How to survive A/Ls in 3 months...

Today is the first of May and there are exactly three months until GCE A/L exams begin. I intend to help people who has realized this and started panicking and feeling lost, but not only A/L students but also any student with any upcoming exam can use these tips to ace your exam. I will first explain why most of us usually wait until the day before deadline to do stuff. It's explained by Parkinson's law which states that "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion". What it means is, if we are given a week to finish a task we will finish it within the week and if we are given an year to finish the same task we will spend the whole year doing it. Well that's how usually us, lazy humans work. Now that you know what happened there is no time to regret about how we procrastinated on unnecessary things etc. Now it's time to damage control. I will not gurantee you will get 3As by following these. (It's possible depending on your current status.) But for a student with absolutely no idea and in a failing situation I know if you follow this you will end up getting a decent grade.

First of all do not panic. You have more than 90 days remaining. It's a lot of hours if you do the math and if you can manage that time efficiently, you will get a good grade. Now you will think I wasted 2 years because I have bad time management, so how can I not waste 90 days...? 😄 That is why I'm here to guide you. It is not easy, I must say. But it will be rewarding. Just trust me. 

First we need a WHY? Purpose facilitates action. We are naturally lazy people. So unless there is a good reason to put an effort to, we are not going to work. So take a moment to think WHY you have to do the exam.  It can be for a better future, to have your dream career, to make your parents proud or simply to fulfill the minimum educational qualification. Whatever the case is take a moment to remind yourself why this is important to you and why you have to go through all this for next three months. Also keep in mind that it's just three months and after that you are free.

There are three months and three subjects to survive right? But do not allocate time like month 1 is for subject 1, month 2 for subject 2. It is not going to work because at the end of month three you will not remember a thing about subject one or two. All three has to go in parallel to succeed this process. Now we all know the structure of the paper. For an example in Chemistry paper we have 2 physical chemistry questions, an organic question, inorganic question, industrial chemistry question etc. And out of those lessons there maybe questions you are good at and lessons you fail. So now it's time to be stratergic. First we have to focus on passing the paper. So pick some questions to get 35 marks. Do it for all three subjects. Now in a piece of paper write down the lessons you have to complete to pass all 3 subjects and when you master these lessons you are in a passing grade already. Now you ask how to manage the time.. 

Since you have proven to procrastinate alot,this time we have to make sure we will not do previous mistakes again. Therefore you have to avoid distractions as much as possible. Your study spot should be an isolated place. If it is your room make sure nobody interrupts you when you study and have everything you need in that room.. (A bottle of water, some snacks, all sorts of pens and pencils, books etc) So the only reason you have to go out of your room is for bathroom breaks. If noises are distracting you,you can always use white noise recordings that are available on youtube or some music. By music you cannot use songs, because those contain words and it will distract you. Use baroque music if you absolutely need music to study. 

So wakeup early in the morning around 6.30am and start studying around 7.00am. Out of the three there has to be a subject you like the most or lets say you hate the least.. Start with that subject and then move onto the subject you hate the most. First try to understand the concepts and then try doing some practice problems to confirm you have fully understood the concepts. Once you have successfully completed understanding a lesson you never thought you will master, that satisfaction will drive you to your victory. Trust me it will happen. For your brain to work at its best you have to stay hydrated and get a sleep of 7- 9 hours. And you must not eat junk food at all. Difficult right? But it will be rewarding..

I will talk about procrastination and how to not lose focus and keep working in my next A/L post. If any of you need my A/L Chemistry or Physics notes I can send scanned copies of the books available with me. So if any of you require those,email me, or contact me through Facebook. 😊

You can read all of my articles about GCE A/Ls by clicking HERE.

Now you can watch videos on my YouTube channel as well.