GOING back to school after summer vacation is definitely an exciting time because a break from school and school buddies for a few days is fine, but two to three months is just the height of boredom. You all agree, don’t you?

And the holidays may have led to many changes – new class, new classmates, new teachers and even a new school for some of you. And change is mostly exciting! But don’t get carried away in all this excitement and forget that school means hard work and you need to be prepared for it.

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Preparations that you are required to make start after this and which should be done well if you want to do well in school. And these steps are to be followed all through the year so that you keep coming up with your best, both in your school and studies.

Set goals

SET short-term and long-term goals. Without goals, you can’t reach anywhere worth reaching. Even if you don’t know what you want to do when you grow up, you should set up short-term goals for what you should do and want to achieve in the coming week, upcoming assessments and end of term exams.

These goals don’t have to be all about studies and marks, but should also include reading a good book, taking part in some extracurricular activities or not getting any punishment.

Just as a great war is won after winning small battles, good final grades in school/college/university and a rewarding career is only possible if you are able to put in good effort and perform well in your regular school tasks and tests. Because you have developed the habit of putting in hard work, the hard work will become easy to you.

Be responsible

YOU are now a year senior in academic terms and you should be more responsible than you were last year. Being responsible means to be responsible for all your school tasks, needs and actions. It can include a lot of things — you need to make sure you have all your books, notebooks and stationary items and pack your bag yourself rather than expect Mum to do it for you each night.

If something is about finish, like ink/pencil or a notebook, do let your parents know a few days in advance so that they don’t have to run looking for it in a shop at 10pm just because you remembered you don’t have a geometry box while packing you bag for school, and the geometry class is the first one the next day.

I have had to do it for my children and now they know they can’t expect such last minute requests to be fulfilled without a good scolding, so they let me know well in advance. And I keep some secret stock of some common stationary items that children need in school and when something is needed, I magically produce it without going to a shop. Though this stock is supposed to be a secret one, my kids do discover it in no time and soon help themselves to it until it finishes.

Be organised

BEING organised is essential for everyone who wants to do anything well in life. First you need to have a proper studying place where all your books and study stuff are kept. It should be well-lit, well-arranged and the study stuff should always be kept there so that you don’t waste time looking for it all over the house.

Use of highlighters, bright Post-It tags and other items to label and highlight your items and notes. Colour coding notes really helps in learning, but don’t just get your parents to buy you these things and waste them in other ways or remain unused.

Follow the teachers

YOUR teachers are your leaders; so follow the leaders. Pay attention and listen to your teacher in the class. If s/he emphasises on something, it means it is important.

Don’t disobey their orders, even if you don’t agree to something or a teacher is clearly wrong or unfair (according to you) about something, always be polite and put your different point across politely.

Participate in class

NEVER be a silent member of the class. Even if you think you have nothing very clever to say or others start laughing the moment you raise your hand to answer a question. Remember, “There is no such thing as a stupid question” when it comes to learning.

So make sure to answer and/or ask at least one question per class. This will show your teacher that you are attentive and active in the class.

The added benefit of this will be that it will force you to pay enough attention to be able to ask/answer questions. This in turn will make it easy for you to remember what was taught in class so that you do your homework and tests better, with lesser effort required in learning.

Take notes in class

AFTER the early primary classes, it is time to start taking notes during lectures. It can be something as simple as underlining or marking in any way in you textbooks what your teacher says is important or key points of the chapter; it can be writing the meaning of a difficult word/concept in the book that the teacher explains in class or it can be noting the key points of a teacher’s lecture.

But it is important to note here that you should not be so engrossed in taking notes that you don’t really understand what is being explained. And as you can’t write as fast as the teacher speaks, you will miss noting a few points and reading the notes later, probably in a very untidy handwriting, may not help you much in recalling what was said in the class.

You need to find what works for you — listening, or listening and then noting it down. Taking detailed notes is too distracting, don’t do it. When you get a little older, you will be better at it.

Do your homework well

HOMEWORK is one of the most painful parts of student life. Most of you realise its importance as a reinforcement tool and doing better in class, this doesn’t make it seem easy, especially if there is a big game on TV and you have to skip it to finish a boring essay.

One of the best ways to tackle homework is to do it and get it out of the way as soon as you can. This way you will be able to enjoy other things without the burden of unfinished homework stopping you from feeling fully relaxed. You can wish that you didn’t have to do homework but wishing isn’t going to make it go away, and sooner, but most likely later (probably later than your bedtime), you will have to tackle it.

If you find your homework too tough, discuss it with your teacher so that s/he explains it to you. Or ask your parents, elder siblings or another classmate to help you out. But help here should be only in explaining the difficult parts and not doing it for you!

If you are finding your studies too tough, despite various measures and efforts from you, then discuss with your parents whether getting a tutor would be a feasible way of handling the issue. But this should be the last resort as it will result in additional financial burden on your parents and you may start depending too much on the tutor and stop self-studying.

These are some of the things that can make you do well in school, but there are many more tips and tricks that are helpful too. Try and discover what works best for you and just do it with sincerity and the reward will definitely be worth every effort.

Good luck and study well!