We are often asked what the secrets are for achieving academic success. The answer may surprise you.
Hard work helps. Being smart helps. Concentrating in class helps. Yes, but those things will only take you so far. The real secret about academic success is being organised.
Its been almost ten years since we started our tutoring company. In servicing more than 1,000 families during that time, we have never met a dumb student. Only students who are very busy, very tired, or very disorganised, with the predictable knock-on effect on their performance at school.
In speaking to parents, we find that whatever little study skills, time management or planning skills some schools may be offering, if at all, the basic message does not stick. Most school kids just do not know how to study and it’s a permanent tug-of-war between parents and their kids. Helping them get organised to study effectively is the very first step.
Here are some examples where things go wrong when disorganised:
- Running around the house in the morning, looking for books, when parents are already in the car on the way to school. This wastes so much energy right at start of day;
- Forgetting that work was due and having to rush at the last minute. The entire learning experience is wasted ,and it just becomes form over substance;
- Using precious time getting bogged down in routine homework at a stage of the term where early exam preparation offers much higher long-term gains;
- Learners living in a perpetual state of stress and anxiety due to the uncertainty associated with not being organised.
At Flip-A-Switch Tutors (FAST), the minimum entry level for any tutor joining our company is having achieved a full house of distinctions in Matric. Not because that makes them smart, nor because it signals their ability to work hard. No, we look for this level of achievement among our tutors because it is the best indicator of them being highly organised. One does not achieve seven, eight, nine or ten distinctions if you do not know how to manage time, prioritise, and work efficiently. These are the skills they bring to bear when working with your child.
We see a growing popularity for our StudyBuddy programme. Typically, tutors focus just on one problematic subject area. But, we see more and more parents appointing a tutor specifically to take on a very holistic role across their child’s full set of subjects. Our StudyBuddy helps planning ahead; setting up study schedules; checking homework books for tests and projects; and overall assist learners overcoming the anxiety they feel due to uncertainty. The impact on our learners’ performance is quite tangible.
If you are busy tearing your hair out of your head with what feels like a hamster wheel of inefficient homework and studying, sign your child up for a few months with a FAST StudyBuddy and help establish good study habits sooner rather than later.
Sign-Up using the yellow tab at www.fastclass.co.za.
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