Having Problems

[stawze]

Hey guys, I'm writing in hopes of getting some advice. I'm having a few problems surrounding Year 12.

• Often when I come home, I'm too tired any exhausted to do any homework or study.
• Whenever I do have the energy to do homework or study, it takes me too much time.
• Often, because I'm too exhausted, because I cannot put the mental effort in, or because I cannot complete it in a reasonable time frame, I do not complete set homework. Thus, I am usually behind on work.
• Despite understanding concepts in class, whenever I go to put them into practice, I can never get things right. For example, learning something in Methods and struggling to do questions corresponding to the relevant section.

Any advice is appreciated, Thanks!

[Joseph41]

Hey guys, I'm writing in hopes of getting some advice. I'm having a few problems surrounding Year 12.

Hey, stawze! How's it going?

I'll preface this post by saying that there may be an underlying issue in terms of the fatigue, and it might be a good idea to consult a general practitioner or some sort of medical professional if you can't work out what's going on. But with that in mind:

• Often when I come home, I'm too tired any exhausted to do any homework or study.

Some fundamental questions:
- How much sleep do you get?
- What time do you get to bed?
- When do you get up?
- And when do you get home?

• Whenever I do have the energy to do homework or study, it takes me too much time.
• Often, because I'm too exhausted, because I cannot put the mental effort in, or because I cannot complete it in a reasonable time frame, I do not complete set homework. Thus, I am usually behind on work.

I think the questions above are important. If there's an obvious reason for the fatigue (like, getting three hours of sleep per night or something), then people here will probably be able to give some decent advice. But if there's nothing that you can really put your finger on, I again recommend consulting a medical professional. If there's an underlying reason for it, which may very well be the case, it's better to get on top of it early!

• Despite understanding concepts in class, whenever I go to put them into practice, I can never get things right. For example, learning something in Methods and struggling to do questions corresponding to the relevant section.

My advice here may be frustrating, but I honestly think this might just be a case of practice. I don't think that would be hugely uncommon in Methods, though!

Any advice is appreciated, Thanks!

Sorry about the lack of substance in this post but, as I say, I think those preliminary questions will make a big difference for subsequent posts.

[Shadowxo]

Hi
I had a similar problem - was always tired when I got home, didn't want or feel the need to do homework.
First of all, the most important thing is to take care of yourself.
-Don't stay up doing homework (unless it's an assignment SAC - but don't leave these until the last minute).
-Get enough sleep, I'd recommend minimum of 8 hours, up to 8.5-9 hours, depending on what you need. I found I needed around 8.5h.
-Eat well. Make sure you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, and have some snacks too especially when you're working
Now with regards to tips for managing homework and study:
I found I always worked best at school, and struggled with motivation at home. So, what I did was tried to do as much homework during class time as I could, and tried to finish it during spare lunchtimes, and sometimes stayed after school. One other option that I didn't utilise as much as I should have was the library, it's great for study and work after school, especially if you're close.
With your homework, don't do every single question. I often found I only needed to do every second question, or every third if I understood the content and could do it reasonably fast and accurately. Doing every single question assigned can sometimes be too much, and result in too much work and takes up your time and energy. It's also better to do a bit of every type of question than only doing the first half of all the questions and missing the rest.
Prioritise. Do the things you have to do first, and make sure if you don't have enough time for everything, it's a not essential thing you miss out on.
For concepts, I might recommend looking at the worked solutions / examples first. Make sure your method is right and then practice similar questions, and if you get them wrong, redo them. If you have no idea how they got an answer or how they did it, you can always post it here!

Good luck, hope this helps a little 

[stawze]

Thanks for the replies.

I get enough sleep and my diet is okay, I eat too much and too much unhealthy food but that's better than not enough I guess.

I get enough sleep most nights ranging for 7-10 hours. I think it should be more consistent but it's okay. I also don't stay up too late doing homework.

I've shied away from staying at school because I thought it would feel weird, but I've never tried it, so I'll strive to do so over the coming week or two as a 'test run'.

One thing I realised too is I only exercise when walking to school so I'll try to improve that. I remember a few years back I did martial arts (not in any official sense, it was a community run thing every week) and I remember feeling great.

As for actual work I think I should look at notes and examples before tackling a problem set, that might be what I'm doing wrong.

Apologies for my reply being structured strangely and being largely making suggestions to myself, I was writing everything that came into my head, haha 

[stawze]

On another note I don't think I'm utilising my teachers enough. I feel as though I'm 'wasting' their time and I would be selfish to do so. I think I need to realise that they're paid to help me 

[Aaron]

I feel as though I'm 'wasting' their time and I would be selfish to do so. I think I need to realise that they're paid to help me

As someone who is currently studying to become a teacher, I would be highly cautious of the way you approach this. Whilst teachers are paid to help you, you must realise as well that these teachers are responsible for all students (in several subjects as well), not just you (therefore it is quite difficult to monitor every single student's learning progression). Aim to get some assistance in class, but if not, respectfully ask if you can meet them at lunch time or after/before school to get some assistance.

Regarding 'wasting' their time - this is definitely not the case. Most teachers you approach to organise an out-of-class meeting for help are more than willing. They are not mind readers, you must speak up if you need their help. Show them that you have put some independent thought into a specific question and come to them with something, rather than asking for help with nothing to say 'i've had a go at this myself first'.

Being silent means one of two things: you genuinely don't understand and aren't willing to seek help, or you're confident and don't need any help. Most teachers go for the latter (which is wrong, but I have seen this first hand).

[Joseph41]

I'm going to respond to this fully tomorrow (I'm currently in bed haha), stawze, but great posts. All of those suggested options sound pretty savvy to me.

Please stick around this year!

[Joseph41]

Okay, so I have a nice and (relatively) fresh mind now.

Really good stuff on the self-reflection I think, stawze. No problem at all about writing whatever came to your head; often, that can result in a pretty accurate reflection of where things are at!

So what's the plan from here, exactly?

I think sometimes it's easy to be like, "yeah, I'll exercise more!" And that's a great aspiration and everything (and something I also need to do), but it's not particularly motivated when just framed like that in isolation. I recommend coming up with some specific goals - they don't have to be anything fancy to start with. Even like, "I'll go for a 20 minute walk before/after school each day." (You mentioned that you walk to school - could you just extend that walk a little bit?) I think that's going to be a lot more doable than just "exercise more" - do you know what I mean?

What is it about staying at school that you think would be weird? Does nobody else do it? Is it just the concept of voluntarily staying for longer than is strictly necessary? Absolutely let us know (if you'd like to) how you go with your test run. I'm hopeful that that will make a considerable difference!

Great call with consulting your teachers more, too. I know that it  an be sort of weird asking them lots of questions, and I definitely know the "I hope I'm not bothering them" mentality, but I think you're totally right; they're there to help you, and I'm sure they'll be more than willing if you're respectful about it. (And I have absolutely zero doubts that you would be, haha.)

I honestly think that speaking with my teachers more (on a 1v1 basis) was one of the biggest differences for me between Year 11 and Year 12, so I definitely recommend this route.

All the best - again, let us know how you fare!