The Green Wave Gazette September/October 2013 | Page 11

T HE G RE E N W AVE G AZE T T E

P AGE 1 1

Strategies for the Average High School Student
by Amanda Doherty
Staff Writer

MCT

“Studying is essential if you want to strive for
great grades” - Amanda Doherty

There is one thing that every student
hates. I’ll give you a guess before
you read on. It tends to be avoided
until very late on Sunday night
though you’ll need it Monday morning. It is the thing you stress over at
sports practice because you don’t
know if you have enough time to do it
before you pass out after taking a
nightly shower. It isn’t homework.
It’s studying; it’s hard; it’s boring,
and everyone hates to do it.
However, studying is essential if you
want to strive for great grades and get
higher than a 75 on a quiz. It takes a
large amount of time after school and
on weekends. I understand there are
so many things to juggle like a job,
other homework and after school
sports, but I’m here to give you seven
strategies to succeed at this inevitable
task.
Do not, I repeat, blow off studying.
Studying, at the lowest levels classifies as skimming over your notes. Just
look them over, quickly, five or ten
minutes at the least if you’re the student who could care less about what

you get on a test. You’ll remember
something; I guarantee it.
Ask early. Go to all your teachers
on Monday and ask for any tests or
quizzes for the duration of the
week. It helps with time management to plan out the schedule for
after school, and if you happen to
miss a day, you know exactly what
you need to make up.
Make note cards. Basic study material for 99 cents at CVS, or you
can make them out of your own
notebook paper. They help associate
terms with definitions and improve
your memory so a word can trigger
a distant thought.
Take breaks when you study.
Your brain cannot separate any
facts after 30 minutes of intense
studying. So, take a break. This is
the time where you say, “I can go
watch that episode of ‘Dance
Moms’.”
Redo problems. If you know the
method once when you do it at
home, you can guarantee the repetition will help you on the quiz.

Left—Homecoming King and Queen—Joe
Tosone and Nicole Harris (PamyRyan Photo)

Right—Marianna Porcello and Abby Magnussen dress up for Camouflage Day

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Go to study groups. With the aid
of a group there is bound to be at
least one person that knows what
they are doing. That person can
teach the group and the group can
go on to have a discussion of their
own to further understand the subject at hand.
Overall, pay attention in class. If
you don't pay attention at school,
there is no possibility of remembering the information at home.
Studying is hard. I know it's boring
and I know you could probably be
at a party, a movie, or doing some
other angst ridden teen thing. But,
it's essential now to get good grades
and later in life. College requires
studying for exams. Jobs require
studying to understand the things
you are responsible for. Would you
want the surgeon operating on you
to not have reviewed that last section and forget that you were supposed to get a certain amount of
anesthesia? No, I wouldn't either.