Starting a whole new school year can seem daunting whether you’re an incoming college freshman, sophomore, or still in high school.
There are new sets of teachers with different styles to adapt to and new and probably longer learning materials to study. It could be tiring just thinking of it.
Classes used to open every June and end in March or April. With the Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education’s academic calendar change, classes now start in August and end in July for most schools.
DepEd set this year’s public school openings on August 29.
This leaves students a short period to cope, recuperate and prepare for yet another academic year to get past through. Despite this, a new school year still means a fresh start for students.
Here are some things students can do to prepare yourself for the upcoming opening of classes and bounce back even just a tad better.
Condition your mind
School could become extremely exhausting depending on the workload and activities. If you hated the past academic year, what you can do is move forward and make sure the next one will be good, if not better.
First, you need to be kind to yourself and forgive yourself for your past misgivings. You must separate yourself from the performance you had the past year. The only way you can start anew is to shrug off the remnants of the past year and stop scrutinizing it like a forensic analyst looking at fingerprints.
You should be reminded that you are still adjusting.
Know the subject ahead
Upon enrollment, you will get an overview of the subjects or courses you would be taking.
To have a good foundation before the school opens, you can familiarize yourself with your subjects or courses ahead.
You can get know the professors or teachers assigned to your classes and ask around about their teaching styles and classroom rules.
You may search for study materials too There are available reading materials that could help you digest your upcoming classes. These could help in understanding concepts and preparing for future tests or assignments.
These preparations will give you an edge your past self didn’t have. It will also allow you to study smart, not hard. Because the truth is: you can’t study hard for multiple subjects who hold tests simultaneously. You need to build a system or adapt one that works for you.
Assess your previous academic performance
Like it or not, you will have to look back at your past academic performance. This will help you identify the points you need to improve on, habits you need to let go of, and systems you could keep. It will help you see what you could have done better, so you can actually do it better this time around.
If you kept your test papers in the past year, you may observe patterns in your scores. Did you have better scores when you only had to take one test a day? Or was your score better when you had multiple tests in a day? Identifying the pattern can help you build a study system that will work best for you.
For instance, if you found out that you performed better when you only had a single test, that could be because you had all the time to study for it. To maintain the same performance even with multiple tests in a day, you can try calendar blocking and studying your materials ahead. You could also study before tests are scheduled.
Learn to let go
Have you heard of the glass of water metaphor? It means that holding a glass of water half-full is not heavy. However, it gets heavier the longer you hold it. Psychologists likened this concept to stress and anxiety. If you failed in the past academic year and is still carrying the burden from this to the upcoming school year, it could be best if you let go and make room for what’s about to come.
This could be easier said than done. However, you could not bounce back better if you keep on holding on to what happened the past academic year because it will weigh you down. Bouncing back isn’t easy with weights on your shoulder that you should let go. It could be best if you use the past mistake as a fuel for your upcoming academic journey.
Aside from letting go, setting goals could help you hold yourself accountable and keep you on track of the things you need to accomplish. With goals set, you can carefully move forward.
Embarking on the next academic year does not only entail advance study or purchase of new school supplies, it takes hard work and take a long mental, emotional, physical and spiritual preparation. Some things just won’t work with mere manifestations.