How to Get A’s in Matric & Get Accepted Into Your First Choice Course
A lot of high school kids think that they are average students and only the "naturally smart" kids can get many distinctions at the end of the year, so they do no put effort throughout the year and care more about what their friends are doing, gossiping, talking about sports and video games all day, talking about their crushes and planning matric dances etc. you get the idea. The world is an unforgiving place to slackers, you end up studying course’s you don’t want to study because you were too lazy to work hard enough to get the results to qualify for the types of courses you actually wanted to do, this will lead to you getting a job you hate, the point is it’s an endless cycling but you can change that right now.
The truth of the matter is not everyone is naturally smart
and picks things up fast but those are not the only people who can get good
marks. Not being naturally smart just means you have to work twice as hard just
to get the same results but it’s possible, you just have to think about the
kind of future that you want.
It’s the beginning of the school year now, so now is the right
time to start changing the way you do things, you have to work smart to
identify your weaknesses so that you can work on yourself to attain your goals.
Below I will share steps that will help you to formulate a plan for you to be a
better student.
How to get top marks in
matric
Step 1- Set goals for yourself. Firstly by asking yourself
what you want to do with your life after high school? How will you get there?
What do you need? What do you have to do to get there? So let’s say you want to
be a an accountant, a chartered accountant if you want to earn more money, so
you will start by researching what are the entrance criteria’s of the different
universities for people who want to study a bcom (CA stream). That will tell
you how many points you need to get and what kind of marks you will need to
qualify for that course.
Step 2 – Now that you have a goal you have to see where you
are in terms of your latest marks, this will tell you how much work you need to
do, to achieve your goal. So if you are currently getting 50’s and 60’s and you
want to get 80’ and 90’s so that you can even get bursaries and entrance
scholarships, you will know you need to increase your marks by another 30%. You
should not worry as it’s still early in the year, you have time to make an
action plan.
Step 3 - Now that you know what is needed from you, you must
start changing your ways, firstly by never getting left behind in class. This
means not chatting to your friends in class while you are supposed to be paying
attention. If you sit with a bunch of your friends in class, move away from
them as they are a distraction, go and sit at the front of the class so that
you pay attention and can hear everything clearly. If a teacher explains a
concept you do not understand, pick up your hand and ask the teacher to clarify
or simplify things for you or talk to the teacher after class or during break
if you are shy to ask questions in class. Remember there is no stupid question,
others probably have the same concerns as you they just did not have the
courage to voice their concerns.
Step 4 – every day at home go over everything that you have
learnt that day and highlight things that you did not understand so that you
can ask your teacher/s the following day. Teachers will be glad that you are
showing interest and be more willing to help you as they can see that you are
putting in effort.
Step 5 – Find out what type of a learner you are, are you a visual
learner? Are you an audio learner? Do you learn better in class or at home when
you go over the work yourself? When you figure out what type of leaner you are
use it to your advantage, e.g if you are an audio learner you recall things
better when they are spoken so paying attention in class will help you remember
better, and writing down notes and then reading them back to yourself out loud
when you are home can help you remember better.
Step 6 – actually study for your tests, you already know that
you are not naturally smart so do not do as the naturally smart kids
do(cramming the night before), remember you have to work 2 times harder so try
and understand the work instead of cramming so that you can answer which ever
question your teacher gives you. Also if you pay attention in class teachers
give hints of stuff that will be tested, so you don’t have to read all your
notes/text books. If you have been doing the previous steps then you should be
doing well in your tests. Also studying for your tests and being up to date
means less studying when it comes to exams, just refreshing your memories. You
will get a lot of opportunities to refresh your memory as teachers often have
revision sessions close to exams.
Step 7 – always find a quiet and comfortable place to study,
whether it’s your room, the local library or a nearby park, studying in a
peaceful environment where you are comfortable makes the studying process
easier.
Step 8 – After your first test results are back you will be
able to tell if what you have been doing is working or not. If it’s working
continue doing it consistently, if it did not work you have to identify why.
Some people get test stress and do badly in tests even when they know the
content being tested. In that case you need to work on decreasing your pre-test
stress (but being up to date on work should help to lessen your stress). Also
you may need additional help outside of school hours in the form of private
tutors who will dedicate time to explaining concepts to just you instead of an entire
class. In some schools teachers offer private tutoring but you may need to find
someone else, some people know their work but they are not good teachers, it’s
up to you to try different tutors and see which one explains or teachers best
for you.
Step 9 – There are various resources online which offer past
papers for every subject (or for maths purchase that green book with past papers and memos), so download past papers for the past 2-3 years and practice
answering them. Some come with solutions so you can check for yourself if you
are getting things right but others you will need to go to your teacher or
tutor so that they can check your work. By the time you are done following all
these steps consistently your marks should be up to where you need them to be
and by June or September in time for university application deadlines, you can
apply for your first choice course and actually get provisional acceptance
instead of being wait-listed or being outright rejected. By the time you write
the November exam you will be so familiar with the content that the exam will
seem easy and you will pass matric with your best marks ever (if you are
consistent in using this method). It does not even take a lot of time when you
are up to date you spend less time studying towards tests and exams.
Also as a bonus developing a study technique like this will
help you even through university, most naturally smart people have difficulty
in university as they found high school easy and therefore did not develop
study techniques that they will need for university. I believe hard workers
with good systems fare better in university than lazy "naturally smart"" people.
I hope this post was helpful to you, please share this with
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