How to create a study plan for the school year
WITH schools due to re-open late in August and early September, Junior Cycle and Leaving Cert students will no doubt be thinking of what lies ahead for them over the next 10 months or so in terms of exams and how they can be best prepared. One of the questions commonly asked by students is ‘how do you create an effective study plan’. A study plan is an organised schedule outlining your study times and learning goals. Having an effective study plan in place is a great way to map out your revision plans week by week and hold yourself accountable for your own learning outcomes.
Tips on how to create an effective study plan are provided by ExamCast.ie who offer past-paper video solutions for exam questions across a range of subjects with some courses available in Irish also, with content is written by experienced teachers, authors, and publishing consultants.
USE A WEEKLY STUDY TEMPLATE
Using a weekly study plan template is a great place to help with your exam revision. There are plenty of templates available online, including a free Weekly Study Planner on ExamCast.ie
WRITE DOWN ALL YOUR ACTIVITIES
Each week make a note in your planner of all activities you must do, such as attend training, music class etc. Once you have this done, plan your study sessions around your activities. This way when you attend these activities you will not be stressed out worrying that you have missed valuable study time.
STUDY BLASTS
Research suggests that 25 minutes is the optimum time to study so one stays focused and maintains concentration. This may vary slightly from person to person. Studying in short sessions such as this and giving yourself a break between each one is highly recommended.
FOCUS ON TASKS
Instead of just writing down subject name such as ‘Maths’ give yourself a specific task to do. This will give you more direction. For example, you may focus on
Geometry and Trigonometry.
ORDER
When deciding the order of what you plan on studying it is a good idea to put the more difficult tasks first, so you work on these when you are more focused and energetic.
DO NOT GET STRESSED
Like any plan it has got to have some flexibility in it. No doubt, there will be weeks when you are busier with other chores, for example you may have extra homework to attend to or you may have more afterschool activities on than normal. If you do not get everything done, don’t stress out. You can catch up on what you missed out on later that week or spread it out over the next few weeks.
PRACTICE PAST EXAM PAPERS
Practicing past exam papers allows you to get used to the structure of the paper and enables you to work on your time management skills. It will also help you understand the allocation of marks and the marking scheme.