Tips for school (A-levels): #9 Read the Lectures!

Hello again Muggles,

today I would like to present my 9th tip for school to you. :)

#9: Read your lectures!

-> In my school time we actually really started reading lectures in A-level. I think before that time we just read one tiny book in English and two in German, which is pretty sad...

BUT starting A-levels it feels like you have to read one a month, which is a difference... and I really enjoyed it! :)

The thing is that I'm generally interested in literature and I have fun reading and talking about diefferent stories - and I think I was one of the few people, who really read every lecture we got (even if it was italian and I just learned it for 1 year o.o).

In my opinion it is the easiest way to get good marks. Especially if you're writing a test or an exam about lectures. There just won't be anything suprising because the lecture has a limited storyline and you can just prepare yourself perfectly for something like writing a character-analysis, which is what we had to do quite often. You just know what to expect when it comes to tests / exams about lectures and additionally you have another important topic like analysing stylistic devices, interepretating a certain aspect of the story and so on in class, so (as I said before) you know how the test / exam will look like and there won't be any bad suprises.
You can also do great additional tasks like writing an essay about the lecture, which helps you to improve your marks and it shows the teacher that you're interested which is always good and helpful. :)
Okay, to come back to the topic: I think it's very important to really read the lectures / books your given because it's the easiest way for a good mark. :)

***

I hope you found that helpful.
Next week there will be the final tip for school by me, so look out for that.
I hope you have a lovely sunday (it actually is quite warm for autumn over here in Germany, which I personally like :)) and I would love you to check out my older posts - I have ordered my first beauty box and also got some things I put in a collective haul. :)

See you next time,
Hermione    


Follow me on Twitter: @HermioneG7   

Tips for school (A-levels): #8 Take enough food with you

Hello Muggles,

I hope you can (still) take me seriously after the upcoming post. :')

#8: Take enough food with you

-> When I think of my A-level time I remember those days where I had to sit in school from 8am to 5pm... no fun at all. So, if you have to stay in school that long it is super important that you eat enough, so your brain doesn't suddenly stop working. 

I don't know if there are canteens or cafeterias in your school but in mine there was nothing like that. We had a little kiosk where you could buy half a roll with cheese for almost 2 € but... seriously? -.- 

After waking up in the morning it took me the longest time to make my breakfast / lunch for school but it was worth it. :'D 

If you feel that your concentration says goodbye but there are still some lessons to come it's better to eat something than be down for the rest of the day. 

It actually helps a lot to eat a wholesome breakfast at home in the morning, as well. I know that there are some people, who can't eat that early but at least try to have a breakfast shake then. 
By the way: The perfect school-lunch-meal for me contains 1) a bottle of water, juice or milk, 2) a sandwich, 3) fruits or vegetables and 4) something sweet like a chocolate bar or even better: a yogurt. :)

I would love to read your comments about school food. :)

See you next time,
Hermione

Tips for School (A-levels): #7 Form Study-Groups

Hello Muggles,

the Tips for school - series is slowly coming to an end. Thank god because I'm not that motivated about it anymore. :/ 

Here we go...

7) Form study-groups!

-> When you ask people what they like most about school I'm sure the majority says: "Meeting my friends." 

So, if you are surrounded by people you like why not do something that makes sense - forming a study group! At best you know people, who are good at subjects that you're maybe not the best in. 

Let's take my famous math problem again: I had to visit the math basic course and I'm not exaggerating when I say that there were three people, who really had a clue. The rest was not interested or just not "talented" enough. :'D If there are hardly any people in your course, who can help you better take a lot at the advanced courses. In my case there were quite a few people in math advanced course, whom you could talk to (which I hardly didn't because I just hated math so much... BIG mistake!) and also who you wouldn't expect to be this good in math.

I, for example, always helped people in German and English and in return for that they helped me with biology or whatsoever. 

I think the most sense-making thing is to meet regularly and talk about your courses subjects and the problem you have there. You can do this either between your lessons, in free periods or after school. I personally wouldn't recommend to meet on weekends because you just need to relax sometime as well. ;)

***

I hope you found it helpful.

Comments, other tips or just some feedback is appreciated as always. :)

See you next time,

Hermione

Tip #6: Take breaks

Tip #5: Talk to your teachers

Tip #4: Ask questions

Tip #3: Do your homework

Tip #2: Be organised

Tip #1: Choose the right courses

Tips for school (A-levels): #6 Take breaks!

Hello Muggles,

as every friday it's time for another school tip. :)

6) Take breaks!

-> Taking breaks probably is one of the most important things to do while learning something. Especially when you're young you're brain can't work 24/7 and additionally: you're a child, who has many other and better things to do than concentrate on learning all day!

Don't start doing your homework right after school but eat a proper meal first and do something you like and enjoy! After all you've been to school half of the day. ;)

If you notice that your concentration says goodbye to you, do something. You can either take a walk outside and just breath some fresh air or you just eat a little bit of chocolate that makes you feel better.

A very important thing you as a student need to realize is that you can't study all the time. So if you have an exam to come organise your time instead of learning four hours a day for one subject.

By advising to take breaks I'm not talking about procrastinating. ;D 

***

I hope that was helpful. If you want to check out the tips I already wrote about just click on them down below. :)

Tip #5: Talk to your teachers

Tip #4: Ask questions

Tip #3: Do your homework

Tip #2: Be organised

Tip #1: Choose the right courses

***

Comments are appreciated as always. :)

See you next time,

Hermione

Tips for school (A-levels) #5: Talk to your teachers

Hello Muggles,

as it is friday again it's time for the fifth school tip I can give you. :) To be honest I almost forgot about it BUT here it is - a little later than usual. ;)

I would appreciate a feedback-comment in the comment section down below and if you like this tip OR the others I made (which you can click on at the end of the post) OR anything else on my blog you can follow me by clicking "Join this site" at the right. :) :)

5) Talk to your teachers!

-> Now, we all know that many teachers are strange. I don't know why this happens (maybe they all get something like a brainwash in university that makes them act less human) but fact is that they are teachers and they learned this job just to help you! If they started for the right reasons they should have known that their main task in school is helping pupils / students and maybe you have to remember them a little. ;)  

Nevertheless, I think that it is important to talk to your teachers a lot. Firstly, because they see that you're interested in what is going on in school or your particular subject and secondly, because they often are willing to help you get better. Even when your marks are fine they can wake a little more motivation in you so you want to reach more - which sometimes can be a great feeling! 

I hope you understand the idea behind this. ;)

Are there any funny teacher stories you know? Let us all know by writing it down in the comment section! :D

I hope you had some fun and found it helpful! 

Have a nice day and see you next time,

Hermione

Tips for school (A-levels) #3: Do your homework! :)

Hello Muggles,

today it's time for the 3rd part of my tips for school. I hope you find it helpful!

3) Do your homework!


 -> Oh, I know how lame that sounds but seriously: Doing your homework is the best thing you can do. You can easily build a base by doing homework. 

Why? Actually your teacher's task is to give you homework so you can do some revision of what you already learned in the last lesson! I know that many teachers just let you do "new" things for homework but then it's your duty to talk to them. ;) (This is tip #5 actually)

By doing your homework you also have something to say during lessons. Talking in class is very important for your marks and reading out your homework always gives you some extra points. Teachers will appreciate your effort! ;)

Doing homework and reading them out or giving them to the teacher especially is helpful in classes / lessons / courses you're maybe not that good in. Let's take myself for example: I hated math! I really hated it and I didn't understand one single bit of what my teacher was telling me during lessons - so what I did (not often enough though -.-) was doing homework with the help of classmates or friends and giving them to the teacher after / before the lesson. The teacher then can see that you did something at home and that you are interested in getting better. ;)

That was it for tip #3. I hope you enjoyed it.

Leave a comment down below saying if you like my tips for school or if you maybe have some yourself! :)

#1: Choose the right courses (click here to read it)

#2: Be organized (click here to read it)

#4: Ask questions (14.09.12)
#5: Talk to your teachers (21.09.12)
#6: Take breaks (28.09.12)
#7: Form study-groups (05.10.12)
#8: Read the lectures (12.10.12)
#9: Repeat before exams (19.10.12)
#10: Eat / Drink enough ;) (26.10.12)

See you next time, 

Hermione

Update!

Hello Muggles,

on Monday I started a Latin-Course at University because I need a qualification in Latin for English Studies (which I'm going to study in October - my second subject is German Language and Literature).

It is a crash course, so I have to go there 5 days a week for 3 weeks. 

I knew that it was going to be time-consuming but I really realized it when we were told that we will learn as much in 3 weeks as other learn in 3 years in school. So I think you get the problem. ;)

There are lots of vocabulary and grammar to learn and this is why I won't have a lot of time for blogging in the next three weeks.

I also started to work in a cram school, where I "teach" five hours a week and I'm teaching 3 1/2 hours private.

I hope you understand that I don't have this much time right now.

Nevertheless I will post my "Tips for school" because I already wrote every single tip and I just have to publish it here. :)

If you like to you can leave me a comment about your current school / university / job situation - that would be interesting!! :)

I hope you have a good time!

See you next time,

Hermione

Tips for school (A-levels) #2 : Be organized!

Hello Muggles,

today it's time for my 2nd tip for school. I hope you enjoy it and find it helpful! ;)

2) Be organized!

 -> This must sound strange but my holy grail in school was my homeworkplanner! 

I had quite an easy system, which worked pretty well. Here in Germany we got some planners that have some space on each site where you can write down your subjects for each day - the important thing is to write down your homework and everything else you have to do into the space / day when you have to have them. I know my english is horrible right now but for example: You have to do your maths homework until August 24th then write them down on this particular day. So you can easily see what you have to do for every day. 

I'm sure many people do that anyway but a lot of my class mates just didn't own a planner at all or wrote everything down on one single sheet of paper, which starts to look messy and confusing very fast.

This makes me think of tip # 3, which will be up next week! :)

There will be eight more tips in the next eight weeks, so please keep your eyes open and leave me a comment, saying if this is helpful for you or you like / dislike the idea in general! :)

#1: Choose the right courses (click here to read it)

#3: Do your homework (07.09.12)

#4: Ask questions (14.09.12)

#5: Talk to your teachers (21.09.12)

#6: Take breaks (28.09.12)

#7: Form study-groups (05.10.12)

#8: Read the lectures (12.10.12)

#9: Repeat before exams (19.10.12)

#10: Eat / Drink enough ;) (26.10.12)

I hope you liked it!

See you next time,

Hermione

Tips for School (A-levels) #1 - Choose the right courses!

Hey everyone,

now that I finished school and will start going to University in October I would like to tell you how I managed school or A-levels quite well. :)

***

First I have to say that I didn't know anyone when I started A-levels because the year before I worked in a primary school and didn't go to school myself, so I did not start A-levels with my usual classmates.

I'm not 100 % sure about the school system in your country but in Germany it is quite simple:
- There are four years of primary school, after which you (and your marks) can decide which secondary school you will visit.
- Usually there are six years of secondary school. After those you can either start working or do your A-levels. 
- You can do your A-levels on grammar school or on a comprehensive school. It takes three years (lately there are schools, where you can do them in two years as well) and after one year you have to decide which two advanced courses you will choose. (In my school you could decide between German, English and Mathematics - you had to take one of them - plus Biologie, Art and Education. I chose English and Art but right now I would probably go for English + German or Education... but I will talk about that later. ;))

Well, as I said I didn't know anyone and found it quite hard to be surrounded by strangers all day long. I'm horribly shy and had some problems to connect with people but in the end it all worked out and I had some fun years. :)

I thought of doing a post including 10 tips at once but then I decided to separate them, so here is School-Tip #1 (if they don't conform to your opinion / experiences this is totally fine - I just want to be a little help to those, who have problems and maybe they can profit from what I say ;)):

#1) Choose the right courses! 

  -> There always is a huge offer of courses you can choose but I think it is the best to choose those you're really interested in! Most people take courses only because their friends take them and they can't identify with it at all and get problems. Every bad course mark will be visible on your certificate and we in Germany have to collect poins while doing A-levels and the points will turn into your grade point average on your last certificate, which won't look that good if you weren't successful. ;)
Combined with that it is even more important to choose the right advanced courses. You have to spend loads and loads of time dealing with it that it has to be something you enjoy or even love. I made the mistake to chose Art although I can't draw... my marks in Art always were good though but this is not enough for taking an advanced course in it. I'm very interested in history of art but it's just not everything you do. :/  In the end I think the best choice for me would have been German because I'm good at languages in general, I love to read & write and it's more theoratical (which I am good at).
Just think about your choices and I recommend to talk to your teachers. ;)

There will be nine more tips in the next nine weeks, so please keep your eyes open and leave me a comment, saying if this is helpful for you or you like / dislike the idea in general! :)

#2: Be organized (02.09.12)
#3: Do your homework (07.09.12)
#4: Ask questions (14.09.12)
#5: Talk to your teachers (21.09.12)
#6: Take breaks (28.09.12)
#7: Form study-groups (05.10.12)
#8: Read the lectures (12.10.12)
#9: Repeat before exams (19.10.12)
#10: Eat / Drink enough ;) (26.10.12)

I hoped you had fun!

See you next time,
Hermione