Section 2
Making the most of the next term and a half
Your guide to success in year 11: How to make the most of the next few months
Choose your attitude Where are you at the moment? t...
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The next few months are very important – you are obviously preparing for your exams, but you may also be applying for a place in the sixth form, at college or trying to get a job. Make sure that your teachers have lots of positive things to say about you. Even if your attitude has been less perfect up until now, it is not too late to turn things around. Sixth form tutors, colleges and possible employers will ask the following questions, so ask yourself: • How good is my attendance? • Am I reliable? Do I turn up to school/lessons on time? • Am I good at meeting deadlines? • Am I a nice person to work with? Do I have a positive attitude in lessons? • Do I show initiative? Can I see when something needs to be done and work out how to do it? • Do I persevere (stick with things) even when I find it difficult? • Do I respect other people? Extracted from SSAT’s 2015 Student Revision Guide to Success Available from www.ssatuk.co.uk 12©SSAT, 2015
no poin s i e r The fail o t g n i I’m go
If there is room for improvement, now is the time to get it sorted! Likewise, you need to choose your attitude when it comes to your work. Most people at this stage will be feeling a bit worried about doing well in their exams. Even if you know that you have not done as much as you should have done, now is not the time to give up! If you decide now that you are going to give 100%, it will make a real difference to your final results. Talk to your teachers. They will be delighted to hear that you want to put it right and will do what they can to help.
guideto tosuccess success in year 11 11 YourYour guide in year
Get organised
Who can help?
If you have worked through some of the review charts in the last chapter, you will have already identified some of the things that you need to work on.
Teachers. Remember, they are as keen as you are for you to do well. If you need help with a particular topic or if you need to talk through something that is worrying you, find one of your teachers. Mentors. Many schools now have a mentoring system through which you can get support from a teacher or an older student. After school club staff. Make the most of opportunities to stay after school and receive help with your work, or to do extra revision. Parents and carers. If you are struggling to get organised, they might be happy to talk through what you are trying to learn and to test you. Brothers and sisters. Especially older ones who have gone through it all before. Friends. You are all in the same situation, so do what you can to help each other. Work together to fill in any gaps in your notes or to talk through different topics or ideas.
Now you need to get yourself organised. You will feel a lot better once you know what you need to do and when your deadlines are. Make sure that you have the following: A course outline/syllabus for each of the courses that you are studying. If you don’t already have one, ask your teacher. A full set of notes for each of your subjects. Check against the course outline to make sure that there are no gaps. An organised set of notes. If your notes are at the bottom of your bag or under your bed, spend some time getting them sorted out. It will make you feel much clearer about what you have to get done. An up-to-date record of where you are with your assignments. Have you completed everything that you have been set? Do you know what there is still to do? The dates and times of your exams. As soon as these are given to you, make sure you record them on a wall planner or in a diary. Any books or equipment that you will need in the run up to the exams. You don’t want to panic the day before because you still don’t have a calculator or can’t find your copy of the book you are studying for English!
What can help? Revision guides, though it is worth asking your teachers’ advice before buying. Not all revision guides will be relevant to your course. Past exam questions are really important. Even if you don’t work through the whole paper, use it to work out which parts of the course you need to revise. Websites. There is a list of helpful websites at the back of this guide.
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Your guide to success in year 11
Some general study tips Over the next few months, there are two main things that you need to do: 1 Make sure you know what you need to learn for each of your subjects. 2 Work out what your gaps are and try to fill them. The following strategies should help you: • Make sure that you have a course outline/syllabus for each subject. Check your notes/exercise book against the syllabus to ensure that you have no gaps. • Divide each subject up:
In English, this might look like:
In history, this might look like:
What are the main topics?
Of Mice and Men
Nazi Germany
What are the key questions within each topic?
How does the author portray a given character?
How did Hitler come to power?
What are the most important pieces of information to remember within each key question?
• How physical description is used to reflect personality. • Examples of relationship with other characters. • How context is used by Steinbeck to convey the character.
• Hitler became Chancellor on 30 January 1933. • Failure of the Weimar Government. • Economic crisis. • Anger about the Treaty of Versailles. • Hindenburg and Von Papen asked Hitler to be Vice-Chancellor, thinking that they could control him.
• Start with the bits that you find most difficult. • Find ways to present the information in different ways. Draw the information as a diagram, write down key words or try to answer sample exam questions. • If you are going back through your notes, mark anything particularly important or complicated to remind yourself to look at it again. Write a list of any sections you are not very confident about. • Ask a group of friends if you can share copies of assignments once they have been marked. If a friend got a higher mark than you, you could see how to improve next time.
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• Try to see how different areas of a topic or subject are linked. Drawing a mind or concept map can help you to do this. • When answering a question, either on paper or in a discussion, give yourself a bit of time to organise your thoughts. Write down a few ideas or draw out your main points in a diagram to make sure that your thinking is clear. This is really good practice, and reduces mistakes.
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Your guide to success in year 11
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