Studying in Year 12

[Russ]

Did you read the bit about not doing 7 hours of study a night and burning yourself out since you feel so tired?

[pi]

Yep:

^That's a lot of study :O

Surgeon, you're probably not getting enough sleep! You'll function better if you sleep more.

Hmmm, personally, I don't think I know anyone who worked that hard at this stage in the year. But then again, everyone studies differently Although one bad SS means nothing btw, as long as it looks bad in comparison to your other ones at the end

Just thinking though, is the 8.30pm-1am sesh needed? You need to sleep too haha

Just make sure you don't burn out, I've seen it happen to people who worked half as many hours, and it probably cost them their first preference (which was usually med coincidentally). Keep that in mind.

If youre studying 7 hours a day and sacrificing sleep to do it then:
1. There's a fundamental problem with how you're studying. You don't need to study that much. I don't know what exactly you're doing, but I very strongly suspect its suboptimal.

2. Stop it. If you're saying its still not enough and you're down to 6 hours of sleep a night, you'll burn out way too quickly. Studying odd hours is one thing, but constant work from dinner to 1am at the expense of rems is bad.

The fact that you're losing sleep, still not achieving your academic results and relying on caffeine to function are warning signs you should be considering.

[Surgeon]

Did you read the bit about not doing 7 hours of study a night and burning yourself out since you feel so tired?

Oh wow. I'm sorry - I missed that! Thanks so much for the reply.

Well I think I may have been misunderstood when I said I'm "not doings that well".

I'm rank 1 in Chemistry, English and Methods thus far in my cohort.
Ranked in the top few for business management.

Doing well I suppose but not as well as I would like to be doing.

I don't see how I can rest more and uphold these standards of get even better.

I'm all ears if someone else has a solution.

[pi]

Out of curiosity, how do you study?

Do you have facebook, ATARNotes, MSN, Skype, etc. open/accessible when studying? (eg. like now, as this is part of the 8.30pm-1am slot)?

Is so, then you are wasting a lot of time. Study smart, don't study heaps. If you put in 2-3 of hours of solid study with no distractions, you'll probably be doing the same as 7 hours with multiple distractions.

[Surgeon]

Out of curiosity, how do you study?

Do you have facebook, ATARNotes, MSN, Skype, etc. open/accessible when studying? (eg. like now, as this is part of the 8.30pm-1am slot)?

Is so, then you are wasting a lot of time. Study smart, don't study heaps. If you put in 2-3 of hours of solid study with no distractions, you'll probably be doing the same as 7 hours with multiple distractions.

I usually have no distractions whatsoever. If I'm expecting replies on ATARNotes, I try to check periodically whenever I'm stuck on a question or just need to take a breather for a minute.

I guess I'm just a slow learner.

[charmanderp]

7 hours with multiple distractions.

ie. Me haha. My study habits are woeful.

[Starlight]

Out of curiosity, how do you study?

Do you have facebook, ATARNotes, MSN, Skype, etc. open/accessible when studying? (eg. like now, as this is part of the 8.30pm-1am slot)?

Is so, then you are wasting a lot of time. Study smart, don't study heaps. If you put in 2-3 of hours of solid study with no distractions, you'll probably be doing the same as 7 hours with multiple distractions.

I usually have no distractions whatsoever. If I'm expecting replies on ATARNotes, I try to check periodically whenever I'm stuck on a question or just need to take a breather for a minute.

I guess I'm just a slow learner.

Do you have any free sessions at school? Maybe write a schedule for the day of what you want to do. Its ok to postpone a few things every once in a while, for example on a friday to the weekend.

[cranberry]

Hey guys

I'm just wondering how much study everyone does. I would really appreciate it if you could post a typical study regime on a weekly basis and say how you're going marks wise.

For example,

I do a minimum of 1 hour of study for each of my 4 subjects (until I have atleast completed what I need to). I usually end up studying ahead of my class though so I usually study about 1.5 hours a night for each subject. Plus 1 hour of UMAT practice on Medentry. I do this on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. Friday night I take off. Saturday and Sunday I study for a minimum of 2 hours for each subject plus an hour of UMAT practice on MedEntry.

I don't necessarily stop when I've done the set amount of work in hours, though. I do not stop unless I've covered everything I plan on covering in that session.

My main problem is procrastination and I find it difficult to sit down and study, completely focusing on the task at hand. I sometimes find myself on here or looking at funny picture sites like 9GAG lol.

I'm not doing as well as I would like to be doing in school, either.

don't worry man, using atarnotes alone should get you on the way, plus your at haileybury so .... - just go to as many of the earliest exam prep lectures that you can, theyre probs the best way to get you a head start. And btw, if the procrastination doesnt fark you this year, it will in uni lol

[paulsterio]

Out of curiosity, how do you study?

Do you have facebook, ATARNotes, MSN, Skype, etc. open/accessible when studying? (eg. like now, as this is part of the 8.30pm-1am slot)?

Is so, then you are wasting a lot of time. Study smart, don't study heaps. If you put in 2-3 of hours of solid study with no distractions, you'll probably be doing the same as 7 hours with multiple distractions.

Study sessions on Skype are actually pretty good, like video call someone else who is studying as well, and sure, you'll waste a bit more time, but it's actually quite fun, you'll end up laughing at eachother studying and you'll end up learning a lot just trying to explain things to eachother...etc.

[pi]

Out of curiosity, how do you study?

Do you have facebook, ATARNotes, MSN, Skype, etc. open/accessible when studying? (eg. like now, as this is part of the 8.30pm-1am slot)?

Is so, then you are wasting a lot of time. Study smart, don't study heaps. If you put in 2-3 of hours of solid study with no distractions, you'll probably be doing the same as 7 hours with multiple distractions.

Study sessions on Skype are actually pretty good, like video call someone else who is studying as well, and sure, you'll waste a bit more time, but it's actually quite fun, you'll end up laughing at eachother studying and you'll end up learning a lot just trying to explain things to eachother...etc.

Haha, I meant Skype in a social sense, as a form as procrastination rather than productiveness

[charmanderp]

Skype is great for tutoring, too.

[Mao]

If youre studying 7 hours a day and sacrificing sleep to do it then:
1. There's a fundamental problem with how you're studying. You don't need to study that much. I don't know what exactly you're doing, but I very strongly suspect its suboptimal.

2. Stop it. If you're saying its still not enough and you're down to 6 hours of sleep a night, you'll burn out way too quickly. Studying odd hours is one thing, but constant work from dinner to 1am at the expense of rems is bad.

The fact that you're losing sleep, still not achieving your academic results and relying on caffeine to function are warning signs you should be considering.

Not that it's advisable, but I've survived on nocturnal sleep pattern of 6 hrs sleep/night (4am-10am) + copious amounts of caffeine.. for 3 years

Of course, I don't spend the whole time studying/working, but I don't think I perform any worse in my current state compared to when I used to get 9hrs/night. I think it's more important to strike a mental balance in this case.

[Russ]

Yeah couple of things.
Firstly, you can dose up with caffeine to try and compensate but that's not good long term even if it does get you through the day.
You do perform worse with less sleep even if you don't notice it. There was a cool study done that demonstrated that reduced sleep (below six hours a night) for a few nights in a row was the same as being at 0.05 BAC. There's also other research data that shows that people acclimatize to sleep impairment, so you might be sleeping less but you'll feel like you're getting enough.

~~below here is procrastination research i did~~

Anyway, here's a clipping from a study that summarizes it quite well:

Recent experiments reveal that following days of chronic restriction of sleep duration below 7 hours per night, significant daytime cognitive dysfunction accumulates to levels comparable to that found after severe acute total sleep deprivation.
...
A causal role for reduced sleep duration in adverse health outcomes remains unclear, but laboratory studies of healthy adults subjected to sleep restriction have found adverse effects on endocrine functions, metabolic and inflammatory responses, suggesting that sleep restriction produces physiological consequences that may be unhealthy.

And a pic:



TIB just refers to Time In Bed, so you can see that less sleep made you progressively less attentive and capable at performing tasks but after weeks of it you didn't feel much different to the start.

J Clin Sleep Med. 2007 August 15; 3(5): 519–528. if relevant

[Mao]

There was a cool study done that demonstrated that reduced sleep (below six hours a night) for a few nights in a row was the same as being at 0.05 BAC.

Ha! But what if you are sleep deprived and are at 0.05 BAC all the time?

[Russ]

They'd cancel each other out, obviously, and you'd be totally fine!