahead. If you would like another way, many of my friends who don't do science coaching have already had all their notes typed up in the holidays, do they have a somewhat reasonable understanding in a certain topic (e.g. arhennius theory in chemistry) and when tey learn in it at school, they make flashcards and add to their notes, making it a very comprehensive exercise.

For maths especially, there are always Eddie Woo tutorials and my teacher gives out booklet for new topics, so you can possibly do the questions before you come into class and fill up any knowledge gaps during class.

I'll probably use the holidays to get ahead a bit and summarise content from term 1. Already made mindmaps for all the topics we covered in physics which seem to work well for me. I'll definitely get ahead in maths and will probably try to do the same for economics despite not having a textbook.

We have access to Edrolo at my school so it should be relatively easy to get ahead since I can just use the videos and questions to understand the majority of the content. I have thought about getting a tutor but will wait to decide on whether I should get one until after prelim exams. I've done pretty well and I'm happy with my results so I should be alright. 3u might mess that up though.

 

[pogchampion]

I'll probably use the holidays to get ahead a bit and summarise content from term 1. Already made mindmaps for all the topics we covered in physics which seem to work well for me. I'll definitely get ahead in maths and will probably try to do the same for economics despite not having a textbook.

We have access to Edrolo at my school so it should be relatively easy to get ahead since I can just use the videos and questions to understand the majority of the content. I have thought about getting a tutor but will wait to decide on whether I should get one until after prelim exams. I've done pretty well and I'm happy with my results so I should be alright. 3u might mess that up though.

Since you have the Edrolo subscription I would say that you are in a good position to self-teach the course during these holidays and maybe the first few weeks of each term. What worked for me was to read a textbook and watch videos or ask someone whenever I got stuck. The advantage of doing this is you can identify the concepts that you struggle with earlier, allowing you to avoid getting stuck on them and behind 'left behind'. Knowing the content earlier means you can also start revising with harder and harder questions/papers, which is a key part of doing well in school.

I think Edrolo should be really great because I also felt that videos were easier to learn from than reading a textbook. The reason I used textbooks was because I didn't really have access to a video series that had the same level of detail and stuck to the syllabus as well as the textbooks.

Good luck!