Supporting Success! Student Reflections and Advice

Supporting Success! Student Reflections and Advice Continuing from last week's success stories and reflections, this week we have two students from year 12 that are very passionate about learning.

Continuing from last week's success stories and reflections, this week we have two students from year 12 that are very passionate about learning.

Thank you Artem and Jagoda for your reflective feedback and contribution to those in the years below you.

Paul Mitchell

Mathematics Teacher  

Year 9 Form Tutor 

Jagoda R. (Year 12)

You had to navigate your IGCSEs during a difficult period of time, what can you reflect on during this time? What did you do to stay focused? 

Due to the pandemic, the two years of IGSCE were hard. Not only did we have to focus on exams but also learn from home through a screen. Online lessons in a way helped as you didn’t have the travel time of going into school and you could spend it on something that either interested you or you needed to catch up on. But it also caused me to procrastinate a lot. To stay focused, especially when studying for our internal exams, I would make sure that my electronic devices were in the other room so I would not be distracted by them. This helped as I was less tempted to look at something other than my work. I also allowed myself breaks. You should not be studying for two hours straight but only up to 45 minutes with 5-minute breaks. By allowing yourself to have breaks, you are more likely to be more relaxed and learn more, I know for me it helped.  

What is your key advice for being successful during your revision and study? 

Enjoy this time as much as you can and do not stress too much. Everyone understands that these exams are important, but they are not worth all the stress and anxiety. What I would recommend is start revising before. If you do that you are more likely to understand the material and not just cram it. It also will help you feel more confident when walking into an exam, and that is half of the success. As well, make sure you are taking full days off. Set aside one day to spend with friends and family away from books and the screen. This can help you gain your energy back so that when you get back to revising, you can have more energy and revise so that it is effective.  

Artem T. (Year 12)

What advice would you share with the current yr 11 or yr 10s about your IGCSEs, what is your advice to those in KS4 that could help them be successful? 

There is a lot of advice out there about how to be successful on the exams like using flashcards, making thorough notes and practicing past papers. While all of those are great methods, I think they do not address the biggest challenge, which is staying motivated. It can sometimes be difficult to find the strength to sit down and do some work. One of the things I found that I do not see talked about a lot is how much a friendly rivalry with one(or more) of your friends can boost your motivation. I did a lot better on the subjects, where me and my friends had a competition. It is, however important to remember to not get too upset about your losses, as that can have the opposite effect. Try to direct the disappointment of getting a bad grade into an urge to improve as opposed to just feeling sorry for yourself. Another important point that I would like to make is try to remember as much as possible during your lessons. The more attention you pay in class, the less time will be spent looking blankly at your textbook wondering “when did we learn this?”.