Even the brightest students can sometimes find themselves academically underperforming, often through no fault of their own. When students find themselves in this situation, it’s often because they’re stuck in a rut and are not sure what to do to improve. If this sounds like you, the first step is to work out the reasons why you may be underperforming, and the next step is to work out how to tackle the problem. If you’re not sure how to go about it, this article shows you what you can do to form an improvement plan to help you achieve the grades you know you’re capable of achieving.
Time Management – This is often one of the more difficult issues for students to tackle. Between time spent in class, after-school activities and family time, there is very little left for anything else. Tracy suggests sitting down and creating a schedule that works for the individual.
Essay Planning – A common theme explored at EducationWorld is the trepidation many students feel when required to write something. They often feel as though the ability to produce a clear and concise thought on paper is beyond them, and Tracy believes that this is due to a lack of forethought. She suggests that thoroughly planning out the essay before sitting down to write it can be a big step toward improvement.
Note Taking –Students typically fall into two categories when it comes to note taking; those who write down everything the teachers says verbatim, and those who write almost nothing down. Tracy suggests that the key to knowing how much to write down lies in the students’ ability to pluck out keywords from a lecture.
Mindmapping - Mindmapping offers a terrific shortcut to revision and essay planning. You can also use it for brainstorming. It works for most subjects, particularly arts and humanities, but also some sciences. It’s effective even at the highest levels of university education. It involves sketching out information in a strikingly visual manner, using key words, colors and making use of shapes and space, stimulating your right brain. This encourages lateral thinking. Students who mindmap comment on how easily ideas come to mind with this technique. Mindmaps are also extremely easy to remember. Whether or not you’re any good at drawing, if you’ve got a creative streak, you’ll find mindmapping a liberation in your studies.
Memory Tricks – Mnemonics is a very old technique, but one that still works. On its face, it may seem a bit silly, but for many students this is far more effective than strict memorization. Tracy recommends making the process fun. Mnemonics are a huge variety of creative 'tricks' which stimulate your right brain, making it easier to retain all kinds of information than by rote learning. Mnemonics involve making imaginative associations, so students with good imaginations love these techniques. —Education World
