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So I am not doing so well in school and I was wondering if you had any studying advice?
From,
Anonymous
Dear Anonymous,
Wow, the age-old question of what to do when your grades aren't great. There are many different things that could be going on with your situation, and since I'm not exactly sure which one you fall under, I'll go ahead and just cover all the bases!
Problem #1 – "I find myself being very lethargic and extremely lazy."
I'm pretty sure everyone has gone through this one at least once in his or her life. This is when, if you did do your work, it would be amazing, but it just seems like you are either doing so much other stuff that you neglect your homework, or other things, that may include rough times, are happening in your life so you just don't do your homework. Either way, the main solution to this is you just have to make yourself do it. It may be one of the most difficult things you ever have to do, because if you don't want to, you won't do it. It's that simple. You have to make yourself want it. Look at it in the college perspective (without that putting more stress on you). Colleges want students that have good grades, we all know this, but sometimes it doesn't sink in for kids until a college rejects them. You just have to realize that it is so much more rewarding to get through everything you are going through now and reap what you sow than it is to dwell on the bad things in your life and still have bad things later because you didn't do the good things now. Am I making any sense? I don't feel like I am. All in all, this is something you have to do for yourself, and nothing anyone says to you can make you do it. (And for those of you who are overextended, cut loose some of that extra weight! You are only one person and can only do so much! Yeah, that may look great on a college application, but if you don't have the grades to show them as well, that is probably not going to work out as well as you thought it would.)
Problem #2 – "I study and study, but I never do well on tests, even though I do understand the material!"
This problem can be very frustrating, and I have actually experienced this one, too. If anyone out there is like me then after a while, it starts getting old, so you decide not to waste your time with it and end up having problem #1 come around. In this case, you should probably try solution #1 before you try solution #2. This problem should most likely go by a different name: "Test Anxiety." "The Study Guides and Strategies" website (http://www.studygs.net) offers many excellent solutions to dealing with Test Anxiety, a few being "take a step by step approach to build a strategy and not get overwhelmed," managing your time better, and "developing good study habits and strategies," which they have a link to help you with that problem. Something they recommend is always something I have to do before tests, which is to "view the exam as an opportunity to show how much you've studied and to receive a reward for the studying you've done." I hope that helps with that problem, and feel free to visit their website!
Problem #3 – "I would study, but I just don't know what and/or how to study."
This problem can sometimes go hand in hand with the last problem. Again, for this problem, I would visit the website mentioned above to see what they recommend for good study habits and strategies.
So, Anonymous, I hope that one of the problems listed above was the problem you are/were having, and I also hope that this helped not only you but anyone else who was having troubles with school. Thank you for your question!
Until we meet again,
The Advice Giver
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